The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Thanks for the advices. Well, a lot of time at home these days so I took my dremel and here I am.
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And here is my Opi #6 next to my girlfriend's #6.
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I was reeealy close to do something with the handle, but I need more Sand paper, oil and stuff so fun for another day.
Thank you for all the support! It’s fun to do this, and even more fun to share it with people who share my interests And fully appreciate the effort. Today was the first of 15 furloughed Fridays, so what better way to enjoy it than working on something I wouldn’t normally be able to?
The final product is significantly larger than a regular No. 8, and at 3 oz even it weighs about twice as much, but I think it looks great and feels great in the hand. The tip will probably be proud after a handful of sharpenings, but there’s ways to handle that. I liked the drop point I had made, but in the future it might become a spey or spear.
The action is quite nice on the blade- it’s a smoother opening and then (by chance!) the full open is a firm pull to get it the last few degrees. I suspect the extra ~0.005“ matters in this position due to the tang being positioned further toward the back end of the knife. Oil made all the difference for making the action slick; I don’t know why this surprises me...
the biggest challenge is maintaining the critical dimensions for the viroblock ring to function. The underside of the blade by the tang cannot be altered (both front or back) without potentially messing up the alignment. The blade cannot rest too high or low in the blade well, though better high than low, since you can always trim the viroblock ramp to match the closed position. I suspect one can change the runout on the low side, too, but there’s a locating feature in the ring that might prevent it from twisting far enough to engage it.
this is one of the reasons I elected to use a metal pin as a stop for the blade: over time a regular Opinel will be sharpened to the point where it rests so deeply in a blade well that the viroblock will not engage in the closed position. in the open position, one cannot sharpen the blade near the handle too far, or the viroblock will not engage there, either. So I created a faux kick with a pin rest. This also protects the user’s hand some from slipping up onto the blade.
I’ll stop gabbing! Here’s some pictures. Dan’s “Opiwan Inspired” Opinel. It’s not “perfect”, but any minor blemishes will be trumped by other knocks with pocket time.
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Thanks so much. I don’t have much experience with it, but it’s dramatically darker overnight, even when oiled. Freshly sanded or cut it looks orange red but it doesn’t take long to get dark red or a deep red brown. My pictures capture it a little, but the change is dramatic. I expect it will get very dark with time, but I believe the figuration will remain present. I think I was reading about padauk in particular, but exotics in general, that there’s a lot of people trying to figure out a way to stabilize the color better, as finishing the wood doesn’t necessarily stop the color change as you might see on some domestic varieties.That's very nice... very well done. That wood is figured well... does Padauk darken with age and use? Or do you expect it to stay fairly well defined?
Thank you very much! I know you were following along, which I also appreciate. It’s a bit of a relief: it got hairy there a few times, but it turned out better than I expected.What a beautiful outcome! Congratulations, Dan. It looks fantastic.