What you can make with a pocket knife, chopstick, two mousetraps, gorilla glue and a Del Ealy paring

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sachem allison

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I received one of Del's paring knives the other day and it was cool as hell. I placed it with my chef knife in a safe place, like always and I went home. I came back in the morning to open the restaurant and found a pigsty. I suspect a new bartender decided to make them something to eat ( a definite no no in my kitchen and everyone knows it.) Food was left out and my new paring knife was sitting on the counter crusted in food and the stubby little tip was busted, just a half mm or so but, someone touched my knife. Everyone knows they might as well slit their own throat, then touch my knives. Fired the bartender, when he shrugged his shoulders and said it's just a knife, whats the big deal. First week and last week. Idiot.

I decided to go ahead and get a saya on this thing but, money is tight. I have been looking at all these new saya threads and decided what the hell. I have exactly no tools or thin wood at work but, I got a hair up my butt and decided I was going to do it anyway. I went scrounging around the basement looking for wood, when I found a box filled with unused mousetraps. They were the perfect size. In between tickets and brunch and dinner service I whittled a basic shape with my pocket knife. I marked the blade placement with my sharpie and began hollowing out the cavity, what a pain in the butt that was. I hollowed out both sides and also had to do a secondary cavity, because of the deep plunge lines on either side of the blade so, that it would sit straight in the saya. After I hollowed everything out, I filled the holes left over from the staples that hold the mousetrap hardware with gorilla glue and bamboo skewers. When the glue set, I cut off the excess bamboo and sanded everything flush. I carved a very shallow cavity along the edge of the too halves and put a thin layer of glue on the outside edge of the cavity. This way when everything is clamped no glue gets inside the saya. I matched the pieces and placed a jade sharpening stone as a weight and waited two hours. After two hours I remove all the excess glue and sanded the edges to give it a more streamlined beveled look. All edges where beveled. I found some blue paint and applied it with some kitchen paper and took a sharpie and added some black highlights. When everything dried I took some sand paper and lightly abraded the surface to give it a distressed look. I took some olive oil and some swarf mud and rubbed it into the saya to give it a further aged look.


I needed a pin, even though the friction fit on this makes that unnecessary. I went over to the chinese restaurant and got a bamboo chopstick. I took a ticket spike and heated it on the stove and burnt a pin hole into the saya. I whittled a pin and fit it in. This is my first Saya, I have no intentions of ever making them for sale or getting into the saya business.lol I just get bored sometimes as, you can tell by the three paragraphs and 17 pictures.lol

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Very cool, love the ingenuity. Sorry about the idiot bartender.
 
Ha, I love it. I feel even more lazy for not having a saya for mine yet, I think I have some mousetraps around here...
 
You don't even want to know what I can do with a shovel, hip boots, plastic tubing,a dwarf, cayenne pepper and a gallon of canola oil.
 
That's slicker than snail snot!

You don't even want to know what I can do with a shovel, hip boots, plastic tubing,a dwarf, cayenne pepper and a gallon of canola oil.

But sometimes you really scare me...:scared4:
 
Wait, how did I miss this???
Son, I know you guys have some big mice up in NYC. Do you have really big mousetraps so you could do this for a big gyuto?
 
I do, but you aren't allowed to use these traps officially in the city. The rats wear the. Around their necks for jewelry
 
My duct tape saya looks so sad, in comparison!
 
My duct tape saya looks so sad, in comparison!

Thats because you forgot the cardboard. Too sticky with out it, but eliminates the need for a pin.

Nice sheath Son.
 
Nice work, Son!

I just made a sheath for my paring knife yesterday. Call me crazy, but I actually prefer those Victorinox blade-safe things, because you can wash the inside every once in a while, but I couldn't resist making a wooden sheath anyways.
 
Nice work Son - I would expect nothing less from you!!:doublethumbsup:
 
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