Blue Amber and Abalone

That is a beautiful knife.

I have a question. I will show my ignorance. I have never seen an abalone. My understanding is that is some form of ocean creature. It has a shell that you have incorporated into the handle. Correct?

How did you get a shell to bend around the handle? Or is the shell big enough to turn into a round shaped handle? Inquiring minds need to know...
 
That is a beautiful knife.

I have a question. I will show my ignorance. I have never seen an abalone. My understanding is that is some form of ocean creature. It has a shell that you have incorporated into the handle. Correct?

How did you get a shell to bend around the handle? Or is the shell big enough to turn into a round shaped handle? Inquiring minds need to know...

I did a tutorial on this once, it all went away when photo bucket started charging. Essentially abalone is a large thin dome shaped shell. In order to form a hidden tang handle I laminated the nested shells together in seven layers of shell. I then formed a box with four sides by mitering the laminated shell sections. There's 28 pieces of shell in that handle. So, if viewed from the end, the handle section would look like a rectangle shaped picture frame with the tang hole running through the center from end to end. Then the handle is formed from that.
 
I did a tutorial on this once, it all went away when photo bucket started charging. Essentially abalone is a large thin dome shaped shell. In order to form a hidden tang handle I laminated the nested shells together in seven layers of shell. I then formed a box with four sides by mitering the laminated shell sections. There's 28 pieces of shell in that handle. So, if viewed from the end, the handle section would look like a rectangle shaped picture frame with the tang hole running through the center from end to end. Then the handle is formed from that.

Ah-ha. Stack the pieces, form a square, shape from there. Genius!

I lost a bunch of stuff when photo bucket shot themselves in the foot. They are still on my naughty list. Probably always will be. ARGH!!!!
 
Beautiful handle Mark! I'm thinking that one might be a good candidate for "Best Hande Design" competition at Blade! ;)
 
Thanks everybody. And thanks for the kudos Ed, I'm afraid that knife is already on the way to the owners house. I guess I'll have to make more.
 
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