What will (hopefully) be the first knife I don't keep

This looks very similer to a edc style knife I saw a while back in a pic thread for small knives. I believe it was made some some hungarian dude. I almost got a maker to try to make me one I loved the design so much.
 
Okay so I'm almost embarrassed to post this but here is a mock up of where I'm at now. This is some redwood I got from Burls Source hopefully I don't do this stuff any more of an injustice than I'm doing on the rest of this knife. So far there hasn't been much of anything that's gone right with this knife, with the exception of the HT. Only because that was out of my hands.

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Considering the holes weren't drilled perfectly square and the rear bolts are on a bit of an angle. There is a pretty good chance there will be a gap around the bolts. :mad:
 
Well here it is after about 4 coats of tung oil. I've considered scrapping this knife on several occasions and even now am not happy with my work. But I've come this far with it and might as well see it out no matter how crappy it looks. I feel I've actually progressed backwards a bit on this from my first knife. Granted the holes that were drilled for the bolts were done on a machine that wasn't perfect so I guess I can't expect fantastic results in that department.

Also my question to you guys is this: Is there a way to make a knife with a tung oil finish shine as nice as it looks when you put a fresh coat on?

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Fletch Helical said:
Well here it is after about 4 coats of tung oil. I've considered scrapping this knife on several occasions and even now am not happy with my work. But I've come this far with it and might as well see it out no matter how crappy it looks. I feel I've actually progressed backwards a bit on this from my first knife. Granted the holes that were drilled for the bolts were done on a machine that wasn't perfect so I guess I can't expect fantastic results in that department.

Also my question to you guys is this: Is there a way to make a knife with a tung oil finish shine as nice as it looks when you put a fresh coat on?
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I think it is looking good.
The more coats of oil you apply, the more it builds up and the shine increases. On a lot of our stuff we make they will get 10 to 12 coats of oil before we are satisfied with the finish. Something I do is after applying several coats, I use spray lacquer while the oil is still damp. You are not supposed to do this, but it seems to bond to the oil better and gives a good finish. I rub down the dried lacquer with 0000 steel wool between spray coats and then repeat until I like the look.
 
The handle is looking good in the pictures so you must be doing something right:thumbup:

My last two I did a tung oil and beeswax finish. They came out with more of a satin finish that I kind of like, despite my love of shiny things:p You never know you may get to see the finish up close and personal in a couple of weeks.
 
Thanks for the kind words guys but I think it should be a lot better. I hate the area around the corbys. Naturally I've been staring at them for hours so it's like a sore thumb to me.

For the most part the 3M polish cloths I got from Stacy seem to make just about anything shine that I've used them on so far. I took this one up to about 2000 grit on the polishing cloths before I started the oil. I'm wondering is it alright, once all the coats are on.... To start with the polishing cloths again at say 1200 and go up to 8000? So far I've done that on the micarta handle I did on my first. And on 3 pieces of acrylic material I played around with and it put a gloss finish on them. But is it okay to do something like that AFTER all the coats are on?
 
I think you are going too far with the polishing of the handle. With redwood I like to stop at 400 grit. Then apply the oil. Sanding after the oil is applied will gum up your sandpaper unless you are wet sanding.
 
Alright the handle is done, all that's left now is to sharpen, mark it, and make a sheath.

Handle feels like glass, I lost count of how many coats of Tung Oil finish it has but I do know it's at least 20 coats. I did some light sanding to make the finish feel smooth with 8000 grit polishing cloth, then put some buffing compound on a strip of old t-shirt and shoe shine buffed it. Followed by just the cotton shirt to really make it shine. Hard to really get a feel for it with the crappy camera I have though. I also still need to make a light box one day.

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The only thing that I find weird is there is this gray looking thing in the handle that I have no idea what it is. It showed itself while I was shaping with files and never went away with additional filing and was there from 120 grit up to 2000. I'm guessing (like someone mentioned) it was something that grew or was growing in the wood? Maybe Mark can give some input as to what it is :confused:

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looks good to me - that's a nice piece of burl and you did a good job with getting your finish up to a high polish.
I also like the fact you have a continuous curve from tip to tail - makes for a good visual balance.
 
Fletch Helical said:
The only thing that I find weird is there is this gray looking thing in the handle that I have no idea what it is. It showed itself while I was shaping with files and never went away with additional filing and was there from 120 grit up to 2000. I'm guessing (like someone mentioned) it was something that grew or was growing in the wood? Maybe Mark can give some input as to what it is :confused:

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I can't tell from the photo what the gray spot is. Sometimes there can be a piece of rock or metal embedded in the tree that it just grows around. I keep saying one of these times we are going to cut into a burl and find a bicycle inside.
 
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