Snakewood on SOCOM Elite

[jin.guo2007]

I changed the scales of this SOCOM. I think the snake wood looks much better.

However, this is my first time doing such thing (even the first time to use a dremel), the fit of the pieces wasn't that great. Should I use something to fill the gaps?

 

[Phillip Dobson]

Looks good. Snakewood is fun to work with and it looks great.

I wouldn't bother filling the gaps. It would probably just look funny. Did the old inserts come out in one piece? If so, you could have glued them to your wood (with a small drop of CA) and used them as a template. If not, it was just going to be difficult, and you did well.

I could be the photos, but it looks like you could get more polish out of that wood. I keep getting improvement up through 8000-grit (1-micron) on snakewood. I use 3M finishing paper for this. You can almost see yourself in the reflection.

 

[cj65]

Do not be overly critical of your own work. It looks great, the snakewood on the black metal is a great combination. Think about what you could have done better, and do it better next time around. That piece has value, it shows a step in your craftmanship. I would be proud of that step.:thumbup:

 

[Phillip Dobson]

Do not be overly critical of your own work. It looks great, the snakewood on the black metal is a great combination. Think about what you could have done better, and do it better next time around. That piece has value, it shows a step in your craftmanship. I would be proud of that step.:thumbup:

Yup.

Actually, I'd say "be critical", and improve with everything you do. Just don't get hung up on it. I've never made anything that was flawless. If you think you did a perfect job, you aren't looking close enough.

 

[Samael]

That looks great. I hope you used stabilized snakewood, though; it has a nasty habit of cracking otherwise.

 

[jin.guo2007]

Thanks all for encouraging a newbie.
I know a need to do a lot better on the fit and making the wood pattern consistent in direction.
I'll leave this one as it for now and keep it as a memory of my first knife modding.

The snakewood is not stablized, but I "boiled" it in wax.

Phillip: I LOVE your wood knife handles!

 

[frontline29]

Looks good man :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[jonnymac44]

Looks really good!:thumbup:

 

[SIFU1A]

when i was reading your description i thought "ughh that will look funky" but after looking at the pic i agree, it does look good.

 

[Phillip Dobson]

That looks great. I hope you used stabilized snakewood, though; it has a nasty habit of cracking otherwise.

The big thing seems to be to season it properly and don't use thick pieces. I've never had a single piece of snakewood crack. Most nightmare stories seem to come from hidden tang-handles.

I've heard that the figuring causes stress in the wood and that less-figured material is much more stable (in the sense of spontaneous cracking). That is one of the reasons low-figure snakewood is so popular in violin bows. If that's the case, Jin Guo should be fine. He used the spotty, lower-figure material.

Phillip

(If you do ever end up with a crack, seal it up with a drop of thin CA adhesive. Works great for sealing fractures in wood.)