Recent content by John Andrews

Speaking of design, I make longer handles than many makers, due to a knife being a tool. There is nothing more useless than a hand tool with a too short handle. Minimum length for one of my handles is 4 1/2" with many running longer. When taking an order and talking to the customer, I use my...

:35: WOW! Awesome, Bruce! There is sure some good ivory advice here. I use mammoth ivory for handle inlays and like working with ivory. I inlay the ivory into stabilized wood and use AcraGlas gel to seal the deal.

Yeah, doing good there, Joel!

Nice work, calvin!

Yeah on that! My early knives were made of industrial power hacksaw blades. Due to the hardness, it was a chore to mirror polish. Diamond past was the bingo for that. Folks knew what I was using for the blades and really liked the knives. I have another order for one, a work knife for an...

Yep on the wood! I don't know about that composite stuff, how it would be to work. If it works like stone, be prepared to purchase what lapidary equipment and tooling to work it, and it's not cheap. If the material is soft with hard particles, it is going to be a real killer to work. It will...

Ha ha, that that picture reminds me of a customer's design that was so horrible that I had to make some suggestions because I didn't want my name on such a piece. He and I didn't conclude any business because perhaps he was offended. I was gentle with him but the deal evaporated. It's just as...

Yep on that. Laurence! I suggest sending it to WSSI. Mike at WSSI gets all my business for good reason. Their turnaround is quick. Just make sure the wood you send is good and dry. One of my shipments was delayed because of our big Iowa flood a couple of years ago. WSSI was an island surrounded...

Looks really good, Ernie!

Jesus, heck yeah, getting wood from your local woods would be just fine. I figure a year per inch of wood to dry in my shop, which is a seperate building that goes through all the natural temp changes over a year's time. I store most of my wood in the shop. Be sure to paint the ends of the...

Speaking of wood, I have been having a long big run on stabilized Osage orange. I find the crookest pieces and have them stabilized after I dry it. Knotts in Osage don't loosen up, by the way. They add a lot of color and character to the grain, as you probably already know. Some Osage has some...

Thanks for the kind words, fellas! That customer brought me a lot of business by word of mouth, but that wasn't my intention when I reworked the blade. The knife mentioned, I was working on the knife, trying to finish it a couple of weeks before Christmas for my youngest son. A fella stopped...

I use only stabilized wood. Most of my knives have wood handles. My first custom knife sold got left in the open bed of a pickup truck for a year, accidentally. The customer that bought the knife for his brother ran across the knife and brought it to me for blade rust. The blade was mirror...

That's my thinking, too. An exibition grade piece of handle material is going to lose some when cut for a full tang. A fella can match up the pieces to look pretty good, but that only goes so far because of the missing center section that ends up as sawdust. Barring flaws in the steel...

I used a Dremel and scalloped a working Ulu I made for a lady that owned a taxidermy shop. Then, mirror polished the blade. She likes it.