file knife and first time with leopardwood and sealer/filler

[N.N]

First time with Leopardwood. I used Birchwood Casey sealer/filler to seal the rather large pores One coat, then sanded with 220. Second coat, then sanded with 400, then steel wooled it good, then a good coat of oil and then waxed and polished. It was much easier than the CA finishes I've done in the past and I really like the ease and final look.

It turned out satin-y and the grain doesn't pop or have any depth at all. It's very flat, but it still looks good, just not quite what I was expecting after looking at other finished leopardwood.

It was also difficult to get the sealer/filler off of the steel and pins without sanding completely through the finish. How do you get the finish off the steel?

Does anybody have any experience with this stuff or this type of finish that could give me a few good pointers or other info about any of this? Any questions of comments are welcome, good or bad.

 

[brycem]

Really like the knife. Are the bumps on the handle meant for grip or is this just how the finish is? I could see it going either way really

 

[N.N]

Thanks, but I'm not sure sure what "bumps" you're talking about. Are you seeing the grain and mistaking it for texture?

 

[arock]

Knife looks great! The grain on the handle is really cool

 

[TacticallySharp]

Nice! I love the overall look of the knife. I finish leopard wood with just tung oil and no filler, just a lot of steel wool &10 coats of oil.

 

[brycem]

I was referring to the bottom of the handle, almost looks like bumps. If that is grain though.. that is a very cool grain.

 

[N.N]

yup, it's the grain. I can see how it's confusable though.

Hey George, thanks! Do you use stabilized leopardwood? This wasn't, so I needed to seal it real well. I mentioned above that It was a coat of oil (b. linseed), but it was really more like 5 or 6. Does your technique come out much different? I've heard that it's hard to get depth out the the stuff, and oil isn't the way to go if you want depth. I'm just curious because I might have another order who's seen this and wants leopardwood now.

When I first applied the sealer, you could really make out the spots and they turned a little (depth/figure) in good light. I'm wondering if a high polish before the sealer and just one coat, steel wool to smooth wouldn't help keep some of that figure. I don't know though, i do really like it like it is now.