Finished knife (white elephant gift)

[p1choco]

This is my first ever attempt at assembling a knife.  I was fortunate enough to receive some tools this Christmas to make this happen.  This also this gave me an excuse to pick up a few other tools.  A man loves his tools!  I received the blade from Dustin which was real nice because I was in the market for the same style knife.  I went into this blind having never done any wood work before.  So I was a little nervous and didn't want to mess this up!  With some advice from Dustin and Lin Rhea I went ahead full steam and am satisfied with how everything turned out.  I am truly impressed with the guys and gals from Tradgang.  They are the most kindest, honest, helpful, and knowledgeable people I've ever met.  I just wanted to this with everyone.  Here are the pics...

I bought some wood from a local exotic wood store...  
 

Fashioned a bolster out of purple heart, drilled some holes and glued everything together...  

 
 
Did a rough cut on the band saw and used a sander to get a shape I wanted...
 

Hand sanded some more, did some file work, oiled it and wallah!

 

I did learn something about the purple heart I didn't know before.  It gets darker when heated     :eek:  .  So next time I work with it, I'm going to take it nice and slow.  Thanks everyone.

[Ru]

thats beautiful    

[Lin Rhea]

You did good! What a nice knife. Lin

[OconeeDan]

That came out real nice.  Purple heart and....amboyna burl?  Also shown are black palm and spalted maple?
Working with hard woods like purple heart, you'll reduce burning if you use fresh belts and sandpaper when working with it, and less pressure.  Fresh abrasives cut better with less heat.
Dan

[p1choco]

Thanks for the kind words.  New belts, paper and less pressure.  Lesson learned   . The picture doesn't do me justice.  It really stands out in the daylight. The wood as shown from left to right is black palm, tasmanian eucalyptus burl, black heart sassafras, and purple heart.  The black heart and black palm are for the next couple projects.

[just a bit outside]

Something most people don't know. If you take purpleheart and put it in a tanning bed for a few minutes... maybe 10, it will get a really deep dark purplish-red tint to it. I'm talking really deep.

A friend of mine that makes custom pool cues (pretty well known on the east coast) taught me that. He does that for a lot of the purpleheart he uses in his cues. And it is absolutely gorgeous!

Just a tip most people don't know.

Greg

[Hooked]

Originally posted by just a bit outside:
Something most people don't know. If you take purpleheart and put it in a tanning bed for a few minutes... maybe 10, it will get a really deep dark purplish-red tint to it. I'm talking really deep.

A friend of mine that makes custom pool cues (pretty well known on the east coast) taught me that. He does that for a lot of the purpleheart he uses in his cues. And it is absolutely gorgeous!

Just a tip most people don't know.

Greg

LOL...what do the people at the tanning salon say when he comes in carrying a bunch of wood?

[Leftieshot]

If thats the case with a tanning bed, I bet you could acieve the same affect if you put it in your home oven on a VERY low temp, say the warm setting.

[brettlandon]

No, I believe it's the UV rays that are doing it.  I stored a friends Iguana in my walk-in closet for to weeks and the pine shelving went from well, you know, pine shelving...  
...to a one hundred year old antique.  The UV light in the Iguana's cage affects the wood and ages it drastically.  It aged by Python boots also.  
I've been kicking around building an ageing box for about three years now.  It would be similar to the epoxy ovens except it would have a glass shelf one third up from the bottom and a reptile UV light.  And no thermostat.

-Brett

[just a bit outside]

Yep, it's the UV light, not the heat. It ages the unprotected wood.

The pool cue guy uses it so much that he went out and bought his own tanning bed so he wouldn't get weird looks. But, he used to just schedule and appointment at the salon and take a few pieces in with him in a bag. Then, he'd sit by while they "aged." It really can create a beautiful look. It looks so good in fact, that a lot of the really high end custom cue makers have asked him how he gets his purpleheart to look so good. That is his secret... tan it!

Greg