My latest from Dave Kelly

RogerP

RogerP

Joined
Feb 28, 2002
Messages
13,348
... and I'll get the bad news out of the way first - it's not a knife.

Some of you may recall a killer Koa board that I scored on E-bay a while back. That will provide a few very nice knife handles going forward, but I wanted to have a small display piece of some kind that I could admire just sitting on a desk or bookshelf.

I sent Dave two pieces from the board - one from the extreme corner that didn't have the unbelievably tight curl (bit did have very nice colour and figure in its own right) and one premium block.

My only contribution to the design was to suggest that the one piece be used as a base or pedestal to support / display the other.

Dave immediately came up with a few ideas...

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... which made for a good starting point. I liked the oval shaped cut to the premium piece, but thought I'd like to minimize the connecti9on between it and the base - almost have the oval shape floating over the base:

Dave sent me a pic of mock-up with the oval section sitting horizontally, balanced over the base on a spent brass shell casing:

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It looked really good to me and gave rise to the final design shown below:

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The whole deal disasembles easily, and Dave even provided two different top plugs for me to choose from:

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I can't say enough about the wood. The pictures look nice enough but don't capture what is a 3-D motion picture. Change your angle of view just a touch and the curl ripples and dances like you wouldn't believe. I need to shoot a high-def video of it to really show it off.

And Dave definitely made the most of what mother nature had crafted. He describes the finishing process as follows:

"I sanded from 2500 grit paper to 4000 then 6000 grit polishing cloth (I was out of 8000 grit). The Koa has a little open grain so I sealed it with sanding sealer prior to finish sanding, I made the sealer using Danish oil diluted with mineral spirits.

It was either 6 or 8 (call it 7) coats of Danish oil then 2 coats buffed Carnauba wax. I used Watco natural Danish oil sanding with fine fibral wool (I like it better than 0000 steel wool) between coats after about the third or fourth coat."

Well, it's now sitting on my desk distracting the heck out of me.

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Great job Dave - mission accomplished, and then some.

Thanks also to David Wesner for cutting up that massive Koa board and getting a few chunks stabilized.

Roger
 
nifty:cool:
 
:cool:
A series of them representing different exotic handle woods could make a very beautiful and interesting knife related collection imo.
 
I don't get it.:confused:

Beautiful wood.

It could have been a mirror, bookends, some sort of paperweight.....from a functional perspective.

It could have been a vase, an organic shape, a monolith or a tetrahedron.....from a visual perspective.

What you have made mostly looks like a retro tv model without a screen or a tabletop mirror without a mirror. If it had been me, I would have made it into a tabletop lighter, even though I don't smoke anymore.

You enjoy it, I get that, as well you should, but this one, Roger, and it pains me, really pains me, is so far out in left field as to send my mind into a fog. I just don't think enough thought went into it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Kohai999 said:
I don't get it.:confused:

Beautiful wood.

It could have been a mirror, bookends, some sort of paperweight.....from a functional perspective.

It could have been a vase, an organic shape, a monolith or a tetrahedron.....from a visual perspective.

What you have made mostly looks like a retro tv model without a screen or a tabletop mirror without a mirror. If it had been me, I would have made it into a tabletop lighter, even though I don't smoke anymore.

You enjoy it, I get that, as well you should, but this one, Roger, and it pains me, really pains me, is so far out in left field as to send my mind into a fog. I just don't think enough thought went into it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
Click to expand...

I get where you are coming from Steven as that was pretty much my first impression. Ironically, your points are what made it start to grow on me, or at least grow on me as a unique collection opertunity that relates to collecting custom knives.

Call me crazy, but I would have had the maker create a display handle and stand (yes, just a handle, but slightly over-sized) to show the wood in it's glory or lack of it depending on your preference for Koa.

Such a dispaly/collection of handles/woods could be beneficial for a maker to demostrat to potencial customers what style handles and woods he like to use.

In any case, I believe Dave did a very nice job of implementing Roger's basic idea.
 
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Dave - that table - wow! :eek:

Kevin - I like that idea - a lot.

STeven - don't be pained - I can get where you're coming from. But you're wrong in your conclusion that not much thought went into it. Quite a bit of thought went into it - we just arrived at a different end result than you would have.

Keep in mind that we were using two bowie-sized blocks only - so there is a size limitation that takes vases and such out of the discussion.

We did float a few functional options - such as shown below:

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And a functional application of a beautiful piece of wood is something that is not conceptually foreign to me - this other Dave Kelly piece sits on my desk as well:

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But at the end of the day, what I wanted was not a beautiful piece of wood crafted to form some useful item, but a beautfiul piece of wood simply put on display. And I wanted as much of the wood preserved as possible.

I can definitley see a series of these - using slightly different shapes for each - in, say, feathered black walnut, ironwood, amboyna, gidgee, etc. They need only please me, and they would please me greatly indeed.

A bladeless handle is an intriguing idea, but I think I my eye would be perpetually seeking the non-existent blade.

Roger
 
+1 on the organic shape- a globe or egg shape from this material and finished in the same painstaking manner would be very nice. Maybe even mount a tiny motor in the base, (like a battery powered clock motor) so that it's always moving.
Just a thought.
 
RogerP said:
Kevin - I like that idea - a lot.

A bladeless handle is an intriguing idea, but I think I my eye would be perpetually seeking the non-existent blade.

Roger
Click to expand...

Yep, I admit, the handle idea is borderline bizarre. :foot::o However thought it could help support a knife theme which could add.
I like what you and Dave have done but on your desk it must look like an award or inspirational plaque that's awaiting a message.

Beautiful furniture Dave Ellis. Must have set you back a "big bear" or two. ;) :)
 
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I like where you are coming from. It's not made for everyone. You just wanted a small piece of that great KOA to enjoy. Good for you. I still have a small piece of the block you sent for your CKCA knife. I'll hold it for you.
 
Thats one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Its beautiful though, that wood is really something and I can understand why that weird thing is VERY fun to stare at. I would do the same.
 
jonathan brand said:
Thats one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Its beautiful though, that wood is really something and I can understand why that weird thing is VERY fun to stare at. I would do the same.
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Jon if that's one of the weirdest things youve seen we gotta get you out more. :D
 
Roger

hey, you knew I'd have to chime in sooner or later :p

Of course, I think it is extremely:cool:

Koa is almost certainly the MOST chatoyant wood there is in the best pieces,
and I'd love to see that baby in person !

nobody really has to "get" this - I think it is what it is: an idea of Roger's, beautifully crafted by Dave Kelly.

No that Roger is necessarily normal.......:p

Bill
 
I would have made a ukulele with it.

It's great to come out and admit you like to look at retro shaped wood.
 
Bill - to most of the rest of the world, none of us knife types are anywhere close to normal. :D

Roger
 
perhaps you could integrate a time machine into it. That would be handy.
 
I can see it now: 3000 years from now, on some faraway planet, there is a relic from a long-since-imploded planet.

THIS thing, the beings have saved, and are calling sacred to the point of idolatry.

Their named God: KOA

:p ;)

Coop
 
Coop, you and me are like totally on the same wavelength these days!
 
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