Heavy Buffalo Horn Slip Joint

[jdware]

A recently finished and sold heavyweight. Large slip-joint folding knife with a 3.25" blade and spring of 3/16" thick 440C stainless steel. The black Buffalo horn still retains some of the rough outer "bark" surface texture. Closed length - 4.5" Blade has a belt satin finish, flat grind with a convex edge. Nickel Silver liners and pins. The escutcheon is Coin Silver from a 1926 Mexican ten centavo piece. Vine pattern deeply file worked blade with thumb grooves. The spring's not overly strong, and it opens easily, but definitely keep your fingers out of the way when closing!!

J

JDWARE KNIVES

[kcorn]

Very nice indeed! Love the file work!! How did you get your pins so nicely rounded? Doesn't appear that you used a head spinner.

[timekeeper]

Very nice, the shield is a nice touch too.

[jdware]

thanks guys. Right, no head spinner. When doing the pins, I try to leave them about 1/2 the diameter of the pin "proud"of the surface of the handle material, ie for 1/8" pins, I leave them about 1/16 long on each side. Before installing, I round the ends of the pins. Then start peening, equally on both sides. After I'm finished with the peening, I buff with grey, then green compound. They actually still show some hammer marks on them.
I like this type of shield, too. Its "a la Scagel", ie not inlet into the handle material, and also showing some hammer marks - keeps things a little rustic.
J

[DAN VAN]

Very nicely done, the buffalo horn adds a bit of class. Dan

[jdware]

Thank you, Dan. The horn is a nice material to work with and I think leaving some of the bark adds to the character. I found a ranch in nearby Campeche that raises water buffalo - they send me the cleaned horns that I then further process for handle material.
J

JDWARE KNIVES