Had some free time yesterday so I went for a wander in the woods. As I always do I take a saw with me and hunt for any nice natural forks that might be about. I found a lovely piece of spalted standing dead wood which had a slight recurve to the grip area which I thought would make a lovely pocket shooter. I cut it and brought it home where it underwent 2 microwave blasts and an overnight wrap sat on top of the radiator. The beauty of standing dead wood is that it takes very little drying time over a green fork as the outer layovers are usual only damp whilst the heart is dry.
This morning I cut it to size, shaped the tips and the bottom of the grip and then sanded it to a 180 finish. I don’t normally go higher than 200 grit on naturals as I like a smooth but still tactile finish. If the piece is extremely knitted or full of offshoots then I will go higher.Once I was happy with the shape and how it felt in hand, I applied a rubber on coat of CA finish. This brings out the spalted grain of the wood whilst providing a hard wearing finish.
Finally once dry, I gave it a quick buff with a leather rag and then handed it with single TBG 20-15 suites for 8mm steels.
I think it turned out well. What do you think?
https://imgur.com/gallery/rkQaQyD
This morning I cut it to size, shaped the tips and the bottom of the grip and then sanded it to a 180 finish. I don’t normally go higher than 200 grit on naturals as I like a smooth but still tactile finish. If the piece is extremely knitted or full of offshoots then I will go higher.Once I was happy with the shape and how it felt in hand, I applied a rubber on coat of CA finish. This brings out the spalted grain of the wood whilst providing a hard wearing finish.
Finally once dry, I gave it a quick buff with a leather rag and then handed it with single TBG 20-15 suites for 8mm steels.
I think it turned out well. What do you think?
https://imgur.com/gallery/rkQaQyD
