Condor Hudson bay - project - picture heavy

FAL'ER

FAL'ER

Joined
Mar 31, 2010
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For you Beckerheads first.

I wanted a good historical looking chopper. When it came it looked like this,


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I hated the black coating on the metal and the wood was mahogany with absolutely no figure to it.

So I did some work on it.



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Stripped off the plack paint opened up the pins in the handle, Beeswaxed the sheath and aquired some nicely figured Birdseye maple.
 
This is with pins installed but not yet peened over. and the grip is uneven and overly large. Wood is nice though.


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Got it to here and let it dip for a couple hours in my secret sauce of oils to keep the wood from checking.

I used gorilla glue to glue the scales on and seal up the metal under the wood. obviously I have quite a bit of work left to do but I've been wanting to share.
 
Looking really nice so far - little patina and that is going to be a very solid piece. Be curious to see how the edge performs.
 
Nice job!

As someone who's ass deep in kinda' the same thing, I can really appreciate it. Any trouble lining up the pin holes in the new handles ? Giving me a bit of a work out.
 
Cobra281 said:
Nice job!

As someone who's ass deep in kinda' the same thing, I can really appreciate it. Any trouble lining up the pin holes in the new handles ? Giving me a bit of a work out.
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No trouble at all on this one. This one I did like I've done a buncha times before. Clamp on one scale, drill two holes, move clamp, drill last hole. Repeat same process for other side. Pin both scales together minus blade, sand the top portion of the wood, where you'd not be able to get to it later. Degrease the metal on the handle, groove out the underside of the wood, lightly dampen metal, add gorilla glue to both sides. Drive in the pins and clamp for 2 hours. Its easy to keep the pins aligned cause im cutting the wood overly large doing all of the above then when the glue is dry, I'll work the wood to shape and thin.

I think it's much harder if one is using screws for removable scales. I'm doing my first one of those now and it's a bitch. Though I'm learning all sorts of new tricks to fix my mistakes.
 
Looking great. That birdseye maple is beautiful. Is it a fairly easy wood to work with? Again, looks really good.
 
Condor are great for the price. I own one bushlore, great knife and best job you made !
 
The Warrior said:
Looking great. That birdseye maple is beautiful. Is it a fairly easy wood to work with? Again, looks really good.
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I did this back in december and posted it in january, I don't remember. I don't recollect it being particularily hard to work with. Nothing like desert Ironwood.
 
Sweet job, OF.

For positioning scales I do the following:
1) cut them large, with room all the way around
2) clamp one to the knife, drill one hole from the knife side
3) insert a close-fitting temporary pin into the new hole and clamp somewhere else
4) drill hole #2
5) temp-pin hole #2
6) drill pin #3 - no clamp required, except to keep the whole assembly from spinning around
7) assemble and shape. depending on mechanical choices, this can be done before or after glue.

This seems to be pretty reliable so far.

When making my own knife to match becker handles I did the reverse:

1) clamp blank steel to BK2
2) use 3/16" (or was it 7/32?) bit to divot the steel through the handle hole (first one)
3) separate the two, drill the hole out
pin, repeat.

Then I shaped the tang to the handles.

-Daizee
 
That's some seriously sexy knife. The wood almost looks like Burl from the top angle.
 
I think it is Burl. I'd always assumed it was anyway. You gotta have good wood, makes the difference. Funny thing is, it just sits in my safe. I discovered Beckers two weeks after I got the Condor.
 
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