Customised Victorinox Swiss Army Knives With Gemstone Scales

Customized Swiss Army Knives Complete with Stone Scales

It has been a long time coming, mainly because of my lack of organisational skills, but I have finally made available my first release of Customised Victorinox Swiss Army Knives complete with gemstone scales! You might remember my post from a while ago relating to the Swiss Army Knife that I put together for my Dad for Christmas late last year, in that I hinted that I might be making some available through our store in the future.

Customized Swiss Army Knives Complete with Stone Scales

Well I am excited to announce that I have finally been able to finish the first release of these customized knives, all be it only 3 pieces at this point! All 3 knives are the Victorinox Classic SD model and are in an 'As-New' used condition. Each piece is completed with handcrafted stone scales created by Jaka Gems. The material for each knife has been painstakingly selected taking care to avoid any cracks, pitting or other nasties so that each knife is a beautiful but functional piece. These 3 pieces will hopefully be the first of many to come!




Customized Swiss Army Knife with Greenstone Scales

This first piece (pictured above) has been finished with Greenstone originating from New South Wales (Australia). The material is a beautiful deep green with yellowing bands running diagonally across the scales. The finish is of a high shine and a magnificent example of this particular material. This piece is available for $70 through our store.

Customized Swiss Army Knife with Nundoorite Scales

Secondly, pictured above is a piece that has been finished with Nundoorite. Nundoorite is a material which originates from near Broken Hill in New South Wales, although Nundoorite is not a 'recognised' mineral name. The material is and Orthoclase Syenite with flecks of green Aegurine floating through. The material has finished with an excellent polish and has created an aesthetically pleasing pocket knife which will please even the serious collector! This piece is available through our store for $75



Customized Swiss Army Knife with Moss Agate Scales

Finally we have a knife finished with beautiful Moss Agate. I consider this piece to be the 'flagship' of this initial release - The Moss Agate is a beautiful white to translucent chalcedony with magnificent moss like inclusions of hornblende and chlorite. As is the case with most Agates/chalcedony's, the final polish on this piece is magnificent. This piece is available through our store for $80

If you would like to know more about these knives, feel free to contact me via our email address at jakagems@hotmail.com - you are also more than welcome to contact me to discuss customized knives should you want a particular stone. I am happy to discuss creating a piece similar to the above using a material of your choice.

Until next time!

New Opal Products Available

Some time ago I called for some expressions of interest for some opal triplet jewellery. I got some fairly positive feedback in relation to this expression of interest so I decided to go ahead and order some settings. They arrived yesterday so I was busy last night setting the triplets into the settings! They have all been uploaded into the store today!

4mm round opal triplet stud earrings

The first product is the 4mm round triplets set into sterling silver stud settings. An example of these is pictured to the left, and their are 4 sets available. I have been able to keep the price down to $12 per set.

5mm round opal triplet stud earrings

The second product is the 5mm round triplets set into sterling silver stud settings. An example of these is pictured to the right, and their are 6 sets available. I have been able to keep the price down to $15 per set.

6mm x 4mm Opal Triplet Earrings

The third product is the 6mm x 4mm triplets set into sterling silver kidney wire settings. An example of these is pictured to the left, and their are 5 sets available. I have been able to keep the price down to $15 per set.

7mm x 5mm Opal Triplet Earrings

And last, but by no means least, the flagship product of this particular release is the 7mm x 5mm triplets set into sterling silver kidney wire settings. An example of the is pictured to the right, and there are 5 sets of these available. I have been able to keep the price down to a low $20 per set.




I am hoping that these pieces will be successful, if they do turn out to be popular I will definitely be doing more releases, and perhaps even adding to the range. Keep an eye on my Facebook page for updates in relation to this!

Until next time!

Jewellery from a Jaka Gems stone

I have been cutting stones for many years and recently I started making simple jewellery from them by either drilling a hole through the stone and attaching a bail or by gluing the stone

There are, however, far more clever people than I that can create beautiful jewellery from both cut stones and rough or tumbled stones.

Agate Cabochon

This is an agate cabochon that I cut some time ago and listed in my store. A lady from Canada bought this piece and I shipped it across there in early November.



