Ho, ho, ho...and away it goes!!

[Kalindras]

Here's one of the two scalpels I was making for my friends, the Surgical Siblings...

Sorry to disappoint all of you who wanted to know what I was going to use for scales, but that really was it!! After adding a counter-balance, they came out at right about 10 inches, and most of the weight it over your second finger, just at the angle after the index-curve. I'm really pleased with how well the grinds came out, since most of my grinds thusfar have been just abyssmal, and for once (thanks the Gods of Metalworking!) my soldered joint came out well!

Anyway, without further ado, here are two for the scrap-book:

Mele Kalikimaka, y'all!!

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Very interesting design. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Even though it is not a knife that I personally would find useful, I do appreciate knives of all styles.

 

[satin]

Cool!

I like!

Not sure what I'd use one for, (be a neat knife in the kitchen, make a kydex neck rig for it would be a wicked slasher)....but I does likes1

So, what was the intended use for such a tool?

 

[Kalindras]

Well, originally, I had set out to make a pair of matching letter openers for these brothers who are friends of mine. One of them had been my best man, and both of them have been great buds since waaaay back. Both of them are doctors, so I thought that I'd make the letter openers in the form of old (maybe Civil-War era) scalpels--the kind from before the disposable X-Acto types they use today. Well, as I started out, the only steel I had was some 1/8" ATS-34. After getting the initial design down, I got them profiled, and then decided it would be a sin to use that good of a steel for something so base, so they became more...er...purposeful!

After a HT by Lee Oates, down at Bearclaw Knives in Houston, I'm just finishing up the second of the pair, and will be presenting them as late Yule gifts on Thursday or Friday. Sure, they'll probably see service primarily as letter openers...but not because they aren't sharp enough for surgery!! The odd ball (odd? ball? Odd-ball!! I made a funny! Er, anyway...) at the end acts as a counterbalance, so that most of the weight sits in the palm, to allow surprisingly fine manipulation of the blade, as a scalpel would necessitate. I got fixated on the notion a couple of months back, and am glad to see it in execution. I was worried that it just wouldn't work...whew!

So, that's the story. I've gotten pretty mixed reactions from just about everyone on these, probably moreso than any other piece I've ever done. Oh, well...can't please EVERYONE, ALL the time...



Thanks for the kind words, by the way! These are only the sixth and seventh blades I've ever ground out, and I'm glad that my grinds are finally starting to come together, at last. Shoot, fifteen hundred or so more, and I'll start to feel like a real maker!!