I finally managed to spend some significant time out in my shop and made some real progress on the Bobcat and Pride knives. Here are a few pics to show the progress.
The buckeye burl needs a protective finish that will bring out its inner beauty. I put about half a dozen coats of Tru-Oil on the scales, allowing the oil to soak deep into the wood.
Next, I grind the bevels on the blades. Here is the Pride blade at 600 grit.
Since these blades are Damascus, then need to be brought up to a mirror polish. I hand sand up to 600 grit and then finish off on the grinder with a cork belt with green compound.
I'm going to try something new with these blades by mirror polishing the bevels and leaving a satin finish on the flats. If it works like I think it will, it will give a nice contrast between the bevels and flats.
Here's the Bobcat blade ready for etching. I really love the shape of this blade!
Putting a little bling on the inside surfaces of the liners.
All four liners jeweled. Most people will never see this, but hopefully the owner will look inside of their knife once in a while and smile.
I missed taking a pic of cutting in the locks, but this is how I fit the lock faces to the blade tangs. I file the front a little bit at a time until it locks up perfectly.
Locks set and detent balls installed with corresponding holes in the blade tangs.
Milling the pocket clip for the Pride here.
The Pride knife specs call for stipple texture on the spacer, spine of the blade, and the pocket clip. I stippled the bottom of the spacer too. It really looks cool when you look inside the completed knife.
Stippling all done. I mixed it up a little bit on the pocket clip. I gave it kind of a gradient effect that fades from the top to the bottom.
The final step was to color the zirconium parts. These look so much better in person that this photo.
One more weekend and these two knives should be finished up. I hope you'll check back next week for the finale of this build. Thanks for following along.
- Brandant Robinson