Having been out stalking Friday night I decided I needed a little project for this weekend.
A couple of weeks ago I bought two Victorinox Swiss Army knives with the intention of re-handling them. One of these was the Waiter, which is a nice simple model with only one blade, a screwdriver and a corkscrew:
I have plenty of antler in the garage, but I'd also picked up a pair of antler scales a year or so ago, and as these were just sitting in a drawer I decided to make use of them. Thus the challenge was set!
This is the first SAK I've re-handled, so having removed the normal red scales, I stuck them on the scanner to create a pattern for the antler, as you need to do some work on the holes for the retaining bolts and the little accessories like the tweezers.
I cut out the two patterns and glued them to the "flat" side of the antler scales. One scale was thicker than the other, but as the Waiter has a corkscrew this actually worked out well.
Most of Saturday afternoon was then spent hunched over the workbench with the Dremel. This was finished Sunday morning, and the antler scales could then be sanded down to remove the pattern and then epoxied to the bare knife. Leaving it to dry over lunch, this afternoon I could start the process of shaping and sanding the scales.
Three hours and a lot of elbow grease later, the knife was completed. I don't think the end result looks too bad, but having done the first there are a few things I'll change on the next one.
Proud of my handiwork I showed it to Mrs Gunn, whose first words were "Why did you ruin a brand new Swiss Army Knife?"
willie_gunn
A couple of weeks ago I bought two Victorinox Swiss Army knives with the intention of re-handling them. One of these was the Waiter, which is a nice simple model with only one blade, a screwdriver and a corkscrew:
I have plenty of antler in the garage, but I'd also picked up a pair of antler scales a year or so ago, and as these were just sitting in a drawer I decided to make use of them. Thus the challenge was set!
This is the first SAK I've re-handled, so having removed the normal red scales, I stuck them on the scanner to create a pattern for the antler, as you need to do some work on the holes for the retaining bolts and the little accessories like the tweezers.
I cut out the two patterns and glued them to the "flat" side of the antler scales. One scale was thicker than the other, but as the Waiter has a corkscrew this actually worked out well.
Most of Saturday afternoon was then spent hunched over the workbench with the Dremel. This was finished Sunday morning, and the antler scales could then be sanded down to remove the pattern and then epoxied to the bare knife. Leaving it to dry over lunch, this afternoon I could start the process of shaping and sanding the scales.
Three hours and a lot of elbow grease later, the knife was completed. I don't think the end result looks too bad, but having done the first there are a few things I'll change on the next one.
Proud of my handiwork I showed it to Mrs Gunn, whose first words were "Why did you ruin a brand new Swiss Army Knife?"
willie_gunn