All About Pocket Knives

As posted in another thread, the pile side celluloid on this Walden toothpick had off-gassed. Mark side, at this time, shows no signs what-so-ever. I'll keep an eye on it, but decided to see just how close I could get to matching it on the back.

Here's the goal and the materials I'll be using. I'll use epoxy for the clear material.
The blank canvas. All the original pins are still intact.
In keeping with the original, I cut a piece of the plastic tray as a base. Cut and punched it to fit and painted the top side black. It doesn't look like much here, but I'm hopeful.
I used thinned Elmers glue and a small paint brush to create a random pattern, then applied the gold glitter, pressed it in and removed the excess. Still don't look like much, but it's early yet.
Before moving on to the red, I applied a thin coat of the epoxy. That's what'll give it that sort of holographic/3D effect, by creating a space between the two colors.

Finally, with the red glitter applied, I did a build up of 3 coats of the epoxy, allowing each layer to tack only. This will allow each new layer to bond to the previous one.

Here it is with the last coat. I'll give it a few days to fully cure, then level sand it and do a final polish. It's not perfect, but I think it's going to be awefully close. I learned a few tricks along the way, so should the front slab go, I should be able to get even a little closer to the original.

WB

Wow, you have a lot of patience, more than me for sure! That looks great from here.

That looks really good WB. A lot of patience and skill.

Nice technique and you saved a great old knife.

looks like a dandy save and excellent effort from where im sitting

Thanks guys,


WB

That is very cool! You did a great job.

Inspiring Repair job WB. ___ K.C.

Thanks colonel, KC, the kind words are greatly appreciated!


WB

Great work! I look forward to seeing the final product.

Thanks Tony! It'll be a few days before the epoxy has completely cured. Although it does pretty good, epoxy isn't exactly self leveling and right now the surface is a bit rippled. This is where the patience comes in and I'm looking forward to finishing it up, too.


WB

Astounding work Rob! I love it, that's amazing. I don't think I have the patience for it though!

Wow.... amazing job! My hat is off to you.
2 thumbs up!

Mike

Dale, Mike, thank you!

I finished it up this evening and I'm pretty darn happy with it. Before trying this, I had considered doing a full handle replacement with one of the many composite type materials available these days, or maybe even some nice jigged bone. But all in all, I'm glad I went this route.

Here's a couple pics of the final result.
Thanks for all the encouraging words and for following along,


WB

The finished product looks great. Good work!

Wow, looks great!

Honestly, I can't tell the difference!

Outstanding work Rob!

You guys are the best!! My humble thanks to one and all!!

Oh and Dimitri, that has to be the best compliment I could ever hope to get! Thank you very much, my friend!!

WB