My most complex knife to date

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
3,160
Early last week I posted a video of my recent vest bowie. The blade is Aldo's W2 with a hamon and swedges. The handle is oosic, and the fittings are fluted and plum browned mild steel with a few stainless spacers. OAL is 10 inches. There are 14 separate pieces to this one. First time I've had that many "parts", the first time I've browned the fluted spacers, and the first time I've used oosic. I sent it out to Cory Martin for photography, and he did his work well. Here are the results.
Jason-Fry-Oosik-Hunter-WEB-PHOTO.jpg
 
Jason, nice job. I like the browned fittings and the butt cap. That oosic is wild. Is it stabilized? Not suggesting it needs to be, I don't know, just curious.
 
The oosic isn't stabilized, Mark. It's bone, with a marrow/spongy-but-hard center. I did run some thin superglue down the inside to stabilize any potential cracks, but I wanted the outside to be as natural as possible. Most oosic I've seen doesn't have as much color or texture, and I wanted to preserve it.
 
Looks great! I love the the blade shape with swedge. The contrast between the earth tones of the oosik / plummed fittings and the stainless spacers is very eye catching. Keep 'em coming!
 
That's a really good looking knife, Jason! Love the details. How did you brown the hardware?
 
I used Birchwood Casey Plum Brown. You have to have the parts 100% polished and degreased, just like you would for etching damascus. I took these to 800 grit. You heat them up to around 300 degrees, the swab the solution on. It takes 6 or 8 coats to get it looking even. I just used my heat treat oven and put wires through the fittings so I could "hold" them without touching the fittings themselves. I did discover that dipping the parts in the solution didn't work as well as dabbing it on. A coat of Ren-wax gives it a bit of depth and evens out the color as a final step.
 
I like this knife Jason, especially the browning. I hope you bring it to the gathering tomorrow.
 
Beautiful knife Jason. Looking at the pic, is this a take apart construction?
Kevin
 
I built it as a takedown for construction, Kevin. It was the only way to get it together/apart one zillion times with precision. I glued it up as the last step.
 
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