Woodworkers - Finishing Bubinga?

stwm said:
That hippo is outstanding. Great work.

Why not ornament a knife handle? Elevating an object from the commonplace to the spectacular is the pursuit of the artistic craftsmen, no?

FODeimosTigerEye5.jpg
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Well yes - there are some :thumbup: but Will I was referring more generally to the Opinel and other traditional work knives.
Still making art out of daily objects or found objects is great fun and satisfying too. It's a matter of picking your "project".
You know - one man's trash is another man's treasure ...

Have fun.

Ray
 
RayseM said:
one man's trash is another man's treasure ...
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Nailed it! I reckon you've made just a few real works of art - I'll be happy if I can manage to drill some countersunk holes in some handle wood!

When you're a pig roll in the mud, I say!
I figure shine and love what I've got. Working on that 'magic of tidying up' thing but it's hard not to be a depression-era hoarder.

I've already got so much cool stuff - thinking of how much the kami could use it humbles me.
Funny how this forum humbles you.

I can't say I'll be buying fancy art - shame you can't strap all your khuks to your back and go to work.

What does this have to do with khukuri? Everything.
 
stwm said:
So any retired woodworker want a winter weekend project? Work on this one (hint) or get your own: they make oak, beech, bubinga, walnut, birch and olive wood.. (and some fancy multi-wood ones...) Pretty cool for about $20.
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Well the victim arrived safe and sound at my house today. It's quite a beautiful knife and I'm ashamed that I haven't ever held or admired one before. I will undoubtedly get my own one of these days.
I've had a rough couple days between icy roads and a moron running over the lift on my van at the gas station so I'm going to let myself mellow tonight. Perhaps work out a plan of attack. It certainly won't take much, it's already as I said quite nice.

Will you might have to give me some guidance on fountain pens. It's drop dead gorgeous but I have no clue how to introduce the provided ink without making a huge mess. Last time I used a pen like this it had a feather on the other end and little bottles to dip it in, course I dipped Debbie's pig tails in it far more than the pen. That was grammar school and I think she liked me despite the ink and the frog incident, and the little ole garter snake, teacher didn't like that one, not one bit. I'll post some pictures of that with your permission next time I have the camera out, along with the Opinel or maybe I should wait on that so you don't get a preview.
 
Fire away! :)
I'd recommend even the cheapie Opinel, I bet you could take the Beech? one and stain it really nice. Total cost about $10.

Screw off the body of the pen, submerge the nib entirely in the ink. All the way up to where you hold it (the grip section).

With the screw-converter, you screw it all the way down then all the way out to pull a vacuum and suck up ink. Do this once or twice while keeping it submerged to fill up your converter. Wipe off the section (and nib a little) with a paper towel, put the body back on and you are set to write.

The squeeze/sack converter is the same thing but instead of screwing the piston compress the fill sack and then wait a few seconds for the ink to enter the pen. Repeating this half a dozen times will fill the sack and you should be able to write for a while. If you get to enjoying them let me know!

All the best! Glad it made it safe and sound.


Additional information/Fountain Pen 101: (from the best informational site/pen retailer on the web)
http://blog.gouletpens.com/p/fountain-pen-101.html
 
Couldn't help myself, wife was watching some girlyman show so I went to my room. Only spent a few minutes but taped up the blade and hardware so I don't scratch it, and started off with 400 grit sandpaper. It appears to be a varnish type of finish.
It's coming off nicely and uniformly. By starting with 400 I'm not risking roughing anything up that I need to resmooth later.
There's just enough extra wood that I think it will finish up perfectly and still be even or slightly proud of the metal hardware.

So far so good.
 
Didn't notice. Must not be too bad. I thought I looked it over pretty good too.

You didn't stab somebody and send it to me to get rid of the evidence did ya? This will NOT look good on my resume.
 
stwm said:
Did ya notice I bent the tip?
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One thing to be aware of is that Opinel has a tendency to Heat treat it's steel to a little softer than many pocket knives. It makes the blade easy to sharpen and keeps it from being brittle BUT you will wind up sharpening more often, This also means it will bend when usually a blade that thickness might break. They also make a Stainless blade that is a nice fine grained Sandvik which acts more like a more standard HT on high carbon steel than a usual stainless blade. I am amazed at how well it sharpens. I think their stainless is no more brittle than most people's carbon steel. I thoroughly love my husband's #8 and steal it for EDC on a regular basis because the blade is thin enough to fit nicely in wire bundles and stays sharp enough to cut the ties without much effort. Everyone should have at least 1 Opinel at sometime in their lives. And I think anyone who has, still probably owns one.
 
I think I was trying to fix a latch when when I bent it. I was able to straighten it out with my fingers so it wasn't bad.

I have a lot of wonderful things to say about the thin blade profile, cuts cardboard very nicely.

I always had the carbon steel ones but I have been very impressed by the stainless - and they did a beautiful polish job.
 
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