Carved MOP/Damsacus GX6 Dagger

[Osprey Guy]

For some time I've been alluding to a long-term knife project...this is it.

I put a huge amount of work into this and I'm actually not yet done. I have big plans for a backspine, but with several knife orders "in-house" I probably won't be able to tackle the spine for a month or so. Couldn't wait that long to show this to you guys

Heavily carved MOP was inspired by a Peter Wile folder I saw in KI back in the Fall (it later turned up in the Annual). As soon as I saw it I knew I was gonna have to try those flowers... although he made his knife's scales with five end-to-end, Gold Lip flowers...with no bolster,,,just all flowers!

I had to change the flower design quite a bit to have it work with the GX's profile...figured out how to make it work with the 2 1/2 flowers, and my own bolster. I decided after I finished the flowers that I liked the handle better with the liners carved to match as well (unlike Peter's)...that added a whole lot of additional work!

The Eggerling Damascus bolsters are a dramatic departure in shape from the original GX6's bolsters. After carving out the unusual profile, I spent hours and hours experimenting a great deal with etch and color (since this is only my 2nd time to work with Damascus and my first for coloring)...I etched these, added Van's gun blue, and then heat colored including "spot" heat coloring with a very fine butane torch...I went from "flower" to "flower" in the bolsters, hitting each center with a different amount of heat....that's how I got the different colored flower centers of blue, red, and yellow.

The blue peeking through the holes in the MOP is from the liner spacers which I made from blue plastic lids from some tupperware-type containers I found at Target (where I find most of my spacer material ) . It had a neat pearlized sort of finish that I thought would go well with the MOP. Had to "carve" these spacers to match the liners and the flowers...whew! Happily, it worked out fine...

Hope you like...

Dennis

Yeah Baby!

[SharpByCoop]

Once again, this knife just blows me away. What I keep coming back to are the cutaways in the liners matching the pearl. Getting them to have a smooth finish must have been tedious.

Other highlights are the loss of one bolster screw, and a great finish on the blade.

The shape of the flowers and damascus are waving and flowing, while the dagger profile is locked and rigid. It's a good contrast.

Looking forward to that backspine and I'm CERTAIN this one will be in your bag of goodies for the ECCKS show coming up.

Since this one is stayin' at home for a while, you might even consider a generous offer from a *noted* () photographer in the area to take this home and 'do it justice'. At no charge. That is if you can part with it....

Keep em comin'!

Coop

[Bob Sigmon]

Dennis,

WOW ! !

I've been out of the loop for a while, now I know why . . . . you've been raising the bar way too high.

That knife is setting a new artistic level that will be hard to keep up with.

Every detail of this knife is staggering. And the materials that you used work perfectly together!

Thanks for the pic ! ! !

Bob Sigmon

[Jayhawk John]

STUNNING!!

[KNAdmin]

Mmmmmmm Flowers!
Nothing easy about that one ... very cool!

Alex

[PaulD]

Famn Dantastic!

[Osprey Guy]

Having just shared my idea of how to make an austere, hard working kit folder with a new member, I want to thank everyone for the nice remarks directed towards my rather fancy version of the GX6.

There were so many new things for me to learn in order to accomplish this knife that by the time I "ramped up" on each new skillset, I probably already have close to 100 hours in it!...Worth every minute as I really enjoyed the challenge, and am thrilled with the outcome...so far.

I'm busy working on a few of my (heavily embellished) kitknife orders, but somewhere in there I'm going to try out some adventurous ideas for the backspine...I'll be sure to post pics when done...with any luck it'll be in a few weeks.

Coop, thanks and that sure sounds good to me! I'm waiting to find out what day we're driving up to NY (Me, Ron Nott, Bob Eggerling, and a few other assorted, dubious characters...:cool: ). I'll talk to you before to see if we can hook up...

Dennis

Yeah Baby!

[wrathlord]

As for raising the bar "aowwwwwwwwwwwww",thats my finger tips,they're saying dude you suck,why?, I have to tell em it's Ospreys fault. Outstanding work as usual.

[Darrel Ralph]

Dennis,
Awesome!

I cant wait until I get the interframes for the gx6 ready!
Im sure you will excell at them also.

[Lawrence Kemp]

Dennis,
Been enjoying looking at your work without saying anything, but have to post this time. YEAH BABY!
That's Art man!

[KNAdmin]

I think Dennis took the "kit title" lead with this one. Anyone else think I'm right?

Alex

[Ansoknives]

This must be the best "kit" work I have ever seen!....encridible..!

[Kelly Carlson]

Absolutely the BEST Kit Knife to date.
Dennis should be invited to exhibit this knife in person at the upcoming Blade show.

[SharpByCoop]

All Hail to the Chief!!! He has my vote!

Dennis, you have *really* helped push the kit folder phenomena to a level never before. I know full well why the obvious 'next stage' of your evolution--making one from scratch--is delayed. There is still uncharted territory here!

Congrats once again. Now go build a simple one and make us ALL feel a little better about ourselves.. 8o

Coop

[Osprey Guy]

I have just two things to say...

If nominated to represent my party at the Blade Show in Atlanta I will accept!

And...

BRING ON THE GX6 INTERFRAMES!!!!

Dennis

Yeah Baby!