Even with all the Holiday festivities, I still found some time over the weekend to slip out to the shop and work on the Jaguar. I only have a couple of items to touch up and the knife will be finished and on its way to its new owner. Here are a few photos of the progress.
My client requested dual copper thumb studs for this knife. Here's what they look like. The photo is a little fuzzy (darn cheep phone), but the studs are simple cylinders with a ring feature at the tops.
The scales get treated with several coats of Tung oil. Here they are after 5 or 6 coats. Only a few more to go. They will also get a coat of wax once the Tung oil applications are complete and dry.
The copper bolsters get a nice, hand-rubbed satin finish.
Time to start on the blade. Here it is with my file guide fastened in place. This helps me get my plunge lines dead on.
Here's the blade at 220 grit. I will go up to 600 grit before starting the hand finish.
Hand sanding is my least favorite task, but an absolute necessity in my eyes. I love a nice satin finish.
This blade will get a two-toned finish with satin bevels and mirror polished flats. I have the bevels masked and it's ready for the buffer.
The flats are shiny enough to see my own mug in. Nice!
Time to jewel the inside surfaces of the liners. I do this with a Kratex rod in my drill press.
Jeweling complete. Looks kind of like fish scales.
I decided to take a break from the knife for a little while and work on the lanyard bead that my client requested. This would have been so much easier if I had a metal lathe, but I'll have to make do with my mini wood lathe. Here I am drilling the pilot hole.
I turn in the details using hand files.
The finished lanyard bead.
Here's the left liner with the lock bar cut out. It will be fitted to the blade and a ceramic detent ball will be inserted to hold the blade solid in the closed position.
Here are a couple views of the assembled knife. The paracord lanyard is temporary to see how the bead will look with the knife. I have to say, I love this knife!
Thanks for following along with me on this build. Check back next week for more progress.
- Brandant Robinson