Glaucus Continues

Well, after spending a few sick days in bed, I'm now upright and able to take nourishment.  That's why my weekly post is a little late.  I did manage to make a little more progress on the Glaucus knife last weekend, so I thought I would share my adventures in the shop with you.

The bolsters and scales have been attached to the liners and both sides of the handle have been profile ground.  I think I might change out the screws to black oxide before I'm done.  I think that would add to the overall look of this piece.  We'll see to that a little further down the road.  I'm really liking the looks of the red scales with the red copper bolsters.  I think the combination makes a bold and striking statement.

Got the blade ground, pivot system built, and the knife assembled for the first time.  I think it's going to be a sweet little knife.

Alright, moment of confession.  As I stated in the beginning, I've been thinking about putting an etched finish on the blade.  I masked off the pivot area and the back of the tang on the blade with some nail polish and dipped it in some ferric chloride for a time.  I had the blade suspended from a copper wire when I put the lid back on the plastic jar that I keep the etchant in.  I guess putting on the lid lifted the knife slightly out of the acid.  This caused only half of the knife to be etched.  ARRGGHHH!!!  The blade is totally ruined.  Now I get to start all over again.  But, sometimes things happen for a reason.  In my minds eye I saw an etched blade looking really good with this handle, but, as it turns out, it really didn't look that good at all.  It made the knife look drab, which is exactly the opposite to what I wanted to accomplish.  So, new blade and no etching. Maybe a mirror-polished blade . . .

I spent some time working on shaping the handle while the blade was being ruined in the acid.  Here's the handle after 220 grit on the grinder.  It's all handwork from here on out.  I think it's looking pretty cool.  After the major setback with the epic blade failure, I can't wait to see this baby in its finished state.  I hope to make some progress on it tomorrow, so check back soon.  Thanks for following along with me on this build.

-  Brandant Robinson