All About Pocket Knives

MM, please don't take offense, this is your idea and imitation is the truest form of flattery. After seeing one of your pieces of art I decided to try and came up with this. As it has been stated there are several types of Cordia and I haven't a clue which one this is. I only have a slight idea of how difficult it was for you to make the original. Practice makes perfect and I really love this stuff.

mike, that looks real good. Couldn't take offense if I wanted to becuase I didn't do the original,. that was Darksevs idea and looks great.

Looks good Looks like Bocote though there are more than one species of Bocote also.

Then, my apologies go to Darksev for stealing his idea. Thought I saw the original on your site. Now I have to get the other side but it should be much easier since I figured out how to solve all the probs on the first . Clean up and fine finish will be the frosting on the cake.

I think it looks great the way you kept the grain in line thats outstanding work.
_______________
Don

Yeah, it looks good, I like Bocote with a tight grain. Lets see there's Cordia elatinoides and Cordia elaegnoides that I know of. Of course you know I had to look it up. Why memorize something you can look up? Maybe that explains my memory or lack of one.

Nice looking knife there - keep it going. Just curious, what adhesive are you using? I have several that I favor and I like to ask what others are using.

The adhesive I use is loctite quick set 5 min. It allows me to hold the pieces in place for the hardening cycle. Don't think any of my knives are going to endure extreme durability tests or I would probably use some other epoxy. Will post more pics when final finish is complete. Thx for the compliments re; grain. That made it a little more complicated. Had to allow for the nickle silver spacers and try to make all segments equal in size. What I cut out for the spacers was equal to their width,,, 1/16", ie; kerf cut plus polish 2 wood sawcut edges= .066. All wood segments are .474 wide

Good looking start mike......don't forget to show it ALL when you finish it. As already had been mentioned, great job on keeping that grain running straight. Looks Good!

Brad

Looks awesome Technically, the only reason I started playing with this stuff was what I saw here, so yea, It's all MM's fault

Did you glue up the spacers and blocks individually for each side or make one big spaced block and slab it in half to make the side "panels"? I had alot of issues keeping the joints together, even with some serious adhesive, until I got it mounted on the knife, but I attribute some of that to using stablizized wood. less open pores for glue to grab onto.

I glued/epoxied each side individually. I was afraid the 2 sides of the knife weren't identical and wasn't smart enough to make 1 big slab. Also, my scraps mtl only allowed me to make it "ladder style" Worked out better tho, the second side was much easier since I had worked up the dimension problems for the first side. The pic doesn't really show it but all segments are equal; .474" and parallel. Some slight "fisheye effect" with closeup lens.

if I did mine over, I'd probably have done it a bit differently. I was thinking about it while looking over yours. what I did was make one thick block with the spacers, flat sanded both faces, and bookmatched it down the center to get my 2 identical scales. My issues came from the pressure sawing through all the metal and rock hard wood created. the saw would catch an edge if I wasn't exceedingly careful and *POP* right at the joint.

all those precision cuts and gluing is hard, but damn, it does look nice when done

That nickle silver really gets hot when you sand or saw. My biggest concern was it would get so hot that it would melt the epoxy so I took both operations very slowly. Didn't stay on any one spacer very long. I think I will follow your lead and try to make the finish a little more refined.