What's going on in your shop?

Working on finishing this interest large folder.




Anodized some hardware.


Cleaned up some sample slices of my latest Damascus billet.

Forge welding a turkey foot poker.

Put my reeder sga to good use today

So it ain't all knives in the shop. This was a school project for my son. He brought it home for the final stuff - mounting the pickups, blemish cleanup, tru-oil coats, etc. We bought the wood locally. It's Ca Claro Walnut for the body. The neck is flame maple but that was purchased pre-made.

It turned out pretty dang good! Proud Dad moment.

chrisstaniar said:

So it ain't all knives in the shop. This was a school project for my son. He brought it home for the final stuff - mounting the pickups, blemish cleanup, tru-oil coats, etc. We bought the wood locally. It's Ca Claro Walnut for the body. The neck is flame maple but that was purchased pre-made.

It turned out pretty dang good! Proud Dad moment.

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Beautiful.

Getting better at working with Kydex. These Ulticlips work really well. I highly recommend them.

A little Damascus caddis fly with argentium silver legs and bronze antennae I made as part of a Christmas present.

Very cool!

J. Doyle said:

A little Damascus caddis fly with argentium silver legs and bronze antennae I made as part of a Christmas present.

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Very cool. But, John that isn’t going to catch too many trout…

Dennis Morland said:

Very cool. But, John that isn’t going to catch too many trout…

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might work for Musky

Dennis Morland said:

Very cool. But, John that isn’t going to catch too many trout…

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Lol....it wouldn't float very well, would it?

Dad joke warning....

So you made it for the Hall - i - but

Worked on a few today. Got 2 AEB-L Ventilators handled, waiting to see which one the customer wants as the trainer and which one as the live blade. Handle material is OD Green Suretouch, but I haven't oiled it yet to darken up the green.


Also worked on a Magnacut Hunter in Blue Water Camo, Mosaics and lanyard tube, with Holstex leather pattern sheath with a Molle clip.


I found out I can Jimp with CriCut stencils and my electro etcher!!


Gives good traction and I can etch blades that are already hardened and handled, too! Cleaning up the spine should take care of the ugly over etch on the corner. I used nail polish on the blade to protect it a bit.

I beat 0.330” of mild & 15N20 down to 0.090”. That was a lot of work!




Then cut this little Ko-Bunka out of my results:

Finally got some shop time in, had 3 days off in a row this week!

4" Magnacut hunter with my homemade blue camo handle material, mosaics, lanyard tube and Holstex sheath:


2 AEB-L Pokers, 3.5" blades, one live blade (full flat grind), 1 trainer blade (Saber ground), OD Green SureTouch handles on both. Live blade has 1 sheath with 1.5-2" belt loop and the other sheath for it has a lop for an older style duty belt. Customer plays the bagpipes and wanted a dress sheath and a regular EDC carry sheath. Trainer just got one sheath. These sheaths are Holstex.


Shot of the jimping from my Electro Etcher:


4" Nitro V Bird and Trout blade with rainbow trout scales (home made micarta) and wood pattern kydex sheath. Made for a buddy whose son committed suicide a few years ago:


Tuna blades. Nitro V on both, blue camo handles, blue kydex sheaths. 4" drop point for general boat use and cutting tuna collars, little double edge one is for bleeding out tuna by cutting the laterial blood line behind the pec fins.


Better pic of the blue camo scales:


Finally got time to get these just about done! Magnacut blades, 2.75" cutting edge, modeled to be similar to the Benchmade Bugout, but a but larger handles and fixed blades. This was just after epoxying the blades into the handles; they are hidden frame tangs with blue and green camo homemade handle material (like micarta).


After the handles were cleaned up, prepping for making the sheaths:

Those scales remind me of a Picasso painting.

Its funky stuff for sure! If I cut from the side of the block, the colors are thinner wavy lines. From the top and bottom its more of a swirl/camo pattern. I gotta weld up a better mold. Used bread pans for these, but they bowed out under the pressure, so I got more air bubbles than usual in these last 2 batches. Probably going to do a 7x11" mold so I can get a 6x10 block after trimming and a smaller mold 4x6 to get enough for 2 handles. The larger molds use a lot of epoxy!

Finally got this family Christmas project all finished up. Now my little caddis fly has a proper perch.







This was much more complex and time consuming than I anticipated. Really far too much involved for a family homemade gift exchange. I sped it up by eyeballing most of the layouts and not trying to get everything exactly symmetrical and perfect. And I hardly sanded anything much past 80 grit except the main reel faces.

I decided that I would excercise artistic license/freedom to make a rendition of a fly reel rather than make a perfectly precise and technical fly reel. As it was, it took 3 and a half days to complete.

It is made of Claro walnut, African blackwood for the know and foot and some left over bits of damascus.

John - That is cool!!

Finished up three for Christmas gifts. Whew, even though i enjoyed making them, I’m glad to be done.