Whats on your bench? Other projects and creations

I am making my own version of a 'sodbuster' folding knife based on the classic Sodbuster Jr. by Case. I am about done with the blade and next to make the back spring and fit it to some scales. I am thinking about brass liners and black linen Micarta.

Thanks to all of you for posting your magnificent work. I really enjoyed all the photos.

Touching 1000 with my sps tactical was a great day, but a dog at 900?!?! Damn....

Well it's no longer on my bench as I just wrapped up an additional 150 ft of molding that capped off carving over 1200 ft of it.
Yup, over 4 football fields worth of hand carved molding.
One strip was 3/4" that took 16 leaves per foot. The other was 3/8th and took 33 leaves per foot.
Each piece was measured to within 3/32 inch for the miters as this can't be cut just anywhere and have the corners match up. This was done for custom made Mahogany doors for a private residence on Park Ave.

The first shot is the 3/4" with about 25' laying on my saw. Another 800 ft. is yet to come.The next shots are close ups of the molding and the way they are fitted in miters. Then the 10' door yet unfinished with burl panels. The last shot is the 3/8" molding.

Beautiful!

My next project that I got confirmation on today will consist of carvings in a home very much like this one I worked on some time ago.
The home is 45000 sq. ft. and is simply amazing. Much of the work you see here will be duplicated in this new home.
Initial estimates run 50 million + .

Beautiful work.
It is wonderful to find clientele that allow you to showcase your talent and to have a chance to add to your experience.

Thanks for the pictures and details.
Myron

Amazing Mark!

Stunning work, and stunning house!!

Thanks guys!
This one won't have quite as much carving as many of the details ( columns, capitals etc ) will be in carved limestone.
But still enough to keep me happy for some time.

Wow! That is truly inspiring work you do mycarver.

I'm normally an 8" chef's knife guy, but I've got a full petty knife in the works. I'm using AEB-L stainless razor steel which takes and holds a wonderful edge, but can be a pain to work with.

Here it is profiled.

Hit it with some steel blue to scribe a center line and carefully grind it

Now it's rough ground to about 220 and bent back straight. As you grind AEB-L (or really any stainless) it likes to bend this way and that because of uneven heat buildup. Even if you're careful, you'll usually have to bend on it a bit before heat treating.

In the forge with a reducing atmosphere at 1995 (F) for ten minutes. This is after I normalized it

Quenched in oil to smoking, straightened for a final time, then air cooled to room temp. From there (in the pic below) I'm doing a subzero bath. Stainless must be dropped to at leas -95(F) in order to fully harden. This is just some dry ice and acetone, which does the job quite well.

I've already glued up the handle: pink ivory with a white spacer, but don't have pics yet. I'll finish it up tomorrow. For those that don't know the hardwood pink ivory, stay tuned or do a bit of googling

Pink ivory is a beautiful wood to work with.
Here is an example of scales I built for a F.Reynolds. Pink ivory with Ivory inlay , black horn wedge with brass liner on the wedge.

Gorgeous scales. Pink ivory is one of the cool ones...getting harder and more expensive to find

Thanks Papa Tony.
I found a decent selection at my local Woodcraft.
Your knife is looking beautiful. Nice lines.

Woodcraft is where I got mine as well. The one in the back is spalted Tamarind and I'm going to use that for a magnetic knife block.

Beautiful. As with most sanding dust wear a respirator , especially with spalted woods as it's a fungus that causes it to happen.
My WC generally has good selections of exotics. If you ever come up short let me know.

Mark, I'm waiting to see a box on your bench

Finished it up and hand delivered it. Here it is right before packaging. I mirror polished the cutting edge and blended it into the satin finish on the rest of the blade.


I liked working with the pink ivory, but had to dial the ol' belt grinder down pretty low because I kept burning it.

If you saw the blade here earlier, here is the folder complete. O-1 steel blade and spring, brass liners with black canvas Micarta scales.