"Flaming Rose" Mosaic Fighter

G

Graham Fredeen

Well-Known Member
Hey folks,

As promised, here's the "Special" project I've been keeping under wraps for awhile, that I mentioned eariler.

This knife was a really special piece and represents a few "firsts" for me. This is my first foray into more advanced patternwelding techniques and my first complex mosaic pattern. I got started doing some w patterning a little while ago and ran with that. Since that went so well, I decided to jump head first into some more complex mosaic patterning. Didn't know exactly what the outcome would be, but I think the result was great :D . I'm definately addicted to mosaics now and I'll be cranking out a lot more as soon as I can squeeze in some more shop time. It is also some of the best work I have done to date and it feels like the first step down what I hope to be an amazing journey into even better things.

This knife is also the first knife I've had professionally photographed, and the first time I have worked with a sheathmaker besides myself. Figured I'd better do it right, so I enlisted the help of Paul Long and Jim Cooper. The experience with these two gentleman was fantastic to say the least. They are definately artists in their own right, and phenonimally skilled in their respective crafts, and their service is impecible. While this was the first time I had the pleasure of working with these two, it certainly won't be the last ;)

I sent the knife down to Paul, and told him to make it a right handed sheath and to "have fun with it." I gave him free reign with things and he delievered an amazing sheath, with beaver insert and an overlay. I still don't know how Paul can be so good with leather! (makes me a bit jealous, lol)

I had Paul send it over to Jim Cooper after he was done. I'll let the results speak for themselves:

orig.jpg


I ended up calling the pattern "flaming rose". Had a few folks tell me it looked like some flowers, others thought fire, so I put em together. Jim had the idea to put "Flaming Rose" in the picture tag line, so I decided to call this guy the "Flaming Rose Fighter."

Blade is about: 6"
Overall: 12.5"
W pattern damascus for the guard and spacer
Stabalized California Buckeye for the handle, with a small stainless pin in the middle.

Hope everyone enjoys it. I certainly enjoyed making it and getting to work with two men who are at the top of their respective crafts! And a big thanks to both Paul, for such an amazing sheath, and to Coop for all his hard work to make sure everything was just right!
 
Breathtakingly beautiful! The blade is AMAZING and the guard and fittings are very impressive as well. And ya gota love the look of buckeye burl!
Over all I love the package.. Now to catch my breath and get back out to the shop and keep trying to get this good! :)
Congrats bro. God has blessed you with a great talent.

Randy, HHH Knives
 
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Graham I can not say anything that has already been said, so what everybody above said. Congrats.
 
Again, thanks for all the comments and compliments folks. I greatly appreciate them and enjoy reading them.

Pandaman1966, while whoever eventually ends up owning this knife will probably never use it, I have :) . I've put it through some light paces with some cutting and testing and it was a joy to use. Didn't over do it, but did do some good cutting tasks (lots of paper cutting, lots of thick leather slicing, arm/leg hair shaving, even a little face shaving, and took it out in the back yard and cut down some of these tall grasses that I have, just for a bit of fun). It definately gives you some satisfaction, thats for sure.
 
Hey Graham -

Very nice my friend, very nice. I still think that this should have won Best Damascus at the Denver show but we all have opinions about that.

BTW - Sorry that I missed your calls recently. Been staying over at the brother-in-laws place a lot lately helping out. He has stage 4 cancer. So I've missed a lot of calls in addition to yours and I've missed a lot of shop time as well.

It's looking like he may be getting a little better Thank God (remission?) so we may be able to be home more. Sleeping in a foreign bed isn't helping my back at all. That being said, I'll drop you a line when I know I'll be around and maybe you can come up the mountain when you have time.

Take care and may God Bless...and keep up the awesome work.
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__________________

Best regards and God Bless,
Wayne

Full Time Maker
Member of the Professional Knifemakers Association
www.jarrettknives.com
Are you a Dawg yet?


Be sure to check out the new Jarrett Knives Forum
 
That is an amazing knife. Funny, my wife was just saying that my knives were prettier than some others she has seen on here and I told her, well there are also some here that make mine look like crap. About that time I clicked on your post and said "Like this one"
Again it's a work of art.
Mike
 
Hey Wayne, thanks for the compliments my friend. You're not the only one that has expressed a similar opinion about the award. I ultimately would have really liked getting it, but will say that the amazing compliments and feedback I got from people at the show (both show goers and makers alike) are worth far more than a chunk of plastic.

No worries about not getting together. I just had a spare afternoon and thought I might bring this knife and a few of my other recent works up for CJ to see and do a bit of catch up with you guys.

I understand what you and Rainy are going through, I've been down the "cancer" road with my Mother's late husband. Its definately no easy thing. Thoughts and prayers for all of you folks!

Thanks Mike! I got a bit of a kick out of that. And I'm sure this knife doesn't make your work look like crap. There are all kinds of knives and they can all be appreciated for their own characteristics. Thats whats so great about making them, there's so many different roads to go down, and at the end of the journey you still get deep satisfaction no matter what road you picked.
 
Man.. that's amazing. The pattern and the wood really accent each other. Nice job.
 
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