- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Greetings all,
This is another project that had its roots in Facebook - at least in terms of connecting knife maker, buyer and as it turns out, sheath maker.
Gary Mulkey had posted the following blade with commentary on Facebook:
"This may well be the ugliest piece of steel that I've ever made (grin). Just to see what would happen I took a 5-6 year old piece of can mosaic, laddered and san mai'ed it onto some 1084 not knowing what to expect. Definitely unique. Not sure if I want to put a handle on this one or not. I'm thinking that I may just hang it on the wall "as is" for a reminder."
Now when I saw the blade is said to myself - and ultimately to Gary - that while I couldn't call it pretty, it certainly was interesting and different and kind of funky-cool. I suggested he go ahead and finish it out, and opined that a Damascus guard, blackwood handle and bonze spacer might suit it and make for, at worst, a cool working blade.
John Cohea joined in the conversation and said Gary should send him the completed knife for a sheath - envisioning using some of the same mosaic Damascus for a frog button on black rawhide (a real pain to die that stuff black apparently).
I've always had a soft spot for castoff blades. I can remember looking through a bucket of blades rejected various stages of completion at Dan Farr's shop and thinking that at least half of them would make pretty sweet knives if finished.
Anyway, in surprisingly short order from posting the unfinished blade, Gary sent me pics of the completed knife. It was indeed the kind of funky cool piece I had envisioned. I confirmed that John was still game and got Coop on board to give Big Ugly its best chance of looking good.
I'm well pleased with the contributions of all three gents, which you can see below:
Thanks for looking, folks.
Roger
This is another project that had its roots in Facebook - at least in terms of connecting knife maker, buyer and as it turns out, sheath maker.
Gary Mulkey had posted the following blade with commentary on Facebook:
"This may well be the ugliest piece of steel that I've ever made (grin). Just to see what would happen I took a 5-6 year old piece of can mosaic, laddered and san mai'ed it onto some 1084 not knowing what to expect. Definitely unique. Not sure if I want to put a handle on this one or not. I'm thinking that I may just hang it on the wall "as is" for a reminder."
Now when I saw the blade is said to myself - and ultimately to Gary - that while I couldn't call it pretty, it certainly was interesting and different and kind of funky-cool. I suggested he go ahead and finish it out, and opined that a Damascus guard, blackwood handle and bonze spacer might suit it and make for, at worst, a cool working blade.
John Cohea joined in the conversation and said Gary should send him the completed knife for a sheath - envisioning using some of the same mosaic Damascus for a frog button on black rawhide (a real pain to die that stuff black apparently).
I've always had a soft spot for castoff blades. I can remember looking through a bucket of blades rejected various stages of completion at Dan Farr's shop and thinking that at least half of them would make pretty sweet knives if finished.
Anyway, in surprisingly short order from posting the unfinished blade, Gary sent me pics of the completed knife. It was indeed the kind of funky cool piece I had envisioned. I confirmed that John was still game and got Coop on board to give Big Ugly its best chance of looking good.
I'm well pleased with the contributions of all three gents, which you can see below:
Thanks for looking, folks.
Roger
