- Joined
- Mar 26, 2000
- Messages
- 109
Here's another new "Vorpal Haiku Fighter", (serial #918), It has all titanium furniture and rubber-wrapped grip. This is my second foray into using titanium for the furniture and also my second try at a rubber grip. The inspiration for this handle treatment was a knife made by W.W. Cronk in the 1970s and which has circulated in the custom knife community since then. I saw it once at a Guild show in KC, and again at a knife show last year. I'm not certain (are there any Cronk experts here?) but I think that he only made the one with that rubber-grip handle, at least it's the only one I've ever seen. And again, to my knowledge nobody else has ever expanded on that original Cronk idea since. But... after almost thirty years of that darn thing niggling at my brain, I do believe that I have finally figured out how he did it! I'm very excited about this "new" handle treatment as it seems to be both highly practical and quite attractive.
This knife features seven titanium plates in the guard stack, together forming a guard that flares both up from the blade and back down to the handle. There are also three titanium plates in front of the pommel, mirroring the effect at the guard. The handle has titanium end collars and one middle collar offset towards the front end, giving solid seating into the rubber sections for both first and second fingers in any grip mode. The entire knife disassembles into 17 separate pieces via the toggle-tang construction, a sort of modified Japanese tang system I originally developed for making swords. The 17 pieces suggested the "haiku" name, since there are 17 syllables in a haiku poem. All the plates or "spacers" are marked with a sequence number for reassembly; the odd numbered spacers having filed "reeding" on the edges while the even numbered parts are all smooth edged. All the metal parts that show (except the blade of course) are titanium. All are CP (commercially pure, 99.7% Ti) except for the pommel and the screw, which are 6-4 (90% Ti, 6% Al, 4% V). All the titanium parts have been polished, stonewashed, and anodized a deep violet color that sits well with the matte black of the rubber. The D-2 steel blade has a stonewashed matte finish, and the knife is supplied with a kydex fast-draw scabbard and a shoulder rig of the style I developed for my Vorpal knife series years ago.
The toggle on this one is aircraft aluminum for lightness. The handle core is laminated bamboo. Total knife weight is just 6.3 oz. I'll post a few WIP pics as well as some of the finished piece and various stages of takedown and reassembly, which can be safely done by the owner.
In case you're curious about the serial numbers, it's a continuous series since the first knife I ever put my name on in 1975. I have a complete archival webpage with a serial number list here: http://www.shirepost.com/BladeList.html which has been recently updated to include the most recent knives.
This knife features seven titanium plates in the guard stack, together forming a guard that flares both up from the blade and back down to the handle. There are also three titanium plates in front of the pommel, mirroring the effect at the guard. The handle has titanium end collars and one middle collar offset towards the front end, giving solid seating into the rubber sections for both first and second fingers in any grip mode. The entire knife disassembles into 17 separate pieces via the toggle-tang construction, a sort of modified Japanese tang system I originally developed for making swords. The 17 pieces suggested the "haiku" name, since there are 17 syllables in a haiku poem. All the plates or "spacers" are marked with a sequence number for reassembly; the odd numbered spacers having filed "reeding" on the edges while the even numbered parts are all smooth edged. All the metal parts that show (except the blade of course) are titanium. All are CP (commercially pure, 99.7% Ti) except for the pommel and the screw, which are 6-4 (90% Ti, 6% Al, 4% V). All the titanium parts have been polished, stonewashed, and anodized a deep violet color that sits well with the matte black of the rubber. The D-2 steel blade has a stonewashed matte finish, and the knife is supplied with a kydex fast-draw scabbard and a shoulder rig of the style I developed for my Vorpal knife series years ago.
The toggle on this one is aircraft aluminum for lightness. The handle core is laminated bamboo. Total knife weight is just 6.3 oz. I'll post a few WIP pics as well as some of the finished piece and various stages of takedown and reassembly, which can be safely done by the owner.
In case you're curious about the serial numbers, it's a continuous series since the first knife I ever put my name on in 1975. I have a complete archival webpage with a serial number list here: http://www.shirepost.com/BladeList.html which has been recently updated to include the most recent knives.
