Show your mods!

[phillipsted]

This weekend, I finished up an Urban Wharncliffe. I stumbled across some interesting and rare wood recently - Hopea Burl, sometimes called Stonewood. This is a very dense, hard wood from the Philippines and SE Asia - as heavy as desert ironwood, but much less brittle and a whole lot grainier. The swirling grain on this piece looks a lot like fingerprints to me... It was very easy to work with tools, but the grain boundaries are relatively weak and the wood kept splitting in line with the grain - thankfully, CA glue kept it patched it up so you can't even see the splits. I sanded it out to 1200 grit, then wet sanded it with 7 coats of danish oil topped with Renaissance Wax.

TedP

[i am travvy]

as always ted amazing work. the grain pattern in that wood is amazing.

[3rdGenRigger]

That is easily one of the coolest grain patterns I've ever seen. Very slick!

[Holland]

Looks amazing Ted! If I had your skill, I would make that hobby into my retirement job

[asmith001]

Fantastic, Ted.

[Enigma]

did a blade swop on 2 models, was very pleased with the results, i dubbed it the "mini civilian"

[xceptnl]

did a blade swap on 2 models, was very pleased with the results, i dubbed it the "mini civilian"

An obvious choice for those wanting an HD Lil Matriarch. Congrats my friend!

[Donut]

That Lil M is pretty sweet.

That's some nice grain on that wood, Ted!

[phillipsted]

I finished up a mod on a Sage 1 this weekend. This one turned out sweet - it has stabilized Masur Birch scales, probably my favorite wood to work with. It cuts and sands like butter, but it is actually a very tough wood. The grain and pores are very tight and typically not interlocked. The "Masur" part of the name refers to a type of grain in the wood, rather than a species of Birch. If you notice the brown and black swirling features, that is what distinguishes Masur Birch. The stabilized wood finishes very nicely - I sanded it out to 1200 grit then topped it only with a coat of Renaissance Wax.

TedP

[B#GuitarMan]

And I thought my Sage 1 looked great in its CF form. The wood scales look fantastic. Great job!

[BOOMER52]

Toxic Punisher inlays for the Yojimbo... fresh off the machine. Just need a bit of hand sanding and some finish oil...

[Dept_13]

Toxic Punisher inlays for the Yojimbo... fresh off the machine. Just need a bit of hand sanding and some finish oil..

Well done! Great idea.!

[phillipsted]

This is a Pingo that I finished up for a friend this weekend. The scales are made out of a salvaged piece of rosewood that may be over 100 years old - it looked like it was a piece of decorative furniture at some point, like a bookend or pipe rack. Whatever its history before it was damaged, it is a rather lightweight and open-pored species of rosewood. Much of the oiliness typical of rosewood was lost over the years. I also cut away and sanded off the gunky shellac from the surfaces of the piece. Overall, the wood was rather nice to work with. I cut it to size, trimmed and shaped it, and sanded it down to 1200 grit. To finish it, I wet sanded it with three coats of grain sealer, sanding it back down to bare wood after each coat. Then I added two thin coats of Tru-oil and topped it off with Renaissance Wax.

TedP

[Jazz]

Of all you've done so far, Ted, that Pingo's my favorite. Really beautiful. The lines in the wood go great with the curves of the knife. Wow.

[Invective]

Took my DogTag down to 2mm stock instead of 3mm. Still looks a bit funky on though, I may just acidwash the entire thing to get a uniform texture on it. Don't like the satin/tumbled dichotomy.

[SpyderNut]

Beautiful job with the wooden scales, Ted. I have some Bubinga and Zebrawood begging to be used on an upcoming project.

By the way, how do you get your holes so uniformly countersunk?

[GoldenSpydie]

[phillipsted]

Beautiful job with the wooden scales, Ted. I have some Bubinga and Zebrawood begging to be used on an upcoming project.

By the way, how do you get your holes so uniformly countersunk?

Thanks, SpyderNut! The trick is to get a couple of removable pilot counterbores that fit your knife. The counterbore is a bit that leaves a nice flat-bottomed hole, and the pilot is a small solid rod that fits into the center of the counterbore bit. With the right size pilot, this allows you to make the counterbore perfectly concentric with the pilot hole.

It is possible to do this with regular drill bits - and careful alignment of the scales on your drill or mill... But I find that investing in a few HSS counterbores and a variety of pilots (they are interchangeable) is relatively low-cost and improves my quality quite a lot.

I usually get my counterbores and pilots off of eBay (drillsandcutters) or from MSC Supply. They've got good selections, as do a lot of the larger tool suppliers (e.g., Grainger).

TedP

[Jazz]

I wish my Manix 2 looked like that, Golden. Maybe I need to transition to handles.

[SpyderNut]

Hey thanks, Ted! That is very helpful. I appreciate the info on where to get the counterbores too. I have never been able to find those at any of the hardware/lumber shops (Lowes, Menard's, etc). Pricey little boogers!

How well do the counterbores hold up in synthetic materials, such as G10, Micarta, or carbon fiber?