Progress on Glaucus #2

I made some pretty good progress on the second Glaucus knife over the weekend.  I had some triumphs and some setbacks, but in the end, things are working out just fine for this build.  I didn't take a lot of photos since there was nothing to see that I haven't shown many times before.

Since I already had the handle all assembled, I decided to start with shaping the bolsters and scales.  As I mentioned last week, I was worried that I could lose much of the bark from the mammoth scales during shaping since I didn't thin them enough in the beginning.  My fears were realized as I shaped the handle and lost literally all of the bark.  Oh well, you live and learn I guess.  It wasn't all bad.  The interior ivory was a nice, creamy color that is beautiful in its own right.  I'm still a little disappointed, but I'll get over it.  The photo above shows the handle with a 220 grit finish.

After hand sanding through progressively finer grits of sandpaper and a few minutes on the buffer, here's the final look of the handle.  The ivory polished up beautifully and the bolsters took the mirror finish really well.  I think it looks quite elegant.

With the handle basically done I was able to turn my attention to the blade.  I hollow ground the blade on my 6 inch wheel for a nice, deep grind.  I think I might take this blade up to a full mirror polish to match its shiny handle.  I'll have to make that decision in the near future.

I didn't get any photos of the pivot system being built, but it was done like all of the rest of my knives.  I actually had a little problem with the point of the tang sticking out beyond the bolsters in the closed position.  It just wasn't acceptable that way, so I had to grind the tang back a little so that it nested inside the handle better.  In doing that I had to remake the spacer.  I really hate remaking parts, but I just couldn't let a knife leave my shop with a problem like that.

The above photo shows the progress so far.  I've said it before, but I really like this design and the more that I look at them, the more I'm liking those creamy mammoth ivory scales.  During the next trip to the shop I'll get the blade all polished up and hopefully start file working the spacer and liners.  I do still need to get the lock and detent built in as well.  This should be a nice "Sunday-Go-To-Meeting" type of knife; a true gentleman's folder.  I may even get brave and try my hand at some pyrography on the scales.  I'll have to do a little test run before committing to something like that.  I really don't want to mess this one up.  Thanks for following along with me on this knife-making adventure.

-  Brandant Robinson