I'm making this up as a medium sized Mdl. 97 with Fossil Sketer Tusk. . About 6 5/8" OAL.

I'll work on it here and there with other things.

Gary

Looks like waiting to see that handle polished is going to be the great Barnes tease of late summer!

Hi Gary,

I do like where this is going... Please give some details about the blade.

Thanks,

julio

Hi Julio,
You see it in it's raw state. I'm about to heat treat it soon. It's stainless. Have to see how it turns out. Thanks.
It's a bit smaller, so everything had to be redesigned.
Gary

A quick polish shows the material has a reflected surface like polished stone or bone. When it's rotated out of the glare, the colors are vibrant.

It feels warn like bone. Has the hardness of bone. Harder then all but the best of fossil Ivory.

I proclaim it a success! Love it. More as I finish it. Have a great Sunday.

Gary

Hey Gary,
That is shaping up nicely. I think you have all of the knife buffs on the site drooling to see the outcome. I can't wait!
Later,
Jeff

Thanks Jeff,
Glad you like it! Me too.
It's just flat and square here. I just did a quick polish on it that way to see the surface characteristics. It will be all contoured when finished. .
Gary

Hi Gary
So when you discovered that it was working as planned ,was it your first try at skeeter tusks that worked? I'd so you are very lucky . A lot of time things take many trials and studies to achieve the desired results . I really like the random pattern too as in not symmetrical. It reminds me of some of your stocks when you laminate colors of wood together and then have to contour , cut , shape and then the real design comes out !
Glad it buffed up nice . Did it plug up sandpaper ?

Thanks
Kurt

Hi Kurt,

Excellent questions from a fellow builder.
It was like the old days Kurt. I nailed this one first time. You will recognize the process. I research everything about it. If I have a question, I find the answer. I then build the tooling needed. I accumulate the materials needed. All the while, in do continuos dry runs in my head. Seeing if I find another question I need to research farther. During the education process, I have to adapt the information I find, to my tools. I might even find that I can improve upon the information I find. Fifty years of building things gives you a clarity on how to get from step to step.

Finally, it's time to do it. By then, it feels like I'm just "doing it again". Haha. And, unless I've made a fundamental error in judgement, it all works. Feels good.

No, it sands clean. That's another plus plus. If it were rubbery, it wouldn't be any good. This is as hard as bone. It sands perfectly clean.

Thanks for asking, Kurt.
Gary

Liking it so far! Funny how hard it is to capture color and shine in one picture!