long-break liner-lock

[Messinger]

Life has been extra busy for the past couple of years and this is the first folder I've finished in 2 years. (I helped some boy scouts make some fixed-blades during that time though.) I have to say that finishing this one has stoked the fire again. All my folders that came before this one encountered some critical error or another that required a lot of damage-control to get back on the tracks. This one just fell together like magic. Not a single thing went wrong. Part of me is fueled up to do the next and part of me wants to quit while I'm ahead!

O1 blade, bolsters, spine. Water buffalo scales. It was off to its new home the day after I finished it. Sure would have liked to carry it a while. Guess I'll have to make another one.

Hope you like it. I think this is folder #11 if I counted right. I'll try to be more productive in 2011.

-Ben

[john smith]

Ben, We have never met but welcome back.
I love the ruggedness of the knife and the satin finish on the buffalo horn
goes real nice together. Great work.
Look forward to seeing more.
John

[Don Robinson]

Hey, Ben, welcome back!

That's a beautiful knife.

Keep it up, now.

[Crockett]

Looks good-I especially like the bolster texture and the turning on the inside of the liners.
Don

[Messinger]

Thank you Gentlemen for your kind words. I used Don Robinson's my-way method to design and construct the knife. I absolutely love the precision achieved with his method.

After this knife was mechanically finished it looked boring with plain bolsters and spine. So with delivery just hours away I got brave.

When I first came here a few years back Ray Rogers was encouraging noobies like myself to get creative - to freehand things and be artistic. Well, I've never been much of an artist. I'm more of a draw to scale, measure, cut to plan sort of guy. But I looked at those boring smooth bolsters and spine, took a deep breath, and jumped on them with a dremmel sanding barrel. It was liberating and makes me excited to "experiment" more with the artistic side of knifemaking.

Thanks everybody. And Happy New Year.

-Ben

[Will]

Good job, I realy like the texture on the bolsters and spine, realy draws the eye. I feel you on folders, for something as deceptivly simple as the liner lock I bet I could shot put one and hit the barn on the other side of the road, but when they come together rite there's no feeling like it, IE. "thank God I didn't screw this one up!"

[Frank Niro]

Very well done, Ben, and I hope to see more of your work soon. Frank

[racinca]

Ben, I'm glad to see that you got brave and jumped in with the Dremel. That carving/texturing on the bolsters and spine really sets this knife off. Very nice work.
Tony