In a small twist, I was contacted by another customer of mine from Canada, Shelley of Shelley's Stoneworks who I had sent some rough boulder opal to a little while before hand. She told me that she had been contacted by the purchaser of this cabochon and had been asked to set the stone.

This is the resulting pendant:

Wire Wrapped Agate Cabochon

This form of jewellery is known as Wire Wrapping and as you can see, it is a very effective way of setting stones. Shelley does some amazing work - You definitely need to check her stuff out! Head over to her Facebook Page: Shelley's Stoneworks. Let her know I sent you!

A Jaka Gems Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! Jaka Gems created quite a few unique Christmas gifts this year which were handed out yesterday.

Bread Knife with Stone Scales

Handles/scales for this bread knife were cut out of a form of Jasper for my Mum - It was very well received with Mum taking it straight out to the kitchen!

Swiss Army Knife with Stone Scales

This customized Victorinox Swiss Army Knife with Marble Bar Jasper scales went down an absolute treat with my Dad. His comment was 'I will treasure this! You can have it back when I die!'. I thought that was fantastic as he clearly appreciated it!









I received a last minute message from a good friend of mine on Sunday hoping to get a couple of pendants to give to her Mum. She couldn't quite decide between a couple of items in my online store so we worked a few things out and decided that instead of ready made pendants, I would cut some custom ones for her. She had been eying off a tiger iron pendant and a green banded jasper pendant in the store. I still had plenty of both materials left so she decided on one of each.

Tiger Iron and Green Jasper Pendants with Sterling Silver Bails

The Tiger Iron free form pendant on the left and the 30mm round green banded jasper pendant on the right are the ones that were given to her Mum. The one in the middle is a free form green banded jasper available for purchase through my store here.

My wife's family had a Kris Kringle this year where the theme was 'Home Made'. The person I ended up making for was my Sister in Law. As cutting stones is the only thing I am competent at as far as handmade goes, I obviously decided to make some jewellery. I ended up cutting 2 x 25mm round Northern Territory Prehnite cabochons. I set one in a round bezel pendant setting, the other I set in a round bezel ring setting so she had a matching set. I did however, forget to take a photo! If I manage to get a photo of these pieces I will update this entry! The pendant is similar to this one.


Update 28/12/12: I managed to get a photo of the ring/pendant set:

Northern Territory Prehnite Cabochons set in silver plated settings

There were many other pieces from the Jaka Gems store that went out as Christmas presents for others. I hope that the recipients of these enjoyed their gifts as much as I enjoyed creating them! If you recieved a Jaka Gems stone for Christmas, drop us a line and let us know what you think of it!

Until next time, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I hope everyone has a safe holiday season!

Competition Time!

At the time of writing this blog entry (19th December 2012 at about 8:30pm!), Jaka Gems has 316 Facebook fans.

I have decided that to increase this number, I will have a little giveaway! I had one small piece of Green Serpentine left, so I cut this small pendant out of it. The pendant is finished with a simple sterling silver pinch bail.

Serpentine Pendant with Sterling Silver Bail

So whats the giveaway I hear you ask? If I can make it to 350 'likes' on my Facebook page by 2013, that is by 12:01am on the 1st January 2013 (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time of course!), one of my Facebook fans will be drawn at random and will receive this pendant as a prize! Simple as that! So if you haven't already, head across to the Jaka Gems Facebook Page and hit the big 'LIKE' button at the top!

This is a rubbish photo I know so I will take a better one in the daylight tomorrow and update this post as appropriate! Good luck and I will see you over on Facebook! And don't forget to SHARE!

Custom Scales for a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife - Gemstone Scales

This blog entry begins with a simple second hand Victorinox 'Classic' knife (or Swiss Army Knife) that I picked up off Ebay for $10:

Victorinox - Swiss Army Knife - Classic

I have seen a number of people revamp old knives in various different forms over the years and I decided a little while back that I would give it a go with custom gemstone scales. I thought that IF (and it was a very big if!) I could pull it off it would make a nice personal Christmas present for my Dad.

