The "Wooly Bullet"

[Darksev]

Anyone who was betting on how long it took me to "destroy" a perfectly good piece of new cutlery, the answer is 3 days. Brand spanking new GEC Tidioute barlow received on wednesday, carried for 2 days, and in the shop today. I seriously have no willpower. I knew this was gonna happen eventually, that's why I went with the unserialized version. Far be it from me to deprive some actual real collector from a numbered piece

Anywho, I've wanted to work with ivory for some time. It's a seriously classy material. Up there with good MOP and Abalone, but more durable, in my opinion. I got this wonderful little slab of Mammoth interior a while back, and wanted to put it on something really special. the #25 was it.

Before we get to the pictures, yes, I did chicken out on the filework. I played it very safe, and did a very simple center liner thing. I was planning on something more elaborate, but I didn't want to risk messing up the springs I need to practice on my filework, for sure, but I am happy to let the mammoth do the talking.







For the record, I am really really really impressed with ivory as a handle material. Anyone on the fence about using it should give it a whirl. I used hand tools primarily, to keep heat out of the equation, and hand rubbed to 12000 micromesh instead of using the buffer (still did the bolsers on the buffer. just not the handles). More work? yea, but again, I was afraid I'd warp it or something

[gringo]

NO FAIR.....what happened that led you to rescale this knife???? yes it is beautiful now...but what happened...stress testing is an important source of information.....please??????

[Darksev]

Oh, I didn't break anything I probably should have been more clear . It was nothing like that. I use the term "destroy" because once I'm done customizing, any collectors value is well... gone, no matter how nice a job I do. Since the only person that will own it is me, it's not like it matters. I like the novelty of having something unique, for me that far outweighs anything else. I guess that makes me a bad collector

I'm really impressed by GEC, this being the first knife I've owned from them. I've taken apart many a Case, and a few other modern brands (Queen, CSC), and I always find something that's a bit "off". Maybe a slight uneven bevel on the bolster where it meets the scale, maybe a really ugly looking spring once I get it out of the knife. I can honsetly say this was the cleanest, most precise knife I've ever taken apart. Every angle was exact, the springs were well finished and smooth, there were no grind lines on anything, etc. As such, putting it back together was a breeze My only gripe, and it's very much personal preference, is that I really don't like unnatural colors. I find alot of beauty in natural materials, there's so many wonderful looking woods, even "plain old" unbleached bone can be pretty (and ancient bone and ivory is just....wow). I just don't see the point in covering it all up with some bright dye sometimes. but to each his own, yea?

[Sauconian]

Great looking knife !

I like the way the ivory still retains the look of traditional sawcut, but in much more elegant material.

That's class.

Fran

[gringo]

thanks darksev...
that is impressive work...

i read last week, china is going to dump a bunch of ivory on the market soon...international regulators have allowed them to release tons of ivory. the story also mentioned china "lost" about 120 tons of ivory...lets see...who was doing the math...how many 18 wheelers does that take?

[Darksev]

depends on how much of the 120 tons is tainted with lead, it could be just one big tusk I think there is still alot of shadiness in the Ivory trade. I'll stick with Mammoths, I feel alot less guilty since they are already dead

[justold52]

"a really ugly looking spring once I get it out of the knife"
Darksev said.

I am glad you added that. I have seen many super good looking knives here at AAPK and most have ugly looking springs showing only when they are shown with the blades some what open. I had MM polish the sides of the spring on a knife he rehandled for me.

I know most of our knives are made in a production line, but when some one works on the knife and take them apart they should clean up the sides of the springs. They look so much better and even work smoother too.

[4ever3]

Very nice work Adam, and the amount of file work is a touch of class

[muskrat man]

[quote="Darksev"]I'm really impressed by GEC, this being the first knife I've owned from them. I've taken apart many a Case, and a few other modern brands (Queen, CSC), and I always find something that's a bit "off". Maybe a slight uneven bevel on the bolster where it meets the scale, maybe a really ugly looking spring once I get it out of the knife. I can honsetly say this was the cleanest, most precise knife I've ever taken apart. Every angle was exact, the springs were well finished and smooth, there were no grind lines on anything, etc. As such, putting it back together was a breeze [quote]

I agree, anyone wanting to do a knife up custom would be better off going with a GEC that any other knife on the market, they are just about as perfect a knife as you can get on todays market.

[Hukk]

Nice work Darksev. I visited your site and viewed your sketches and it made my think "why don't you try the Grand American Art of - Schrimshaw". Not much startup cost and we have a good resource here - me bad I need to call him. You have more artist in you than I ever will. I know to keep myself at a mechanical level and use materials as art.

120 tons - I'd love to see it but it will be bought up quickly, a drop in the bucket. But I see some scale set for as much as $300.00 so maybe prices will drop.

California 80,000 LB limit, tractor trailor is about 20,000 lbs 60,000 lbs of cargo = 30 tons, so that's only 4 trailors weight wise, likely more due to shapes.

Once again - nice work.

[4ever3]

Nice work Darksev. I visited your site and viewed your sketches and it made my think "why don't you try the Grand American Art of - Schrimshaw". Not much startup cost and we have a good resource here - me bad I need to call him. You have more artist in you than I ever will. I know to keep myself at a mechanical level and use materials as art.

I agree with Hukk about your art Adam.

Click here and get busy

http://jantzsupply.com/cartease/item-de ... m?ID=TR101

[Desktop]

Beautiful work Darksev!

[orvet]

Very nice work Adam!
Dale

[Gunsmoke47]

Really nice Adam!!

[pmike5869]

Really beautiful

[Another Knife Collector]

Excellant work! The handles go perfectly with that pattern, and personally I think the liner file work goes very well with it as well, spring file work may have been too much. Great job.