Ken Erickson To The Rescue...

Blues

Blues

hovering overhead
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As some of you may already know from personal experience, finding one of your treasured knives in the following condition can give one that sinking feeling in a real hurry...

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:eek:

...So, I called my buddy Ken Erickson, stalled and talked about the Packers and Jets for a while and then finally relayed my tale of woe.

Ken, undaunted and taking it all in stride, passes it off as much ado about nothing (though he is intellectually curious about what may have caused the ivory to crack fully in two).
(As an aside, none of my remaining three ivory knives exhibited any such issues or early warning signs.)

Interestingly enough, after Ken got the knife back the other side cracked in half a few days later while it was just laying in his shop awaiting his attentions. Ken mentioned that the ivory even pretty much crumbled when he began to test its integrity.

Anyway, I had decided that I was going to forgo ivory this time as a replacement scale material and opted for stag in its place.

Well, the knife just arrived home and I'm really quite pleased with its new look.

Big thanks to Ken for the great job, the effort required and being there for his friend when the need arose. :thumbup:

Here's some shots of the 3.5" Wharncliffe Trapper in its new suit:

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Great job. Actually like the stag a bit better than the ivory. You are a lucky man Elliot (for the second time...the first being when you originally got the knife and the second when you got the knife with perty stag)

I look at my ivory and other natural material on a weekly basis now because of the incredibly low humidity we have had in Nashville. I have several that I think are close to the breaking point. Something I have started doing is about 2 or 3 weeks prior to getting a custom, I ask the maker to send me the handle material so it can acclimate to my environment...either that or I offer up some of my own stock of natural material. I've found that on the knives I do this with, there is almost no shrinkage/expansion in the scales...compared to a large amount of movement for handles that may have been sitting in another area of the country for a while under different moisture conditions.
 
Wow, nice stag.:thumbup::thumbup:

I think the knife looks better with the stag, but then I'm just a wee bit prejudiced toward stag anyways. Ken did a great job matching the two slabs pretty close. Very nice job.

I think it was Bill Moran who told me that he rubs in a little baby oil now and then on ivory. I wonder what Patton used onhis Colt's grips?

Carl.
 
That crack is crazy! I'm itching to go home now to make sure that the ivory on my Dowell swayback is still intact.

I'm glad that everything turned out well. I agree with Jackknife, I like this particular knife better with stag scales.

- Christian
 
I'd love to get on Ken's list but I've sent some emails with no reply. He does nice work however.
 
I can imagine the sinking spell you had when you discovered that cracked ivory. But it looks great now in it's new suit; and a very nice suit it is. Ken sure did a great job on it. :thumbup:

Ed
 
Elliott,
it now looks AWESOMER than before, that stag looks amazing
you're soooo locky to own such beautiful wharnie trapper, to me it would be something like "the" knife/trapper to carry

allow me to post it on the MCKF forum

maxx
 
Elliott - that stag is awesome! What a great looking knife Ken!

Must have been a lot of work to fix that without messing something up.
 
mrbear said:
I'd love to get on Ken's list but I've sent some emails with no reply. He does nice work however.
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Make sure you're sending to the correct email. I know that Ken replies to all inquiries. (His current email is listed in his signature.)
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Thanks guys for the encouraging comments. I was unsure how I'd like this knife in stag after coming from the ivory but I really like it a lot and it feels even better in the hand. :cool:
 
Whew that is some special stag on a very special knife.
Blues, quit spitting on the ivory. :D.
 
Bastid said:
Whew that is some special stag on a very special knife.
Blues, quit spitting on the ivory. :D.
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Ya think da moonshine is wut dun it? ;)

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It looks great now Elliot. Grandmother's piano keys did that a couple times and after she had them replaced one of the piano tuners that would come by now and then finally told her to lay a long rag damp with vegetable oil on it on the keys and close the lid when the piano wasn't being used. Unless she was playing that piano that rag was always on the keys and if one of us played it and forgot to put that rag back over them she would have our heads! All I know is they never cracked again on her after she started doing that.

STR
 
Blues said:
Make sure you're sending to the correct email. I know that Ken replies to all inquiries. (His current email is listed in his signature.)
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I did. He replied initially and asked me what I would be interested in and when I sent him that was it. Maybe he's swamped.
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I'm guessing it was the elephant's fault. Probably smoked cigarettes, hung out in pool halls and generally didn't take care of himself when he was a youngster.
I agree that the stag is first rate. Ken is a good man.
 
Thomason said:
I'm guessing it was the elephant's fault. Probably smoked cigarettes, hung out in pool halls and generally didn't take care of himself when he was a youngster.
I agree that the stag is first rate. Ken is a good man.
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"Of course in Alabama the Tuscaloosa..."
 
You see, folks, this is why you don't baton your nice slipjoints through that hickory stump in the yard. :p

Sorry to see what happened to the ivory, but the new look is fantastic. I've got a few knives with old scale material that's disintegrated (celluloid, etc.) but I've not had one where the scale split like that. Change in seasons, maybe? :confused:

~Chris
 
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