Finishing Up the Second "Virtue" Knife

In this post, I finish up the second "Virtue" knife, which is actually my knife #24.  This knife is from the exact same pattern as the last "Virtue" knife, but you will quickly see how much different this knife looks when compared to the last.  This illustrates how simply modifying the bolsters/scales and handle material, one can completely change the aesthetics of a knife.

For this knife, the liners and the scales get a treatment called jeweling.  I have shown this process in previous posts, but the above photo illustrates the procedure.  The liner/scale gets covered in an abrasive paste, which is actually valve grinding compound that I purchased from an auto parts store.  I then chuck a felt polishing fob in my drill press and flip on the switch.  I lower the drill press until the fob makes contact with the metal and, while applying a small amount of pressure, let the drill spin for about 30 seconds to get the circular pattern scratched into the surface.  I then move the piece over slightly and repeat the process.  Each circle overlaps the previous, achieving the classic jeweled pattern.

Above are pictured the liners and scales after they have been jeweled.  I think it makes a nice, striking pattern which gives the flat surfaces a three dimensional look as it reflects light at different angles.

Here are the liners and one of the scales after they have been anodized.  The colors really bring out the jeweled surfaces.  If you look closely at the scale, you can see a few lines that will be the boundaries of the texture that will be added.

The scales will get some texture on them to help break up the large, uniform surfaces. I tried several methods for doing the texturing and finally settled on using a diamond wheel to accomplish the task.  It seemed to give the best effect in this application.

Here is the liner with one section textured.  The reason for anodizing before texturing is to achieve a two-toned effect by anodizing the textured surface a different color.

Here is the scale after the texturing is complete.  Not much of the jeweling is left after the texture is added, but what is left will give a more dramatic affect than leaving the high spots polished.

Here are the scales after being anodized.  I chose to use a bronze color for the low spots which compliments the purple color really well.  When you are anodizing with multiple colors, you start with the higher voltage color and work down from there.  I think this looks pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

I have assembled the knife to have a look at the over all aesthetics of the knife.  I think it looks pretty good, except that I don't like the way the blue liner looks with the scales.  Too much contrast.  You will see later on that I went ahead and modified this color.

Here is a view of the knife's spine.

It's time to focus on making the thumb stud for this knife.  I chuck a piece of 416 stainless steel dowel rod in my Jacob's chuck on my lathe.  I missed taking a few photos, but in the photo above I have already drilled and tapped the steel to accept a 0-80 screw which will hold the thumb stud to the blade.  I have also blacked the steel with a black marker and marked the overall length of the piece.

Using a small, three-corner file, I cut into the steel to show the actual length of the stud.

These close up pics are kind of blurry.  I couldn't get my phone camera to focus very well at this distance.  Anyway, I have used a hack saw to cut away the dowel at the appropriate length, leaving a small amount of steel holding things together until the stud is shaped.  The dowel's diameter is slightly larger than I want for this knife, so I decrease the diameter with a flat file.

This one is really blurry.  Curses!  If you look very closely and maybe cross your eyes, you can see that I have started shaping the stud with a round file.

In this pic, I have finished shaping the thumb stud, parted it off of the dowel, installed a screw into the threads and mounted it onto the lathe to clean up the top of the stud.  Next, I keep it on the lathe and polish up the part and buff it all nice and shiny.

Here is the knife with the thumb stud attached.  Looks pretty snazzy, don't you think?  Confession time.  After installing the thumb stud, I found that the knife would not close properly.  The stud hit into the liner before it was completely closed.  This necessitated enlarging the thumb notch slightly, which messed up the whole color scheme since I did not want to retexture the whole knife.  I decided to anodize the whole scales bronze and change the liner colors to purple.  The colors are not as striking as they were at first, but I'm still pleased with the whole package.  I also changed out the pivot screws for titanium screws which I anodized purple to compliment the liners.

Here is a shot of the spine of the knife.  All finished!  The only thing left to do is to add a lanyard and take some better-quality photos before I post this and the other "Virtue" knife for sale.  I'll get that done in the next day or two and send out an email to all subscribers.

Thanks a bunch for following along with this build.  I really enjoyed this one.  For the next build, I will go back to building a single knife at a time.  Two at a time just takes too long and I get impatient.  Now, which one of my many patterns shall I build next?  Time will soon tell.

-  Brandant Robinson