Titanium Skinner - Project #3

Sorry to keep bothering you guys with this, but this time I'd like some opinions. I've tentatively decided to use some lizard skins as the inserts for the handle. It has a real pebbly texture that I think looks nice. I've cut some sample pieces and laid them in (no glue yet), just to get a sense for what it might look like. If I wanted to go REALLY bold I could spend a bunch on two more skins and get the contrasting center spine (which has a raised pointed marquis diamond pattern in white). Something tells me the black pebbled texture by itself is enough.

Here's a couple of images.

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Very nice. I like the beaded texture that it appears to give.

I'm having trouble visioning this knife, even with the pictures. Could you take a picture of it next to a ruler or something to give it some scale?
 
Here you go. The thing at the bottom is the inner shell of the sheath I will eventually make.

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Thank you so much for the picture. Very nice little skinner. I have a 24" bar of similar Ti if you want a bigger project in Ti when done. . . .
 
I see what you're triying to do with that and I like that look.

I think on the spine, it would tend to waer too much and not last.

With the way you're doing it, it's going to be just about impossible to get nice clean edges.
If you had the handle frames as separate overlay-ed pieces, then the skin can be larger than the cutout holes and those edges are defined by the nice clean cutout holes.
 
I like the look but it could use a little clean-up. I am not sure you want to do any more grinding but here is a suggestion. Make a plastic or steel templete a little larger than your current cutout. This will give you a chance to make the lines around the edges more even with the handle shape and provide a clean line to cut your insert into. You can also better match your cutout with the finger contours. Once you have the templete, clamp in place the very carefully scribe a deep scratch around it, this will give you a clean line for your edge. Carefully grind to the scribe line.

The templete can now be used to cut your inlay, I suggest someing under the skin to give it a nice flat surface to adhere to.

Good Luck

The
 
You are correct, it is going to be difficult to get a clean edge. I might have a trick or two up my sleeve though. I want to give some things a try and see if anything works as expected.

If anyone is curious, here are the redwood burl inserts I made (glazed with CA, as suggested). My problem with these is that they rise too high above the lip of the cutouts. Well, that and the obvious similarity to dog waste...

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- Greg
 
I haven't considered anodization... wouldn't know where to go or how to start that one... yet.

I did do some more grinding just now to make the cutout follow the finger slot lines better... and to make the finger slot lines cleaner in the first place. I've been putting that off until now, but it is time to get it done. Subtlew changes, but I think they helped.

- Greg
 
A final look.

First, here's the original sketch I made when I received the bar of titanium.

TiSkinner.jpg


Just goes to show how much things can change once you start working.

Here are a few images of the knife today.

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There's still a few scratches to polish out and some edge definition to do, but it is essentially complete.

By the way, the myster leather in the handle and sheath is Stingray skin.

- Greg
 
Very nice. Biggest problem I had with my titanium mushroom knife is that it would scuff like crazy because it couldn't be hardened. I finally went with a sand-blasted finish. Just putting it in the sheath would scratch the heck out of it. I like the cutout with the beaded look. Please don't make this the last picture of it, show us when it polished and completely finished.
 
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