Knifemakers Christmas season gift exchange!

damn, these knives are ALL great, really fantastic. I hope mine measures up!

The osage orange is shining well, most of my effort right now is getting the scandi grind perfect. Shoulda done this on convex, I'm faster at it after all these forged field throwers.
 
Justin.Mercier said:
I'm getting closer to finishing but it feels like everything's slowing to a crawl !
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Amen! It's always the finishing where I get bound up. I get so worried after HT that I'm gonna mess it up, I tend to only work on it for short periods. And don't get me started on the sheath making.....
 
Epoxy is drying on the handle... I hope I have enough epoxy in the hole. I fit as much as I could inside but the epoxy I used is really thick and I had to push it in with a stick after mixing it, so I dont know if I filled every void nook and cranny so I've just got to cross my fingers now. Going to let the epoxy cure a few days and get back at the knife on friday after I'm back from thanksgiving. Does anyone have good suggestions for a finish on quilted sycamore ? I've got my trademark logo being made at TUStech and I'll probably get the stencils and whatnot either friday or next monday.

I'm very nervous about this knife and just crossing my fingers that everything works out right because these things take me so long to do that if I screw up bad, I dont want someone getting their gift knife late!
 
Update picture. I need to figure out what sort of finish goes best with sycamore, because I've never worked with the stuff before >_< Then i've got to put the finish on the blade, right now it's just a rough 320 grit.

Hope my blade is worthy of the recipient !

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justin, that's a great EDC type of blade. great balance.

is the wood hardened? If not I'd suggest some minwax wood hardener after you decide if you want a stain.

On valley oak I use danish oil and minwax wood hardener to seal and lots of steel wool.
 
So when we are done we just mail them out with a bit of a biography and a photo of ourselves and a materials list right.

Justin, you knife looks great. Dam this is going to be just like Christmas!!!!!!!
 
ib2v4u said:
So when we are done we just mail them out with a bit of a biography and a photo of ourselves and a materials list right.

Justin, you knife looks great. Dam this is going to be just like Christmas!!!!!!!
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Yup! Exactly!
 
scottickes said:
Well, I've made some major decisions on my gift knife. I'm going OLD. Really, really, really OLD. I've spent the entire day working on slotting and shaping the wrought iron guard. When I got it done, I decided it needed more. Most of the suggestions for my "wispy smoke damascus" (yes, I've chosen a name for it) knife leaned towards the wrought iron and elk. But, after careful consideration, I've decided to go really OLD. Did I already say that?

I decided to add a second wrought piece to the guard with a spacer between it. The spacer I've chosen is a piece of dinosaur bone that has been sitting in my shop waiting for just the right knife. For the handle I'm going to use mammoth bone. The dinosaur bone has a nice chocolate brown color with a neat cellular pattern. The mammoth bone also has a nice chocolate brown color with some fine hairline cracking. I really believe this will be the best knife I've made to date.

So, the wrought iron is probably over 100 years OLD, since it came from the rim of a wagon wheel. The mammoth bone is at least 10,000 years OLD. The dinosaur bone is millions of years OLD.

Did I say I was going OLD on this knife? The only concern that I have is drilling the dinosaur bone for the tang. I haven't tried drilling it yet, but we'll see what happpens!

Wish me luck!
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Well, this idea won't work. I don't have the ability to drill the dinosaur bone. It's too hard. I'm going to use some mammoth ivory for the spacer instead. I have nice brownish mammoth ivory also.

Plan B is now in effect!
 
Uh, Scott, I don't know about this last minute substitution. :-)

Honestly I don't think anyone is going to complain about that switch. Can't wait to see photos of the completed knife.

Charlie
 
Some really awesome looking knives in this thread! If Y'all do this again next year, I will be in for sure. Just can't get a knife finished in time this year, plus i don't think my work is up to par with the rest of ya just yet (don't think it will ever be as good as some of the stuff I've seen here).
Jeff W
 
Mine is in the mail and should arrive Monday or Tuesday. Now I get to sit back and wait for a mystery box to arrive. Jim
 
Scott, just curious, did you try a nice sharp masonry bit? i have drilled hard stone like that. mammoth will be nothing to complain about though :)
-Lou
 
I haven't tried a masonry bit. I thought about it though. I've already put the ivory and the wrought iron spacer on the tang. I'm ready to start working on the mammoth bone now.
 
Ok, almost done I should finish this week. I will post pictures as soon as I'm done. When should we send them?:confused:
 
I'm gonna be cutting it close to Christmas, with just having a new baby and all, but I should be able to get it there in time. I may have to change "the plan", and go a different direction with some of it though. The knives I have seen on here have been fantastic! I'm trying to remember not to compare with others, and just make the best knife I can with my limited experience. It's hard not to get an inferiority complex though! -Matt-
 
If my stencils come from TUS in the mail today, my knife should be ready to send out by thursday or friday ... I think =)

I'm getting to the point where I'm so close to done that I just want to get it out of the way so I can deal with the next project =D (Someone at work saw the knife I'm working on when I brought it in this morning and said "make me one of those ! I dont care what it costs I love it! [to which I replied well that'd be around 200$ to which he siaid "great !"] So I've got my first comission, from a co-worker, to make a knife just like the one I'm finishing right now.)
 
Justin.Mercier said:
If my stencils come from TUS in the mail today, my knife should be ready to send out by thursday or friday ... I think =)

I'm getting to the point where I'm so close to done that I just want to get it out of the way so I can deal with the next project =D (Someone at work saw the knife I'm working on when I brought it in this morning and said "make me one of those ! I dont care what it costs I love it! [to which I replied well that'd be around 200$ to which he siaid "great !"] So I've got my first comission, from a co-worker, to make a knife just like the one I'm finishing right now.)
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Aren't you glad you joined our little gift exchange? By the way, your knife looks great.
 
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