Ethan's Feburary Challenge *Winners Announced*

[Moosez45]

Alright, great Jan challenge, well done guys, but as promised, here we go.

Ethan's Feburary Fork Challenge

Simple this month, or at least you will think so when it begins, but not when you're done.

Make a fork. Doesn't have to be a 3 tyne, it can be a 2 tyne, but it has to be PRETTY. Yup, very pretty, detailed, and ornate. Not just a rough cut, quick whip up here, but well made, with fine detail and fine forkware. You get extra points for it being a 3 tyne.

You must be at least 18yrs old and be able to own a knife. You are your responsible for your own safety, neither Bladeforum, The Beckerheads, or Ethan is responsible for you

The specifics of the contest:

NO CHATTING IN THIS THREAD!! First one to do it, gets DQ'd. Getting to be an issue in other forums, we are pushing for it here as well, it about paying attention and following rules.

You must use 1 Becker knife throughout the entire process. No hacking with the 9, trimming with the Necker, and carving with the Remora. 1 Knife

You must post no less than 5 pics, and no more than 12. You may post a video, but no longer than 6 minutes.

You must show the various stages of creation, in a lucid, easy to understand manner. From tree, to fancy wooden flatware. We want to see all of it.

For decoration, you must use all natural material. No synthetics, if you can't put it in your mouth or in your food, what good is it?

Your Becker knife must be in ALL OF YOUR PICS OR VID.

I will be locking this thread as soon as I post it, until Ethan has his say in it. Uncle E wants to let ya'll in on the idea behind the contests, as I am sure, this may seem a bit strange at first, after, not so much.

This contest is an OPEN contest. You can be new, old, registered, gold, platinum, moderator, knifemaker, even Spark can enter. To enter, you must post, "I accept the Challenge" in this thread. Your acceptance post WILL BECOME YOUR ENTRY POST, SO EDIT YOUR ACCEPTANCE POST, TO BE YOUR ENTRY POST LATER ON.

The prizes will be announced, but as an added bonus, any person that wins, that is not already a Beckerhead, will recieve a "Fast Pass", and be given Beckerhead #100.

1st Place BK7
2nd Place ESKabar
3rd Place ESKabar

*Bonus* Beckerhead #100 to an unBeckerheaded entry.

That's all for now, check back for contest opening, and Ethan's Update. Contest will end on March 5, 2011.

Good luck

Moose

 

[Ethan Becker]

Hey Everybody......

The twisted idea behind this is that, as in gun training, slow and smooth equals fast....SOOO methinks that if you can produce an esthetically pleasing piece you will be able to really get stuff done in a hurry when pretty is trumped by the need for speed.....

I hope everybody gets a big kick out of this one.....Posting pix of first attempts will be appreciated when posting your entry.....

All Best and BEST OF LUCK.....

ethan

 

[NixKustoms]

I accept the challenge!!!!

OK here we go.

I started with a piece of green vine maple. I'm not a fan of carving through the knots but I wanted that look on it.

Stripped of bark and the shape I'm going for.

Trimmed down a little in the tines, and started whittling down the handle.

Starting to carve out the tines here.

I've got the rough shape and the tines carved out here.

Now for the finishing touches on it.

I was trying to caramelize the natural sugars in the wood by searing it. I also 'sanded' it down to smooth out the rough edges with the stone in the pic.

Final product; 'sanded' and sealed with bee's wax. I also added a turks head knot at the top to serve two purposes; 1. for support while using the fork. 2. to have the waxed jute twine as tinder if needed.

Thanks for the great challenge!! And I hope you like it.


Lastly; lunch!! It's an Italian dish called beef broccoli.

 

[Flexxx]

"I accept the Challenge"

 

[Any Cal.]

I accept the challenge.

 

[FAL'ER]

I accept the challenge.
This is a piece of Acacia wood, African I hear. Hard wood, beautiful grain. Let's see how this turns out. I'm more of a broadsword than a scalpel, so this fine carving is gonna be a challenge. Wood - check, Broad sword - check.


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Finished

 

[BRab]

Since this is a Becker challenge, I decided that it is only fair for me to use my favorite Becker knife, the BK9. I grabbed some pink heartwood (of some kind of evergreen) out of the woodsplitting pile and got to work.

