Twenty Eight Buck Knives in the Process of Getting New Covers

gsea said:
Fantastic work Mark. I have a handle material question. 2nd pic top knife and 5th pic top knife what is the material?
Keep up the good work!!!
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Second picture top knife is smooth buffalo horn and the fifth picture top knife is mammoth ivory.

The mammoth ivory knife is a Buck Custom Shop knife I ordered with S30V steel, finger grooves and walnut covers. I ground off the rear bolster so the mammoth ivory could go all the way back. I also added about 1/16" buffalo horn and 1/16" nickel silver right behind the front bolster for some separation.
 
Stumps said:
Bob, I use a 42" Kalamazoo. It's not one of the large belt sanders, but I don't need anymore since this is just a hobby for me. It has a nice flex to it. I find I use that part of the belt more. Just have to go slow and constantly check the progress…especially when I get close to the bolsters and liners.
I still occasionally nick the brass lightly, but it's never bad and always easy to finish with the final sanding.
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Thanks for the info will look into one of those
 
Stumps said:
Bob, I use a 42" Kalamazoo. It's not one of the large belt sanders, but I don't need anymore since this is just a hobby for me. It has a nice flex to it. I find I use that part of the belt more. Just have to go slow and constantly check the progress…especially when I get close to the bolsters and liners.
I still occasionally nick the brass lightly, but it's never bad and always easy to finish with the final sanding.
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I am terrible at explaining myself, so I wanted to try and clarify what I had said here to badws6 yesterday about the belt sander I use.

I should have said I use the slack belt for this finishing part of the re-handling process. I believe I only use the slack belt from the time the covers are epoxied onto the knife to the finish.

I only use the platen and table when I am actually fitting the covers to the specific knife. I use the platen to thin out a cover so it's not too thick also.
I like the cover to match up fairly well to the bolster on the knife. I do have one Buck 110 in stag that I left much thicker, but I don't like that look nearly as much.
A lot of the covers I get are cut on an angle that wouldn't look right on the knife. I freehand those until I get them close to the proper thickness to sit on the liners and have close to the same fit at all for corners of the bolsters.
Then I flatten them nicely on the platen for a good fit to the liners.

Going slow and checking the fit often works best for me…although my favorite re-handle to this point is a 112 that got the covers meant for a 110 that I got overly aggressive grinding.

Hope that clarifies this part of it a little more. :)

Here are a few pictures of where I play with my Buck knives;










 
I went ahead this morning and finished the only fixed blade of the bunch…a Buck Kaala.
I thought about putting a shield in the handle, but decided to make it different and put a used 38 casing.
Not sure if I like it that well or not, but it's too late for that. Guess I have to like it! :)
Doubt I'll even notice it much when I'm using it and I do plan on using this knife.
It feels indestructible with the 1/4" brass pins and the 1/4" brass lanyard hole.
I peened the pins to match the contour of the Sambar stag as much as possible, then buffed them.



















 
I finished eight knives today, but am only posting the first five to keep these in order. This first set of five is the same first set of five in a couple pictures earlier in this thread….post #1 and post #15
The only thing not done to them are the pins. I'll decide which ones to pin when I get all of them done.

Top knife is worm groove.
Next is Impala jigged buffalo horn.
Third is camel bone.
Fourth is smooth buffalo horn.
Fifth is another worm groove.

 
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Those really look great Mark. Thanks for posting the step by step pictures and the ones of your shop.

Keep them coming.
 
That is great stuff! I'd be hard pressed to mod one knife... look forward to seeing the finished products!
 
Thanks for the comments everyone! :)

I ended up getting the next five finished…except for the pins. I'll figure out which ones I'm gonna pin after I get all 28 done.

This is another bunch of five that are pictured third down from the top in post #1 and post #15 above. (No idea why I didn't work on the second bunch second) :)

Top is exterior ram's horn on a knife with mirror finish blade. Looks much better in person!
Second is a blue dyed stag jigged bone. Thought I would like it better...maybe it will grow on me.
Third is an Alaskan Guide with smooth buffalo horn.
Fourth is a Muskrat 313 with Impala jigged buffalo horn.
Fifth is an older 305 with smooth buffalo horn. 305 is marked on the pile side.

Okay…I plan on taking a couple days away from the grinder and buffer. Don't want to turn this project into a job.

 
Stumps said:
Thanks for the comments everyone! :)

Second is a blue dyed stag jigged bone. Thought I would like it better...maybe it will grow on me.
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Thats funny. My first thought when seeing that photo was " :eek: That blue one!..."

:thumbup: on all of them.
 
And I said something about taking a couple days off from the grinder and buffer?? It's like a magnet pulling me to do more. Finished two more knives this morning. :)
(Had a doctor's appt for today that was cancelled)

This post is for the Buck Kaala showed earlier in this thread….post #24. Have a nice leather belt sheath that feels like it was made for the Kaala.







 
I ended up finishing another five knives today. These are the second picture down in post #1 and post #15 above in this thread. It's fun to see how much purdy can be found in these covers. :)

I'm really done for a few days now. I only have 12 knives left to finish out of the 28 I started with. Hopefully I'll get another five done in a couple days to post here.

First Buck 110 has smooth buffalo horn.
Second knife is Merino sheep horn. Didn't think I would like it much, but I REALLY like it!
Third knife is smooth buffalo horn. Can you see a pattern here…I like the smooth black buffalo horn a lot.
Fourth knife is radiused camel bone.
Fifth knife is a little Buck 503 that now has smooth buffalo horn.

 
Really like that sheep horn, and am staring to be very curious about camel bone.;) Again thanks for being such a "bad influence" Mark !
 
This is the set of three knives in the 6th picture in post #1 and the last picture post #15 earlier in this thread.

Top knife is a little Buck 505 that was pretty well beat up and now has new life with Sambar stag covers.
Middle knife is a 319 Rancher that was also pretty well beat up and rusted but is now cleaned up and sporting new Sambar stag covers.
The third knife is the Kaala that I showed earlier this week in a few posts above. Also has nice Sambar stag covers.

I'm down to just 10 knives left to finish! :)

 
You ought to inlet the 50th Anniversary emblems back on. That is one of your big collection themes.
 
I bought this mammoth ivory last September and asked for ideas here on Blade Forums as to how to use it on a Buck 110. It was more ivory than needed for a simple re-handle.

The consensus was to use a spacer and to make it a bare head.
I kept thinking what to use for a spacer…turquoise or something else.

I actually bought some turquoise thinking I would go with that, but thought it didn't set the ivory off the way I wanted.

Finally got around to working on it (it's one of the 28 knives this thread is about) and just finished it up today.

I had ordered a Buck Custom Shop 110 with S30V, silver nickel, finger grooves and walnut covers.
This was the victim knife!
I ground off the rear bolsters and ended up using buffalo horn that I ground down as a separation spacer, then bumped a piece of 1/16" nickel silver up to the buffalo horn to complete the separation to the mammoth ivory.
I think this is my best re-handle yet!



























There were some firsts for me on this one.
First finger groove re-handle.
First use of spacers.
First time grinding away the rear bolster.
And first time I was really nervous about how a knife would turn out!!
It was a Custom Shop knife…now it's a custom, Custom Shop knife. :)
 
Wow Mark,

That's a beautiful custom/custom! When do I place my order;):thumbup:.

jb4570
 
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