Here is how I did it:

The Victorinox with scales removed

The first step of this operation was to pull the knife apart. Easily done - the plastic scales on these knives simply click into place. All you need to do is remove the tweezers and tooth pick and slide a small flat head screwdriver under the scale and 'click' them out. If your not sure what I mean, do a quick search for 'remove scales from victorinox' in youtube - I am sure you will find something! Because of the difficulties involved with the tweezers and toothpick, we will discard them at this point.

Marble Bar Jasper Rough Slab

The next step is to pick your stone. I couldn't decide between a number of different slabs I had, so I made my wife decide. She thought that this piece of Marble Bar Jasper would look great because of the layers and banding. Marble Bar Jasper is found in outback Western Australia. It derives its name from being mistaken for Marble when it was first discovered in the Coongan River. A town near the deposit has also been called Marble Bar as a result. It is a relatively soft jasper compared to most which makes it easier to cut, but generally doesn't get as much of a polish on it as other jasper's.

Preforming the Swiss Army Knife Scales

Mark the slab with the required shape using the old scales as the template for the new. Trim the material and create the pre-form scales. You can check out my How-To guide on cutting cabochons if you would like to know how this is done.

At this point I blue tacked the old scales onto the preform and continued to grind away the edge of the stone to create the right shape. This makes it easier to get the right shape without having to constantly stop and check that you haven't taken too much material off.







After following the normal cabochon cutting process (more info here), I ended up with 2 identical cabochons which will eventually be the new scales of the Victorinox knife:

Custom Stone Scales for the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife

That was the easy bit! Now we need to make the stone fit on the knife!

The picture on the left shows the side of the plastic scales that you don't see, and the below picture shows the 'naked' Victorinox. You will notice that the knife is put together with 4 rivets (which protrude on each side) and the scale has corresponding holes. This is how the plastic scales are attached - the rivets on the knife click into the holes on the scales. We are not able to do this with a stone scale, but if we were to remove the rivets the knife would fall apart.

'Naked' Swiss Army Knife

Because of this issue, we need to improvise a wee bit. We need to allow for the rivets in the stone, which does take some precision work.

To ensure that I am allowing for the rivets in exactly the right spot, I drilled the rest of the way through the plastic scales so that it could be used as a template............

Then using that template, I marked the exact location of the holes on the back side of each of the cabochons. X marks the spot!

Using a rotary tool, diamond burr, and leaving the cabochon immersed in water, I drilled holes in the back side of the cab where the X had been marked. You need to take great care with this part as you don't want to go right through the stone, nor do you want to slip and ruin the cabochon. The stone is covered in water to keep the diamond burr cool and lubricated

Repeat process for both scales!

The cabs should end up looking something like this. Not pretty I know, but who is going to see that side of them? This ugliness will be hidden once the new 'Victorinox' scales are attached! The drilling was probably the most difficult part of the process, mainly because it was awkward more than hard. It is important that you do not polish the back of the cabochons so that the glue has something to grab on to.







The next step is the final part of the whole process - Gluing. You want to use a fairly strong 2 part epoxy glue. My weapon of choice is Araldite which is available from pretty much any where including the supermarket and most hardware stores. You only want to glue one side at a time and give the first side a good 10 to 15 minutes to solidify before moving to the next. Any spillage can be cleaned up with acetone (nail polish remover). I made sure that there was plenty of glue in the holes that I drilled and also a decent amount on the back of the cab. Hopefully this holds everything together ok!



When you have finished gluing, you should end up with a finished product like the below. The old Victorinox with scratched plastic scales now looks a million dollars with a bit of a clean up and some nice new stone scales!

Classic Victorinox SD Swiss Army Knife with Custom Gemstone Scales

Thanks for checking out my blog! You can find out more about Jaka Gems at our Facebook page, or our Online Store. I am also looking at adding these knives to the store so if you would like something similar, feel free to contact me at jakagems@hotmail.com - I am more than happy to sort out custom orders!

Cheers!

Update 24th March 2013: I have just finished uploading the first release of these customized Victorinox Swiss Army Knives! Check them out here!