The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Yes, I totally agree and as a maker myself, and years of not being able use expensive materials due to cost, I am trying to keep this stuff under 400 psf. What is nice is that the basic curly CF makes the majority of my molds, but I always can provide exclusive options like metal interleaf, and different color CF only for top end makers that can stomach the higher $. I am working on a micro-quilt mold, and maybe a snakewood pattern mold for added options at varying pricepoints. Hopefully the higher end $2000.00 + per knife makers will order enough that I will always have cutoffs for smaller makers.
Thanks for the encouragement, Erin. I am definitely planning to push the envelope like I always do, but need to walk before I run. I am laminating 1/4" thick next week along with .185 material, and I may have to make new molds for thicker, because I have to layup 1/2" of CF just to machine down to final 1/4" due to the mold contouring. Ramping up to 1" is not a linear ramp up, but an exponential ramp up of much more CF along with heavier topography molds to get the waves entirely throughout the whole thickness. If it is as I think it will be, I will need to layup 150 layers of .010" CF ($300.00 worth of raw material alone per sq ft) to then machine it down to maybe 1" if I am lucky, but might only hit 3/4". Will need pre-orders for that run, as it would exceed a grand per sq ft. But the chatoyance would simultaneously cause both orgasm and sphincter tightening at the same time. Especially if five mil bronze were interleafed every four layers.
He's doing amazing stuff, and doing his own layup, but I am afraid of him knowing about my Figured Fiber, as many will try to knock it off, even though I am in patent pending status. Its not hard to reverse engineer it. As far as colors, I am not finding colored Uni right now, just "old hat" woven in colored resins. But my metal foil interleaf opens up worlds of options.
I am testing 3/4" thick laminations next week, but it will require pre-order, as its insane investment for full panel laminating. Will likely laminate fine though. The edge viewing of this stuff is as chatoyant as the face. It looks actually transparent as you see the edge transition into the face.
Standard 1/3rd sq ft small panel size is 9.7 x 5.5 as minimum size, while standard full sq ft is 9.7 x 15 with bookmatch running down middle of panel for mirror image scales. I don't have a problem making 5 x 12 though, but grain direction will be stipulated.
