Re-shodding an old Mule

[phillipsted]

I finished up this Mule project today. My MT-07 VG-10 Damascus Mule needed a fresh set of scales and I decided to try a new wood from Mark at Burl Source - a slab of stabilized cascara sagrada, sometimes known as buckthorn. I was trying to use the wave-like flame in the wood to echo the ripples in the damascus blade. I'm not real enamored with the overall effect with this steel... but the wood itself is absolutely gorgeous. You can't really see it in the pictures, but the cascara is almost translucent - it sparkles, flames and shimmers in the light. This three dimensional iridescent quality is referred to as chatoyance - and the pictures don't do it justice. The cascara worked very well in the shop. It didn't splinter or chip out and was relatively hard. I use a 1/32" blue G-10 liner, sanded the wood out to 2000 grit and then put a coat of Renaissance Wax on top. Great stuff to work with!

TedP

 

[jtoler_9]

Nice work. I like the color and texture variation.

 

[ice-pic]

Very nice,clean work TedP.Chatoyancy is very hard to capture on pic since it is a dynamic effect.
It takes a lot of planing and patience to shod these mules nice job.