Howdy folks 
As some of you may remember, a wee (long) while ago, I did a rehandling job on my clipper. After a botched first attempt, I made a handle that worked relatively well. But alas, 'twas only pine! Which obviously was just too soft. Soo a few days ago, I decided to make another!
I'm not sure what the wood is. I know it's not pine this time, though it looks similar - considerably finer grain though, and a lot harder. Much less knotty too, and it's got the odd brown fleck - well, sorta flecks. I dunno anyway...
That image was modified a bit - upped the sharpness and contrast to bring out the colours and detail - hard to take decent pics on a cell phone camera Due to the contrast some bits look considerably more burnt than they really are...
Right, so, here's the story!
After looking at the two "Viking" styled knives made by Bob and Jake's at Skye Knives, I decided to go for something a bit Nordic. Unfortunately, I don't think much of that influence has really remained, except in the blade! I was going to do something considerably more elaborate, but I figured I should start slow, as I've not done much in the way of detailed woodcarving.
So after roughing out the two halves and progressing through grits of sandpaper, I just started drawing with a pencil and came up with that design, which I'm quite fond of even though it isn't what I was initially looking for.
The lines were carved in first with a razor-sharp Clipper (I just held it like a pencil, with electrical tape wrapped around the straight section of the blade after I got cut) so as to cut through, rather than follow, the grain, then widened with an awl I made (lost my other one ). As you can undoubtedly see, there are a few messups where either the awl or knife DID follow the grain. The lines were then blackened with paint, and then I sanded over the whole thing again to remove paint from anywhere other than the recessed areas.
The tiger stripes were just carved in with my clipper and painted, then the whole thing was sanded again.
I then coloured the wood with a heat gun (dad took the blowtorch away...), leaving the striped area almost untouched for contrast. I then heated up a jar of linseed oil, soaked them and sealed it off.
And for the record - yeah, tiger stripes aren't very Nordic at all But I've always liked Tigers, and they've become considerably more associated with me recently, so I figured it would be appropriate - might as well make it personal to me rather than someone else eh?
Oh, and one scale has a recessed area for the tang of the blade, which I just carved out with my clipper. I suppose I'll just drill some small holes (not all the way through of course) in the wood when it comes to epoxying it together, and hopefully that'll give it a good enough grip! I'd rather not have to put pins in.
If I decide to put a lanyard on it, methinks I'll have a wee pawprint pendant too, just for continuation of the theme
Comments, questions?
As some of you may remember, a wee (long) while ago, I did a rehandling job on my clipper. After a botched first attempt, I made a handle that worked relatively well. But alas, 'twas only pine! Which obviously was just too soft. Soo a few days ago, I decided to make another!
I'm not sure what the wood is. I know it's not pine this time, though it looks similar - considerably finer grain though, and a lot harder. Much less knotty too, and it's got the odd brown fleck - well, sorta flecks. I dunno anyway...
That image was modified a bit - upped the sharpness and contrast to bring out the colours and detail - hard to take decent pics on a cell phone camera
Due to the contrast some bits look considerably more burnt than they really are...Right, so, here's the story!
After looking at the two "Viking" styled knives made by Bob and Jake's at Skye Knives, I decided to go for something a bit Nordic. Unfortunately, I don't think much of that influence has really remained, except in the blade! I was going to do something considerably more elaborate, but I figured I should start slow, as I've not done much in the way of detailed woodcarving.
So after roughing out the two halves and progressing through grits of sandpaper, I just started drawing with a pencil and came up with that design, which I'm quite fond of even though it isn't what I was initially looking for.
The lines were carved in first with a razor-sharp Clipper (I just held it like a pencil, with electrical tape wrapped around the straight section of the blade after I got cut
) so as to cut through, rather than follow, the grain, then widened with an awl I made (lost my other one ). As you can undoubtedly see, there are a few messups where either the awl or knife DID follow the grain. The lines were then blackened with paint, and then I sanded over the whole thing again to remove paint from anywhere other than the recessed areas.The tiger stripes were just carved in with my clipper and painted, then the whole thing was sanded again.
I then coloured the wood with a heat gun (dad took the blowtorch away...), leaving the striped area almost untouched for contrast. I then heated up a jar of linseed oil, soaked them and sealed it off.
And for the record - yeah, tiger stripes aren't very Nordic at all
But I've always liked Tigers, and they've become considerably more associated with me recently, so I figured it would be appropriate - might as well make it personal to me rather than someone else eh?Oh, and one scale has a recessed area for the tang of the blade, which I just carved out with my clipper. I suppose I'll just drill some small holes (not all the way through of course) in the wood when it comes to epoxying it together, and hopefully that'll give it a good enough grip! I'd rather not have to put pins in.
If I decide to put a lanyard on it, methinks I'll have a wee pawprint pendant too, just for continuation of the theme
Comments, questions?
