What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

My version of a bushcrafter/hunter. I started a thread recently after picking up this wood (marked as cocobolo) asking if it was actually cocobolo or something else. General consensus was that it was cocobolo and will darken with age. Whatever the wood is its really beautiful and has lots of character. I really like this knife and happy with my progress. (8670 and "hopefully" Cocobolo wood). This will likely be a birthday gift for a family member if I can get a sheath done in time.

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SwissHeritageCo said:
This was a scrap sheath made with some very imperfect leather. I wanted to test out a few processes that I wouldn't do on a customers piece, which includes an antique finish I'm not really a fan of ;) This was an oil based dye, I much prefer how water based dyes absorb.

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What's the story on the aluminum utility knife? I have a similar one labled "Gundlach" that seems to be kinda rare.
 
Jason Fry said:
What's the story on the aluminum utility knife? I have a similar one labled "Gundlach" that seems to be kinda rare.
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It's a no. 299 vintage "Stanley" knife. I prefer them because the lock up is rock solid, have a vintage cast iron one as well. They are great little tools.
 
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Lately, I rarely take photos of my knives and work. I am working on a whale's tooth scrimshaw order and making the customers and one for me. The blades are damascus. I'll take photos of the blades later. I am doing both scales on each knife. I set up the scrim today and did the pencil sketches on the China White. There will be much more detail done in the scrim work. I went with humpback whales as the theme.
The larger scales are for me. The customer's knife has a breaching humpback on the show side (omote) and a swimming humpback on the back side (ura). My knife has a mother and calf on the front and just the tail of a sounding whale on the back.
First, his scales:IMG_20230425_150748.jpgIMG_20230425_150823.jpgIMG_20230425_150845.jpgIMG_20230425_150756.jpg
 
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Got these 2 done this weekend!

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Longer one is around 3.25" S90V, blue G10 guard and frame and my blue/green camo scales. I wanted to do something pointier like a bird and trout blade and I really like this blade shape! Shorter one is Elmax hidden tang frame with a black g10 frame, toxic green liners and a nice teal stabilized burl for the handle. I polished the scales to 1500 grit and used Tung Oil, but they feel a bit slick. May go back down to 600 or 800 on the handles? The blade shape is more rounded and more of a hunter/skinner with the belly than the other one.
 
I may try that. I usually do a light coat of Tung oil on all my handles and buff off the excess. I go to around 1500 with stabilized wood and tung oil for kitchen knives, but it almost feels too smooth for my hands. I usually only go to 600 grit on a working knife handle and Tung Oil after that. I may also buff it too to give it more shine!
 
Got one set of scales done. Tomorrow I'll scrim the other set. At 4 scribes a second over four hours, I calculated that each scale has 40,000 to 50,000 lines and dots.
First, I scribed the basic outlines from the sketch and removed the China white. Then the scrim starts. I do it in little steps, inking and rubbing off each step as I start with the details and then fill in the rest. Photos are of both sets in outline and the set for me finished. I may go back and touch up tiny places for weeks even after mounting the scales on the blade. I took a side view to show the calf swimming between the mother's arms/flippers, as well as my mark. Looking at the enlarged photo I see a line I have to connect in the baby's tail. It sweeps up to the curved line from the body. I also need to add the pupil line to mom's eye, and the barnacles to her right flipper.


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