Buck 55 with OPAL scales

[Redrummd]

Just finished this for fun today...

 

[orca8589]

Wow - that is some incredible opal. Who's that for?

thx - cpr

 

[jb4570]

Redrummd,

That is one of the finest sets of scales I have seen....Sweet. Can you do a set...55, 112, 110? Where did you find a hunk of Opal that big?

jb4570

 

[A.P.F.]

That is breath taking, Redrummd! A fantastic creation. :thumbup:

 

[Redrummd]

I won't use the 55 again as the curves are nearly impossible to cut into opal as the opal is translucent and when wet I can't see the fit line. It is too wide for my liking so I will have the bolsters engraved to draw attention from the fit line.

This is actually synthetic opal and in my opionion harder and better than the natural stone and I have cut hundreds of pieces of natural opal. I have a dealer I can buy "large" pieces from. By large I mean big enough for Buck 501, 503 and 505 knives and the 55. This unsual "rough" is not large enough for the bigger framed Buck knives and if they were I suspect two pieces big enough for a Buck 110 would be in the range of $1000.00 for the two of them.

It is VERY EXPENSIVE and the two pieces used cost me about $100.00.

If you go to my profile page I have an album with a few dozen pictures of my other stone handled knives. The link below goes to a page with a few of my knives too.

 

[mnblade]

I won't use the 55 again as the curves are nearly impossible to cut into opal ...

Those curves on the bolsters are the one thing I don't like about the 55. I was really hoping they'd make a scaled-down version of the 110 that was every bit as faithful as possible to the original.

 

[bucksway]

That's a knife!

 

[jb4570]

I won't use the 55 again as the curves are nearly impossible to cut into opal as the opal is translucent and when wet I can't see the fit line. It is too wide for my liking so I will have the bolsters engraved to draw attention from the fit line.

This is actually synthetic opal and in my opionion harder and better than the natural stone and I have cut hundreds of pieces of natural opal. I have a dealer I can buy "large" pieces from. By large I mean big enough for Buck 501, 503 and 505 knives and the 55. This unsual "rough" is not large enough for the bigger framed Buck knives and if they were I suspect two pieces big enough for a Buck 110 would be in the range of $1000.00 for the two of them.

It is VERY EXPENSIVE and the two pieces used cost me about $100.00.

If you go to my profile page I have an album with a few dozen pictures of my other stone handled knives. The link below goes to a page with a few of my knives too.

Hmm....A retired Postal worker with the handle of Redrummd....LOL. I suspect the Redrummd spends most of his time running around in a very large and empty hotel....

Very nice work on all of your knives:thumbup:. Now what is synthetic Opal...is it a hard resin of some kind? The cost you have stated above is that for natural Opal or for the synthetic Opal?

jb4570

 

[Redrummd]

As best I can tell the synthetic is pretty much the same as natural opal and the cost noted is for the synthetic. I don't think you would find any piece of natural opal this big and it you did it would cost in the thousands not in the hundreds....

 

[Gmountain]

That is fabulous. I wish I could buy it.

 

[Redrummd]

I had the bolsters engraved so here are photo's of the knife with bolsters engraved by DC Lance....

 

[Snotwad]

I stand in awe. You do beautiful work.

 

[edbeau]

Great looking knife and for sure "One Of A Kind". Years ago I worked with real opals and they are hard to keep cool. If you get them too hot you lose the "fire".

 

[Joe Houser]

Absolutely stunning knife, wow!! :thumbup:
Having handled some 55's in buffalo and elk, I can feel your pain when it comes to matching those radiuses. What a pain. I had the luxury of being able to use standard inlays as a pattern though and it helped out a lot.

When I first heard of a scaled down 110, thats what I was hoping for to. The radiuses came about because at about the same time, the 111 was born. Chuck really liked the looks of the 111, specifically the curved inlays, so the 055 actually became a scaled down version of the 111.
I STILL want my scaled down 110! :grumpy:

 

[110 Dave]

any chance you might know were you could get one made?