Cholla and Birch

[P. McKinley]

This has been a work-in-progress for some time now and still needs a ring pommel and a good polish. The sheath(in-progress) is just a simple black leather pouch with a high-carry belt loop. I'd had this image in my head for a quite while and finally got around to building it just to satisfy my curiosity. I like it.... I'm a bit surprised by just how...... ummm..... interesting this looks, but I like it.

Blade: O1 steel, 3/16" x 5" blade, 9 3/4" oal.
Handle: Cholla cactus, Maple, Ebony, with a thin Mahogany spacer and black epoxy. Bolster/guard and soon-to-be pommel are also O1.

Thoughts?

Thanks for lookin'.

 

[panch0]

That is very cool. It looks like alot of work. Very good workmanship.

Whoa My 2000th post!

 

[David Wesner]

Oh My ! Very nice work :thumbup: I really like how that turned out !

 

[oldwolf]

Very Nice. Are you going to do both sides, or have you?

 

[White Rabbit]

I remember your first post about this and I thought it would be cool but it's come out way better than I thought!

I do think it would be cool if you filled the birch with clear epoxy or polyeurethane to make it more comfortable to hold.

 

[P. McKinley]

Thanks to all for the comments!!

Old Wolf - Yes, both sides are the same. The only difference is the natural shape of the cholla inside the figured Maple.

White Rabbit -I had thought of using a clear epoxy, but I wasn't confident it would turn out truly clear. I like the black and its what I had originally decided to use.

Its actually quite comfortable in the hand. The palm-side of my knuckles fit perfectly into one window, and my fingers naturally wrap around handle and grip the opposite window.

I used a two part, slow cure epoxy colored with ebony wood dust to fill the cholla "tube" that was tightly wrapped with duct tape. The cactus was first sanded as perfectly round and as close to one inch in diameter as I could get. The tang (fitted with the first ebony spacer) was then inserted and wired in place inside the cactus tube before I poured in the epoxy. Once cured, the tape was removed, the surface sanded clean, and the natural indentations highlighted with a dremmel.

The whole cleaned up blade/cactus assembly was then inserted into a hole bored thru block of figured Maple (with the two, previously cut out the two "windows") and secured the whole bit with epoxy. I then added the rear ebony spacer and shaped the Maple/ebony handle.

 

[P. McKinley]

This is now, finally, all finished with the pommel and sheath. The O1 steel pommel was turned by a local machine shop for $5.00(pretty good deal I believe), and the ring was hand formed from a 1/8" ss steel rod.

The very snug-fitting sheath is hand stitched 10 oz veg tan leather with full welt. This is the cleanest sheath I've made to date and I'm quite pleased with it.

Ships out in the a.m. to a good friend in Massachusetts as a bit of a surprise gift.

Thanks for gazing.