I marked the rough shape I want, then I cut off the ends and start carving.

After getting the general shape carved out I start forming the 3 prongs.

Here is where I make my huge mistake. I accidentally split one of the prongs completely off.

Well, I'm not about to throw in the towel, I will just have to make it 2 pronged instead of 3. I just need to change the shape a little bit to compensate for the change.

I make some final touch-ups and here's the final product.

And here's an outdoor shot to show it in another light. It's not exactly what I had planned to make, but it came out alright. At least the wood is really pretty.

 

[Qeth]

I accept the challenge.

 

[Guyon]

I accept the challenge.

 

[HAKnPocket]

I accept the challenge.

 

[Md 25v]

I accept the challenge!

I used very wet green maple for this fork. It was easy to carve and the polished edge on the Esky melted right through it. I hardened it in the oven and then scorched the handle. I left the end plane and just sealed it with olive oil since a scorched end wouldn't taste very good.

 

[Eat Carbs]

I accept the challenge

 

[GingivitisKahn]

I accept the challenge. In the interest of not wasting time, I'm going to go ahead and be the first to post my finished product. May add another picture or two (hopefully with meat) but here it is...

Rabbit / coyote hunting today was slow, so it seemed like a good day to work on the challenge. My eventual fork was to come from that oak with the leaves on it you can see in the background.

I could have chopped through this limb easily enough but it was in an awkward position to try to do so safely. Instead I let the BK2 take beaver bites all the way around...

Here's my bit of limb midway through the debarking process...

The old Three Rivers catalog makes a decent chopping block. Don't worry - I have more recent ones. Again, I decided to beaver bite through my stick to get it down to a workable length. Think I'll use the rest of it for another spoon (this time using my new crook knife for the bowl part)...

Worked the stick down to a rough rectangle. Ready to start messing with tines and stuff...

Huh. So trying to slice in from the end isn't going to work at all. Nice split.

Decided to work from the split out. Can chop off the excess later...

Here's the rough shape. Oh, I should mention this. After chopping through a large, seasoned oak log today for no apparent reason ( http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9275642&postcount=428 ) I chose not to sharpen my knife. Did all the preceding work after having worked the crap out of the blade. At this point, though I decided to freshen the edge a bit for the finer stuff...

... and the final product...

First meal with the new fork - venison meatloaf. Not too bad!

Made the tines too sharp. I poked myself in the thumb and drew blood. Cool project - thanks for the opportunity!


---

Beckerhead #42

 

[paperairplane]

Reply #14, BH #58
I ACCEPT THE FORKING CHALLENGE! *Bubba and Tek, nice work, but John stepped the game up a notch. I made a train wreck out of mine and work has been hellacious this month. May try and force something together and get in at last minute just for self-redemption. Here then, is my sad ass mutant fork:
Ye God's - what is it? Burn it and hope it's not contagious! Notice the split - yep, I killed it and glued it back together. That's when I stopped carving this one. Try, try again.

Okay - cleaned up a few pics and have a late entry to try and show some forking improvement:

I use stop cuts and chips to make the tines:

How to work the other way and not cut yourself, middle finger drives the blade and limits motion: this pic not working?

Getting there:

It's a fork and a tiny spoon:

This is a piece of wild cherry that was fairly dry. I sealed it with bees wax and olive oil.

 

[RescueRiley]

I Accept

 

[Battle Creek Knives]

I accept the challenge..

 

[dingobubba]

I accept the challenge.

 

[spketch]

JUDGES: THIS ENTRY IS NOT VALID

The BK 13 chewed right through this beech like nothing.

About 2 hours in, I couldn't go on with the little guy. Big hands plus a very small knife with a paracord wrap do not make for comfortable whittling. Switched to a better carver just to see it through and several hours later...






Oh Fork!

Thats what I get for breaking the rules. Thanks for the motivation to practice anyway Ethan!

 

[DerekH]

I challenge the accept! Er, accept it rather. Count me in!

 

[sqoon]

I have never made a spoon or a fork in my life. Beyond taking a stick to a point, this was my first go. I ended up with a shrimp fork. This came from a pine in my backyard. I took this project into sundown, so no real pics of the tree. My camera is terrible at close up shots.