I started this knife back in December of last year and got sidetracked. I decided to get back to it this last weekend and finish it up before I start on my next project. I designed the Talon knife at the request of a client who wanted a hawk's bill blade. It's certainly not your average knife, but it definitely has its purposes. Here are a few photos of the progress that I made.
Here is where I left off last December. The parts have been assembled and the handle has been shaped. If you'll recall, the bolsters, liners, and spacer are all made from 6AL4V titanium and the scales are dyed and stabilized maple burl.
The first matter of business was to cut in the lock bar and jewel the insides of the liners. Here's one of the liners being jeweled. I love using the mill to do this as I can keep the pattern nice and regular. Looks good.
Here's the knife assembled once again to test the lock and detent. Everything is working nice and smooth.
I decided that I would add some texture to the bolsters and the spacer to punch up the aesthetics of the knife. Here's one of the bolsters getting textured. To do this I use my Dremel with a diamond burr and make thousands of little dots. It's a unique texture, kind of like an orange peel finish, but there are subtle differences that make this work worth while.
Here are all four of the bolsters after being textured. They look good like this, but once they are anodized, they will look even cooler. I'm thinking that a dark purple might look good with the green scales.
Here's the final photo of the day of the scales. The cell phone pics just don't do these scales justice, but here they are after the first coat of Tru-Oil. They'll get probably 7 or 8 coats of the Tru-Oil and then a final buffed wax finish once everything is dry.
Thanks for following along with me on this build. More to come next week, so stop back again.
- Brandant Robinson