A Swenson, a Ploppert and a Dunlap

wolfeknives

wolfeknives

Joined
Jan 2, 2006
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482
I had a great time at the Blade show and managed to pick up some additions to my customs collection. I have fallen in love with lockback whittlers. Complicated to make, and a pleasure to look at and handle. The Swenson whittler is his first, I am thankful he took my order to give this pattern a try. The Ploppert is an order as well, I love his choice of mastodon tusk.
The little Dunlap is delicate and perfectly executed. Unfortunately the colour in the pearl does not show in my poor photo.


The Swenson:



And here a much better photo by Coop:





The Ploppert Lockback whittler:




Again a much better photo by Coop. Unfortunately I do not own the saddle horn in the photo.




And the little Dunlap.

 
Those are beauties, Wolf! Thanks for posting them.
I'm a big fan of lock back whittlers myself, although the ones I have are the Case/Bose Collaborations.
 
Very nice blades. I think Rough Rider makes a lockback canoe and canoe-whittler. Probably a lot less expensive :)

Rich
 
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Wow those are gorgeous knives. The lockback feature looks like a bear to engineer and build. Very interesting.
 
Fodderwing said:
Wow those are gorgeous knives. The lockback feature looks like a bear to engineer and build. Very interesting.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are a complicated little knife to make. I am hoping to make some of them for my own collection. Tom Ploppert was kind enough to send me patterns for all the parts, as well as a long letter explaining important details for construction and assembly. Though I have made many lockback folders, I am waiting until I can dedicate a goodly amount of time to attempt one of these.

Wolfgang
 
Those are stunning examples. The split spring whittler and lock back whittler intrigue me in their design, and I have been grabbing examples of older ones when I can. It takes true craftsmanship to pack all those blades in a tight space and still make them perform.

Congrats on getting these beauties, and thanks for sharing them with us!
 
That Dunlap is nice.

Tom is building me a cattle knife later this year. I mentioned a lock back whittler at some time and he flat out told me no. He only took an order from Wolfgang and that's it for those for awhile due to complexity lol. He said they are a 2 week to build knife. Wow. But, man, I saw one of his when I had the pleasure to meet him and, I must say, it's pretty impressive.
 
I do believe that there is a considerable learning curve in making these rather complex knives. Luke Swenson mentioned that he started out with enough parts to complete two knives, but ended up using all of them to complete just one.
 
IIRC, I believe Tony Bose says they are difficult as well. When Case did their first production one, he said it was a good testimony to how far Case had come under his tutelage and a good example of what the company can do.
 
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