GEC #77 Medium Barlow Impressions

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bleh said:
I was feeling adventurous and decided to wet form my slip.

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Looks good so far! Let us know how it turns out when dry. I hope my knife will come with a slip. Did yours come with or did you have to purchase it from Mike?
 
Really like the way the Autumn Gold bone turned out on the 2 blade version, looks something like tortoise shell to me.
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Ok, I have a little time, so I'll explain how I wet form my leather.

It's really simple. Soak the leather in lukewarm water for a bit to soften it up. I gave the knife a generous coating of oil and put it in a Ziploc perfect portion bag (very thin plastic) and tied it off. Slide the knife in the sheath, then place the whole thing in one of those Ziploc sous vide vacuum bags and suck all the air out. I left it in the vacuum for about 4 hours, then took it out to dry. I removed the knife out this time and let the sheath air dry overnight. I'll post some pics of the result in a bit.

The texture comes from the pattern on one side of the vacuum bags.
 
bleh said:
...
The texture comes from the pattern on one side of the vacuum bags.
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Aha! I thought that's what it looked like. My wife uses those Ziploc vacuum bags so I am familiar with that texture. When I looked at your sheath there, I said - "He vacuum sealed it." :)
 
bleh said:
Ok, I have a little time, so I'll explain how I wet form my leather.

It's really simple. Soak the leather in lukewarm water for a bit to soften it up. I gave the knife a generous coating of oil and put it in a Ziploc perfect portion bag (very thin plastic) and tied it off. Slide the knife in the sheath, then place the whole thing in one of those Ziploc sous vide vacuum bags and suck all the air out. I left it in the vacuum for about 4 hours, then took it out to dry. I removed the knife out this time and let the sheath air dry overnight. I'll post some pics of the result in a bit.

The texture comes from the pattern on one side of the vacuum bags.
Click to expand...

Awesome! I'll have to try that out, I also have one of those vacuum sealers for my wild game storage. Very interested to see how it turned out.
 
It's still drying. I put the knife in it for a minute this morning and it came out damp, so I'm going to give it at least another day to dry, maybe hit it with a heat gun in a little while.
 
It came out ok. The lines aren't as crisp as I would have liked; I started mucking with it too soon before it had dried sufficiently. Retention is good, I might actually have to trim it up so I can get a grip on the knife to get it out. Still drying a bit.

IMG_20151007_135828 by mrbleh, on Flickr
IMG_20151007_140007 by mrbleh, on Flickr
 
Kind of looks like it would if you just put the knife in and stuck it in your back pocket and carried it for a few months, and let it mold itself to the knife over time. Is this like a forced patina for the sheath? :)
 
jc57 said:
Kind of looks like it would if you just put the knife in and stuck it in your back pocket and carried it for a few months, and let it mold itself to the knife over time. Is this like a forced patina for the sheath? :)
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It's more contoured than that. You can actually see the outlines of the blades, but it's hard to capture in the pictures what with the sheath being matte black. It was a little loose for my tastes so I wet formed it to get better retention in the sheath, but I may have swung too big. It's a little hard to get out now.
 
Got my Ivory Bone single on Wednesday morning, many thanks to Brett for facilitating this.:cool:

This year I've been more or less very lucky with the knives I've got in, no dogs slipped through, wreaking havoc in the Knife Knirvarna:D mostly I've been extremely pleased. You might imagine that the more knives you get the more critically attuned your eye grows, or jaded and picky as the case might be:eek: But as I say, I've been very fortunate so far..

The 77 Barlow more than exceeded my hopes and expectations. I vehemently dislike the word 'perfect' it's an overused non word that usually appears in 'lifestyle' venues :barf: but I can find NOTHING to dislike in the one I got, nothing to reproach anyone for, it's an exceptionally satisfying knife that pleases me, totally. I'm a fan of single-blades yet I do admire multis too, but I like Barlows as singles most. The Bone is a beautiful mellow colour already, impressive workmanship & aesthetics, wonderful blade length:handle ratio and not at all heavy in the pocket. Great work from GEC and Mike Latham together, I'm very happy.:thumbup:

No pix yet as I had a long day and hospital treatment so the time I got home the light was kaput. You've seen plenty of pix by now, nearly all better than I can ever do so I wanted to write a short appreciation or is that homage? Mind you, my 77 IS better :D:D

Thanks, Will
 
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