Scales for my Future Forum Knife

Just thought about visualizing my lil idea with the uber Pain.NET skills that I posess:
(Now you only need to get that done in a nice handle material buddy)
 

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Nice work. They have a very clean and finished look about them.

I bet the delrin would respond well to some light checkering or cross hatching to enhance grip. It might be even cooler to just repeat the ant graphic all over the scale in a pattern to create grip. I'll try to mock something up.
 
This is the worst mock up ever but I think it gets the point across. Basically, by repeated the ant graphic in a regular pattern, you make the smooth grips a bit more grippy. The ant size could be varied to achieve the look that you want. They could be done in stripes or I think the entire handle covered with them would be cool.
 

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How deep is the engraving? My only concern is that the edges of the grooves will be sharp and could cause hotspots. It's hard to tell from the pics, but you should be sure to chamfer or round the edges to make it more comfortable and I think it'd give it a smoother appearance.

You could also make some really nice inlays shaped like the Ant that could make it stand out and "pop" even more!
 
My idea would be to frost the main body of the scales and leave whatever artwork, i.e., ant, logo, etc., that is carved into them natural or polished if possible.

The frosting would enhance grip without adding another, competing texture, to the scale. Leaving the artwork natural or polished would make it stand out.

My 2 cents.

-Bob
 
In the end it really depends on what you are planning: is it a workhorse knife or more like a collector's item...

Personally a pure working tool does not need all that fancy stuff that some of us already got in mind, it might even be a disadvantage in regards of handle comfort or dirt/blood that sits in those finer engravings...
 
llcarter said:
I've posted earlier about how nice your work is, but since you're running a contest now, I'll add my 2 cents to the mix. While those metals scales are beautiful to behold, I think that exotic wood scales (cocobolo, kamigong, rosewood, curly maple, etc.) would really fit the ESEE theme as being a hard use wilderness knife and would give people a chance to personalize their knife in various colors. Yes, micarta has been "adopted" as the standard for ESEE knife handles, but you can get them very easily through various venues. If you're planning on selling the handles to the masses, marketing 101 teaches you to be unique, stand out and offer something to the market that your competitors do not. This suggestion comes from a recent personal experience. I have been searching for wood Becker handles, but can only find the standard micarta replacements. The few that I've seen are custom crafted individual pieces and are absolutely stunning.

As for the ant design, it is definitely a work of art! I would scale it down just a hair so that the design doesn't reach the edges of the handle, but that's just my personal preference. Keep up the good work!
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You have some good points about marketing that I took notice. Thanks, about woods, couple people (example 22rook22 already mentioned and he made one in his thread). I can do any kind of wood if I wanted to but I have to admit I;m suck at it:thumbdn:, about the ant the very first pic I posted it's much smaller than the other one I made later on the other side. Thanks and points taken.

Kha0s said:
Since the Izula comes in different colors, if you made the ant the same color as your knife that would be pretty cool...black handle, pink ant...white handle, olive ant, etc.
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Cool ideas but it will cost much more to do it right.;)

adaman04 said:
Have you considered adding a little traction to them? Would hate to take away from the looks but if it was subtle to increase function I think it would be worth it. Just some shallow grooves outside of the area of the ant. Maybe something like this?

mj8rdj.jpg
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:cool:

Guruthos said:
Just thought about visualizing my lil idea with the uber Pain.NET skills that I posess:
(Now you only need to get that done in a nice handle material buddy)
Click to expand...
LOL,you must insist :D

matthewdanger said:
This is the worst mock up ever but I think it gets the point across. Basically, by repeated the ant graphic in a regular pattern, you make the smooth grips a bit more grippy. The ant size could be varied to achieve the look that you want. They could be done in stripes or I think the entire handle covered with them would be cool.
Click to expand...
It can only be done if I do the out line of the ants.

lazerboy2000 said:
How deep is the engraving? My only concern is that the edges of the grooves will be sharp and could cause hotspots. It's hard to tell from the pics, but you should be sure to chamfer or round the edges to make it more comfortable and I think it'd give it a smoother appearance.

You could also make some really nice inlays shaped like the Ant that could make it stand out and "pop" even more!
Click to expand...
The engraving of the ant is 0.010" deep I can barely feel it, for the small knife I don't think you can have any hot spot.

ryanr256 said:
My idea would be to frost the main body of the scales and leave whatever artwork, i.e., ant, logo, etc., that is carved into them natural or polished if possible.

The frosting would enhance grip without adding another, competing texture, to the scale. Leaving the artwork natural or polished would make it stand out.

My 2 cents.

-Bob
Click to expand...
Nice idea, thanks

Guruthos said:
In the end it really depends on what you are planning: is it a workhorse knife or more like a collector's item...

Personally a pure working tool does not need all that fancy stuff that some of us already got in mind, it might even be a disadvantage in regards of handle comfort or dirt/blood that sits in those finer engravings...
Click to expand...
This is the scale that I will put on my forum knife to show my support. In order to make the scale this far, it sure shows that I careless about disadvantage nor the cost. At the end it will benefit some of us. Thanks for your points anyway;)
 
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i say you put RP #... on each side. then the only part for the knife that is personalized is the handle. then they would not have to do any custom etching on each blade. just one simple run on metal to cut cost. your scales could be installed then shipped to member.
 
How thick is the material? Can you machine titanium? If you can, machine your pattern then blue the pattern. PM me what materials you use, my brother works at a machine shop that uses all kinds of metals, I may be able to get some scrap to make scales from.
 
Inkedshooter said:
How thick is the material? Can you machine titanium? If you can, machine your pattern then blue the pattern. PM me what materials you use, my brother works at a machine shop that uses all kinds of metals, I may be able to get some scrap to make scales from.
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.375" thick X 3.75" long X1.1" wide. Machine Ti is not cost effective for few pieces, the tooling is killing me:D
 
Don't know if this was suggested, and just blue-skying it here...
What about threaded endcaps with coin slots for each side the big lanyard hole?
Not sure if you could store anything of major use, but every little thing helps, right? :)
 
My idea is to use the clear slabs, and instead of etching on the out side of the slab, etch inside.
Then use a black (or any other color) epoxy to fill the etching.
This way the out side of the scale would be smooth to the touch. It would give the slab a real 3d look to it.

You know, it would be so sweet to even go as far as to fill the etchings with a glow in the dark paint. Like they use on night sights. I know that the paint is really easy to use, and is really easy to find online. If it was on the inside of the scale, it would never wear off.
My'02....

By the way, those aluminum scales made me drool.... PM me a price on those if you will! Thanks!
 
Yeah, thought about something like that as well, a GITD Izula or ESEE skull logo (with their permission for sure) would be freakin awesome :D

Another idea: what about using clear handles where you can insert one of those small chemical lights? They last for quite some hours, on low visibility even days, and you can just take the handles off to activate it when needed. Placed right in the middle of the handle slabs it should give you a nice little light and makes it easy to find the knife at night. Functional and easy to do.
 
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