Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

International aspect of iKC

Something I've come to really enjoy since joining iKC is the international aspect of our community. I get to see knives of the world here ..and.. meet collectors from all across the globe. I've made some friends .. I'll probably never see in person ..however.. still friends.
.

My (cutlery) passion is stampings ..&.. the associated stories / history that accompany ea and every one. Some would say I was lucky .. for the travel accorded during my career. I've german auto's purchased in Stuttgart, SAK's purchased in Geneva, Opinels purchased in a small mtn village in France. I've managed knives manufactured in most places I've been ..except.. Brazil & Columbia.

I've scoured the net .. to no avail. Obtaining cutlery of local manufacture from either of these countries has simply been ... unattainable for me.

Through iKC .. I've met collector's from across the globe. One hails from Columbia .. Sao Paulo to be exact. We became fb friends. I've seen pics of family .. daily activity .. personal interests. I believe .. a man of strong faith & family values.

About a month ago, I proposed a trade. Something hithertofore ..completely & utterly.. unobtainable for me.

A knife of Brazilian manufacture ..for.. the kit pictured below.

I had an extra SS 2.0 kit. It's the one with the black finish .. I'd ordered a couple when knifekits was out of the regular uncoated unit. I finished one .. it's in my EDC rotation .. but found the coating to be limiting. Any contouring of the frame or blade removed the TiNi black coating finish. This further necessitated the full removal of the coating .. a daunting task. Not an issue for one simply finishing the kit out ..but.. limiting, for me. I tend to radius all corners / edges & contour the fit to my hand.

Anyway .. that was my offer in the trade.

I get a ZEBU canivete in return.

!!!! .. Big Smile .. !!!!

I hope this trade to be the best of all swaps .. one where both parties secretly feel they got the better end of the deal.

Toward that end .. I did some prep work.
.

....................... Starting point ...........................

The assembled unit (lower left) is in my EDC rotation. The coating was never successfully fully removed. It's a hard use EDC ..so.. didn't really care. As is .. this kit makes a sweet little buttonlock. With just a bit of machining .. a small but very sturdy gentleman's auto can be had.

This pic is midway through the machining process. A 3/8" diamond tile drill bit was implemented. The required circular slot can be seen milled to about half of the required depth.

.The finished circular slot in the blade for a 3/8" coil spring. Knifekits drills the anchor hole for the 3/8 coil spring from the other side ..however.. only half way through the material. This very conveniently acts as a depth gauge when machining the circular slot. The anchor hole can be seen within the milled slot @ the 10 o'clock position.

.............................................................................................................................

The original kit is supplied without scale material. My friend lives in an apartment & lacks drilling / sawing equipment. I wanted to offer a "complete" kit in this trade ..&.. had some black linen micarta left from the first kit.

The outer perimeter & hole placement are being transferred. The bolster was attached to the frame & then the frame secured to the micarta with a C-clamp. Threaded fasteners were then screwed in from the "inside" of the frame until they contacted & accurately "marked" their proper placement on the micarta slab.

The outline & required hole placement have been accurately transferred to the micarta slab.

Trimmed to a minimal size .. ready to drill & counterbore the holes.

Holes drilled & counterbored.
Scroll saw .. soooooo useful !!! A pawn shop find. Looking for pocket knives that they didn't know what they had & came away with this .. scroll saw. That and a little patience can trim the blanks to a respectable fit.

Fitted in place .. slightly oversize .. still some hand sanding for my friend. It is a kit .. as I grin.

Linen micarta is some durable ..could be read as TOUGH.. schtuff. i.e. linen micarta can be formidable when hand sanding. A 1" & a 4" belt sander introduced some initial material removal .. getting the slab profile a little closer to bolster height & a slight chamfer around the edges.

It's been an enjoyable project. One I successfully shipped today.

!!!! ... Thank you, Cesar Scavone ... !!!!

3 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on May 9, 2015 at 18:19

Great job Dale.

Cesar seems to be a very nice guy.

Permalink Reply by tim payne on May 9, 2015 at 18:34

impressive work dale!

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 9, 2015 at 20:00

Oh Dale, this is just Great!

Cesar is a great guy and we have done a trade or two with him. THIS takes it to a whole new level and he will be impressed, I know I am

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 9, 2015 at 20:20

This group has always been one I enjoyed following. Watching some of the members start with a small project and finding they really enjoyed the repair or build enough to invest more time doing yet more projects. It is always a joy to see this aspect of collecting

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Jeremy B. Buchanan on May 9, 2015 at 20:22

I hope you are both happy in the trade. I have done several trades with Cesar and plan to do more in the future. He is certainly a great friend!

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on May 9, 2015 at 20:51

Thanks all

It's the strong sense of community that I so value here.

It is certainly what facilitated this trade.

Wasn't sure where to post it ..but.. has enough construction to merit this group.

Permalink Reply by J.J. Smith III on May 9, 2015 at 23:31

Look forward to seeing smiles all around.

Permalink Reply by Jack Haskins, Jr. on May 10, 2015 at 8:51

Excellent work. I enjoyed the story behind it as well. I have traded knives a few time but like your trade this time, once I had a knife I had made two sets of scales for and posted pictures and someone WANTED IT and the scales. He traded a knife that I had been wanting for some time. He bought it and as sometimes happens the knife just didn't "do the trick" for him. So we traded and both were very happy. To me, trades like this are much more enjoyable than just buying a knife. After a trade the two people can simply forget about the dollar value of the items and enjoy the knives they now have. And when we have an interest in something like knives some of us will pay much more for a knife than the original selling price when they are no longer available. Recently, and another example of knife hobby personal generosity, I saw a knife on ebay that I had owned but sold when it was available. After selling it I regretted it terribly. Anyway the knife was about $100 when being sold but I decided I would pay $200 if the bidding went that high. Sadly, the final selling price was $280 or so. Someone was willing to pay $280 for a knife that originally sold for $100 about four years ago. But I only saw myself able to go $200 so I lost it. Then a forum member on another knife forum just gave me the same knife that he had bought when they were available. I had posted about watching the knife on ebay and he knew how disappointed I was so he gave me his. I was astonished at the generosity. Anyway, the point is these knife forums and web sites have opened up the whole world (literally) to new friends who I've seen be about as generous as I have ever seen in prior years.

Anyway, great work on your knife and congratulations on a trade where both parties are equally happy. The knife does look like one that would be a pleasure to use. And the fact that it has personal modifications makes it even more valuable IMO.

Jack

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 10, 2015 at 10:19

I agree Jack. I have long known the Knife community was filled with some of the best folks I have ever met. The forums have helped with getting folks back at shows also. If the shows are not too far away the collectors will go to see the knives and meet people face to face

RSS

Welcome to
iKnife Collector

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with: