Glaucus Completed

In spite of all the Memorial Day festivities, I was able to complete the custom order for one of my Glaucus knives.  This one turned out really classy, if I do say so myself.  Here are the final progress photos and some higher quality finished shots.

The knife is practically finished at this point.  The only thing left to do, aside from a little tweaking on the pivot assembly, is to texture the 416 stainless scales.  The client requested a simple design similar to the Pride knife found on my Knife Gallery page; a simple stripe sweeping across the scales.  Here is the design drawn on with permanent marker.

Here are the two scales after they have been carved and filed down using files, a rotary tool, and some hand sanding.

For added contrast I decided to mirror polish the center stripe, so additional hand sanding and some buffing were in order.

With a diamond flame bit in my rotary tool, I stippled the scales to give it some texture.  I really like the way they turned out.

As a finishing touch, the exterior screws get a spin on the buffer to give the heads a mirror polish.  This little jig holds the screw securely so I can buff it safely.  Once this step was done, it was on to final assembly.

My photography skills are still a work in progress.  Besides the fact that there is a big fingerprint right on the mirror surface of the stripe, the photos aren't too bad.  This photo shows off all the different textures: the satin-finished blade, mirror-polished stripe, and textured scales and thumb stud.  You can even see some of the jeweling on the insides of the liners in this shot.

The spine view shows the textured liners that have been anodized a nice rose color to break up the silver surface and give it some interest.

Here is the back side of the knife in the closed position.  Looks just as good on this side as on the front.

This photo shows the alignment of the blade.  Centers up perfectly!

This last pic shows a nice early lockup  The face of the lock is carbidized, which takes away all of the stickiness that titanium locks can have.

I'm extremely pleased with the final outcome of this knife.  The full stainless scales with all the carving and texturing was a challenge, but in the end, it turned out great.  It was a fun project and the looks of the piece are quite unique.  I sure hope its new owner likes it and enjoys using it as much as I did making it.  Thanks for following along with me on this build.  Now, back to my daughter's chef knife set.

-  Brandant Robinson