Well, I made some good progress on the Pride knife this past weekend. This is turning out to be a really nice project. I spent my shop time working on shaping and polishing the handle components. Here are a few pics showing the knife's progress.
After a long time at the grinder, the handle has been shaped and finished up to 2000 grit. The handle is very comfortable in the hand and will really looked good once everything is finished.
My client requested that the Micarta scales have a "grippy" texture to them. So, I hand sanded these scales back to a 220 grit finish which really improves the grip on them and still keeps the beautiful grain of the Micarta to the forefront. I really need to get a better camera to use out in my shop as these cell phone pics are just terrible. Maybe I will use the proceeds from this knife to upgrade my photo capabilities.
After spending some time on the buffer, I polished the zirconium bolsters up to a nice mirror finish. They looked like silvery glass coming off the buffer, but once I hit them with the torch, the black zirconium oxide that we all love and appreciate came jumping out. Absolutely beautiful! You're going to be seeing a lot more zirconium on my future knives. This stuff it really cool.
I still have a few more things left to do on the handle like texture the spacer, anodize and jewel the liners, and cut in the lock bar. But, the knife is progressing nicely. I hope to make a lot more progress this next week. Another week or two and this project will be done and sent off to its new owner. I sure hope he likes it. Thanks for following along with me on this knife-making adventure.
- Brandant Robinson