I ended up deciding on a couple of slabs of a yellowy orange jasper which had a lot of dendrites and other interesting looking inclusions:
Marked out slab and Pre Form Scale Cabochon |
Pre Form cabochons for Stone Knife Scales |
I was feeling pretty good about this material right from the start when I cut out the preform shapes. It seemed pretty solid and there was no visible weak spots. There were a couple of small cracks which I was keeping an eye on, but they were of no real concern.
Stone Bread Knife Scale |
After a couple of hours of grinding, cutting and polishing, the resulting large scales came up with a really nice shiny finish. The small cracks did not give way and the colours in the material ended up being nice and soft. Certainly a couple of cabs to be quite proud of in their own right!
Bread Knife with Stone Scales |
All that was left to do was to glue the scales onto the knife! As was the case with my Swiss Army Knife project, the glue I used on this piece was Araldite, which is a 2 part epoxy glue. Prior to glueing, all I did was scuff the metal handle up a bit with a 600 girt carbide sand paper to give the glue something to hold onto.
I am extremely happy with the result of the project, although it was quite a frustrating process. Obviously there was the major issue of the first set of scales breaking as I was about to start gluing them onto the knife, but also the size of the stones themselves was a little bit awkward. Its because of this that I am really looking forward to cutting the scales for the Filleting Knife which I also purchased as the handles will be smaller and more manageable.
Here are a few more photos of the finished knife:
Bread Knife with Stone Scales |
A closer photo of the scales
Bread Knife with Stone Scales |
Top of the knife handle
Bread Knife with Stone Scales |
Underside of the handle
The sun wasn't out when I took these photos, so they aren't brilliant. I am pretty confident that my Mum will love this knife when I give it to her for Christmas! Stop on over at my Facebook page - Let me know what you think of it!
Until next time!
Top effort mate really love the soft colours in the stone. Mum will love it!!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! I hope she does like it, I think she will!
Deletewow verry nice lol is it heavy : )
ReplyDeleteIt is relatively heavy, but not too bad
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