[DenisB]

Awesome

Lovely work there TAZ.

You got some nice wood for some of them.

The rounder cross section handles bring out the micarta patterning better don't they.
Doesn't show as nicely where you use a squarer handle shape for blade stability in the hand like needed in my knife in the OP.

I'm going to try & salvage my original DIY micarta handle scales by soaking it with CA to try to deal with the polyester 'pilling' when I get closer to the final shape.
might work.........might be a waste of time...........worth a try.

 

[Taz575]

Thanks! I was able to get some nice Ironwood from a guy out in Arizona I believe. I think they were able to harvest fallen Ironwood, but couldn't cut down an Ironwood tree or something. Some regulations about it, which is a shame because a lot of the wood is gorgeous!!! Nice and hard, and you just need to buff it, no stabilizing needed! Some of the ironwood I have seen is just wavy figure, but places that were selling it were taking pics of the individual pieces (blocks or scales) so people could pick the figure they wanted, but they were getting over $40 for a set! The top pic has some Madrone burl I think and it may be stabilized. It's been a while! Ironwood and Curly Koa were some of my favorites, but Cocobolo, Bocote, Zircote, Purpleheart, Snakewood, Curly Maple, and Mesquite also worked well for me.

For shaping, I usually ended up ordering thicker Micarta than I would really need just so I could shape it out more. A 1/4" thick piece sometimes just needed the edges rounded out and not much shaping. If you shape it, it can become too thin. A 3/8" or 1/2" thick piece is much more fun to sculpt, shape, round, etc and ended up fitting the hand better, even though I would sometimes get it down to just over 1/4". Wider handles changed things up a bit, too. It took some trial and error to play with it and I loved the way shaping and contouring would change how the knife felt and then it would just click and felt awesome in the hand!

Somehow I forgot to put one of my favorite pairs up!

Left knife is a D2 blade with black and red Micarta for the handle. The blade was eventually bead blasted with a very fine glass bead media. The right hand knife is a little O-1 utility knife with brown canvas Micarta. This Micarta worked a bit differently and was harder to work, but with a little elbow grease, ended up very smooth and clean! A while back, several knifemakers got together on a chat system called PalTalk and used to chat for hours in the evening. One of the guys had an idea. The various knifemakers donated knives for a swap. These 2 went out as my contribution. I got a knife from Ron Clairborne that is L6 with a stag handle, awesome little knife! L6 is an incredibly tough steel and often found in older saw mill blades. It's incredibly tough, but has a fine grain structure and takes a wicked edge and holds it well, but is also easy to touch up.

 

[DenisB]

They deserve to be a favoured pair.
Very Kool

I have a little blasting gun that I use with collected used media that I size screen myself to get the particle size I want for the finish desired.
I use it on rod bits I make myself after fine sanding........a lot quicker than polishing smooth to hide the grit scratches...... He He.
I bead blasted the s/s tube spacer I made to take up the gap between the reelseat & the butt join to get the rod length I wanted on the Synit GOM3 I'm building at the moment ( slowly ).
(waiting on the particular soft epoxy I want to use to arrive.)

 

[Taz575]

The blasting looked great! I had a friend who was a knifemaker and like 20 minutes away from me when I was in college, so I did a bunch of knives in his blaster at his shop. He mixed glass beads and some other stuff to get a very silky, matte finish. It hid the little grit marks, but not much else!

We are going to get slammed with a Hurricane this weekend, and then I will be busy at work for the next week or so with students arriving, but I hope to start up this set of 3 blades soon!!

 

[Taz575]

Is that the Darrel Ralph Modern Skinner?? I love his designs!! I was going thru knifekits.com and saw that one! I talked to him on some of the knife forums when he was collaborating with Camillus back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Did several of his Arc Light neck knifes as a kit and added handles to them for customers. Love his Mad Maxx stuff, too. He does great, clean designs!! I trust his HT/Cryo stuff, which is why I am looking at the kits designed by him. I did some of the first DDR folders when they hit the market. Smooth, sharp, took and held a nice edge!

 

[hatidua]

I wish I had the skills you guys have! I just dropped off the ironwood blocks and two Mule Team blades to have handles & sheaths made less than an hour ago with a guy that does really nice work. If I tried it I'd ruin the blade and the handle material

 

[DenisB]

Is that the Darrel Ralph Modern Skinner?? I love his designs!! I was going thru knifekits.com and saw that one! I talked to him on some of the knife forums when he was collaborating with Camillus back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Did several of his Arc Light neck knifes as a kit and added handles to them for customers. Love his Mad Maxx stuff, too. He does great, clean designs!! I trust his HT/Cryo stuff, which is why I am looking at the kits designed by him. I did some of the first DDR folders when they hit the market. Smooth, sharp, took and held a nice edge!

Yes.
a DRMS.
- lovely design ,..... full handle hold for broad strokes , held short in the blade recess for detail work.The depth of blade lets you 'get in there' without your knuckles getting in the way.

He He, I tossed up making some of his DDR folders or the GPC folder , then an opportunity came along to purchase the Kershaw Leeks in S30V & D2 laminate at a price I could not refuse.........so I went that way.

Mark;
post up the pair when they return with their 'clothes' on.

 

[Taz575]

Yeah, it looks like a sweet blank! I got my 3 blanks in today! The 1095 blade looks pretty nice and even for a hand ground blade, reminds me of an Ed Fowler type blade. I may remove the finger grooves on the tang, though. The SG4 Drop point is awesome, nice and beefy, but with a nice, thin edge! That is going to get the BarbWire Micarta on it The 1095 is getting either white paper Micarta or synthetic ivory, not sure yet. I picked up a Big Bend Skinner blade as well to use as a cardboard knife. Tired of all of my good folding knives getting gunked up with tape from opening boxes and cutting cardboard down, so I got a knife just for that.

 

[DenisB]

The SG4 does look awesome ............I have a mate who likes that blade shape & wants to have a go at DIY.............I'll show it to him.
The barbed wire micarta has given me ideas too...........He He.

 

[Taz575]

I'll get some pics tomorrow. I tried today, but the sun was down and I took pics inside, but they didn't look too nice.

I did up the Big Bend Skinner:
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=3574
and Butterscotch Paper Micarta for the handle today. With the paper Micarta, there isn't much texture or depth when shaping. My dad keeps grabbing my nice kitchen knives and using them to cut down cardboard, so I made that one up for him to use instead.

The SG4 is a beefy blade, 5/32" thick and a really nice, deep hollow grind. The tip it pretty thick and the blade grind is much thicker at the front end. It's not a fine, needle point, but it's a beefy, durable tip. I put the bolsters in place with the pins and when I saw how much I would have to grind to blend the bolster and blade tang, I decided to do it with the one piece handle and no bolsters.

 

[DenisB]

I put the bolsters in place with the pins and when I saw how much I would have to grind to blend the bolster and blade tang, I decided to do it with the one piece handle and no bolsters.

That was exactly my thoughts when I looked at the blade in the catalogue.
( it was what I did with the DRMS too ...........makes it a tiny bit lighter ).

He He .... when I went there to look at the blade ,I reckon that the ;-
" buyers who recently purchased this product , also purchased " list was mostly yours as it matched your shopping list pretty closely ..........it made looking at the other items real easy to link to..........

 

[Taz575]

Yeah, Texas Knife has a good website They will often tell which of the premade sheaths will fit, too! I got a couple of the sheaths and they are actually quite nice!

I hear ya on the bolsters, too clunky and too much fitting needed!! I will start a new post with some pics!