• 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.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Rescaled UKPK

Here is a Pingo that i added a set of stabilized Hawaiian Koa scales to. I decided not to finish the scales out to a mirror gloss because they get a bit slippery - even though Koa is absolutely gorgeous with a high polish. The figure under the surface of the wood shimmers and moves in the light - this is really one of the most beautiful woods on the planet. However, I'm not happy with the way the grain turned out this time. I think i'm going to wet sand another few coats of tru-oil into these scales and see if that makes the grain less prominent.

TedP









 
Got some unexpected time in my shop this weekend and finished out these Pingo scales in unstabilized American Cherry. I've been wanting to work with cherry for a long time, but haven't gotten around to it. Cherry is really pretty on something the size of a piece of furniture... but on the smaller scale of knives, it always seemed kind of bland... I was poking around in my hardwood dealer's scrap pile a few weeks ago and found an off-cut of some really nice cherry with some good variation in color and some fire. It took a bit of planing on the larger piece to figure out how to cut it for knife scales.

To finish, I used the classic furniture-makers method called "french polish". I rubbed in about four coats of danish oil, wet sanding each coat to fill the grain. Then I added about five or six coats of hand-rubbed oil without the sanding, wiping down after each coat. When they were cured, I buffed them out and added some Renaissance Wax on top.

One issue with natural cherry is that it is relatively soft and would get dinged up quickly if carried as an EDC. Probably won't do any more scales with it, but it sure is nice to work with. Nothing polishes out better than a nice piece of cherry...

TedP









 
This weekend, I finished up an Urban Wharncliffe. I stumbled across some interesting and rare wood recently - Hopea Burl, sometimes called Stonewood. This is a very dense, hard wood from the Philippines and SE Asia - as heavy as desert ironwood, but much less brittle and a whole lot grainier. The swirling grain on this piece looks a lot like fingerprints to me... It was very easy to work with tools, but the grain boundaries are relatively weak and the wood kept splitting in line with the grain - thankfully, CA glue kept it patched it up so you can't even see the splits. I sanded it out to 1200 grit, then wet sanded it with 7 coats of danish oil topped with Renaissance Wax.

TedP









 
Another beauty Ted!
One of these days I'd like to see your collection of custom wood Spydercos all in one picture. I'm thinking there must be quite a few.
 
Wow, just went through the thread. Amazing work on those Spydercos. I don't have many knives with wood but I think I may have to get some now.
 
Well, I guess this isn't technically a slipit, but I finished up a mod on a Sage 1 this weekend. This one turned out sweet - it has stabilized Masur Birch scales, probably my favorite wood to work with. It cuts and sands like butter, but it is actually a very tough wood. The grain and pores are very tight and typically not interlocked. The "Masur" part of the name refers to a type of grain in the wood, rather than a species of Birch. If you notice the brown and black swirling features, that is what distinguishes Masur Birch. The stabilized wood finishes very nicely - I sanded it out to 1200 grit then topped it only with a coat of Renaissance Wax.

TedP









 
Great job with these. Have you tried one with multiple woods? I think walnut/cherry stripes would make for some beautiful scales, especially on a larger knife (Superleaf?)
 
This is a Pingo that I finished up for a friend this weekend. The scales are made out of a salvaged piece of rosewood that may be over 100 years old - it looked like it was a piece of decorative furniture at some point, like a bookend or pipe rack. Whatever its history before it was damaged, it is a rather lightweight and open-pored species of rosewood. Much of the oiliness typical of rosewood was lost over the years. I also cut away and sanded off the gunky shellac from the surfaces of the piece. Overall, the wood was rather nice to work with. I cut it to size, trimmed and shaped it, and sanded it down to 1200 grit. To finish it, I wet sanded it with three coats of grain sealer, sanding it back down to bare wood after each coat. Then I added two thin coats of Tru-oil and topped it off with Renaissance Wax.

TedP









 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top