Stefan's Some new handles

[geezr]

Pretty wild Stefan. The fourth one down is my favorite of this bunch. Looks like it belongs on an ancient Roman short sword.

The white does have an "imperial" look to it (that's what made me think of ancient Rome). What is the white material?

lus1: re. reaction to white and the 4th one on a Roman sword.
Really nice Stefan :doublethumbsup:

 

[mhenry]

Stefan, Some of the coolest and most unique handles ever

 

[WildBoar]

Stefan -- you and the customer need to team up -- those handles look incredible!

 

[stevenStefano]

Do you know what knives these handles are going on? They look really good, they really are totally different to any others I have seen

 

[apicius9]

Thanks guys. Nope, no idea what the final knives will be. I may have known but I deleted the info when I shipped them out. Let's hope that Dave gets a few photos taken after he put them on. They are three gyuto handles and one yanagi handle, all for larger hands.

Stefan

 

[Johnny.B.Good]

Maybe I missed it, but what is the white material that you used Stefan?

 

[apicius9]

The white is Elforyn, a material that was developed as an alternative to ivory, mostly for pool cue making. There is a bit of a controversy around it because it claims to be closer than others to the structure and appearance of ivory to justify its higher cost, and some testers have not confirmed that. I like it for what it is, easy to work with and gets absolutely smooth. I contacted the maker and they told me that the chemical structure was not too different from car paint, so as long as I sand it high enough, it doesn't need any protective finish. These were sanded to 2000 grit and then finished with higher grit metal polish. Came out really nice IMHO.

Stefan

 

[Johnny.B.Good]

Interesting.

Sure looks like ivory in your photos.

I hope we get to see pictures of them mounted.

 

[apicius9]

Just without many comments, here is what finally got finished this week. After pixel peeping the pictures, there are a few where I may go back to sanding out micro scratches that I didn't even see before. But then again, maybe the customers don't see them either












































I think I missed a few, but you get the idea...

Stefan

 

[Johnny.B.Good]

Productive week!

There are some beauties here Stefan; well done.

 

[The Edge]

Wow!!

 

[Dave Martell]

Someone needs to score that quilted maple one - trust me.

 

[apicius9]

Someone needs to score that quilted maple one - trust me.

Aah, I should have been clearer about that: These are only for showing off, all handles in the last post are orders and spoken for, sorry. But there will also be a bunch available, I have to discuss a few details with Dave before I list them all individually. And I still have plenty of quilted or curly maple for new orders...

Stefan

 

[JMac]

Nice!

 

[obtuse]

The pictures came out great, I love the choice of backdrop material.

 

[apicius9]

The pictures came out great, I love the choice of backdrop material.

Yeah, thanks for suggesting it and thanks for your help on those!

Stefan

 

[Jim]

I know one guy in Bayside just hit the floor mumbling something or other.. nice......

 

[Dave Martell]

I know one guy in Bayside just hit the floor mumbling something or other.. nice......

hahahahahaha

 

[Lawrence]

Beautiful work...!

 

[apicius9]

Just a few recent ones. Shop snapshots, need to handpolish them a bit but then they are done. I always want to take better pictures of them but never seem to get the timing right, but you get the idea... These are all orders, so they are NOT available. But if you recognized your ordered handle here, we should talk in the next few days, just too tired tonight.


Bakelite handle with an elforyn (art. ivory) ferrule.

For one customer (Tu): Ebony with divided dyed maple burl ferrule and mammoth tooth end cap; black ash burl with redwood burl ferrule and brass end cap with a mosaic pin.

For one customer (Zach): Replacement handles for Shigefusa knives Premium ebony, nickel silver spacer, horn ferrule.

Redwood burl (provided by customer, Scott) with bakelite ferrule and end cap.

Not sure what happened to the colors here. This is a pair with reversed elements. Handle 1 is Mark's turbo redwood burl with ferrule and end cap of Masur birch burl from Craig Stevens and copper spacers, the other one has the woods reversed and brass spacers. Those were made by and for Aaron when he helped out in the shop, I just added a few touches here and there.

Cross-cut spalted Hawaiian signature, horn ferrule. I hope the customer (Rob) likes it, I used cross-cut instead of ripped signature wood. Cross-cut spalted woods often crack, but this here happened to be a very nice and stable piece, and it just jumped out at me....

Stefan

 

[ecchef]

Nice, Stefan!! :doublethumbsup: Like the turbo burl set.

 

[Dave Martell]

Very nice handles there Stefan! :thumbsup:

 

[statusquo]

So creative and elegant

 

[mhenry]

Stunning as always Stefan

 

[Don Nguyen]

Bakelite handle with an elforyn (art. ivory) ferrule.

I went looking around for this elforyn material, and came across a whole new bundle of stuff I wanna try out. How is elforyn to work with? Looks fantastic.

EDIT: Also, what materials are in these? They look sweeeeeet!

 

[Andrew H]

I went looking around for this elforyn material, and came across a whole new bundle of stuff I wanna try out. How is elforyn to work with? Looks fantastic.

EDIT: Also, what materials are in these? They look sweeeeeet!

I think the top one is blue bakelite with horn.
Great work, Stefan.

 

[cookinstuff]

That bottom one looks like a copy of my handle, mine is redwood burl ferrule and endcap, copper spacers, satinwood burl. I got mine from Stefan so it's probably the exact same materials, and it is beautiful. I'm feeling the bakelite handles though, wow. Keep up the good work Stefan.

 

[apicius9]

Thanks guys, and correct on all accounts with the handle IDs!

Elforyn is quite easy to work with. It was developed to resemble different ivory qualities, mostly for pool cue building. There is some discussion among the pool cue people whether it really resembles the real ivory qualities enough to warrant the high price, but that's not really relevant for us. I like it because it comes in plain white, but also in a little off-white and marbling which resembles mammoth ivory. But it is quite pricy compared to paper micarta etc.

Bakelite, in the end, is just a plastic, as far as I know the first plastic produced on a larger scale in the 30. of the last century. What makes this here desirable is that this is from old stock from the 40s. My source had bought up a few hundred pieces from old stock found during the disassembling of a factory. This stuff usually gets bought by jewelery makers who make expensive little things from it. Accordingly, the prices are considerably higher than most stabilized woods out there. I seem to be the only crazy person to use larger pieces for handles... But my source has dried up and I am thinking about only using it for accents in the future because when I'm out, that's it.

Stefan

 

[Don Nguyen]

Thanks guys, and correct on all accounts with the handle IDs!

Elforyn is quite easy to work with. It was developed to resemble different ivory qualities, mostly for pool cue building. There is some discussion among the pool cue people whether it really resembles the real ivory qualities enough to warrant the high price, but that's not really relevant for us. I like it because it comes in plain white, but also in a little off-white and marbling which resembles mammoth ivory. But it is quite pricy compared to paper micarta etc.

Bakelite, in the end, is just a plastic, as far as I know the first plastic produced on a larger scale in the 30. of the last century. What makes this here desirable is that this is from old stock from the 40s. My source had bought up a few hundred pieces from old stock found during the disassembling of a factory. This stuff usually gets bought by jewelery makers who make expensive little things from it. Accordingly, the prices are considerably higher than most stabilized woods out there. I seem to be the only crazy person to use larger pieces for handles... But my source has dried up and I am thinking about only using it for accents in the future because when I'm out, that's it.

Stefan

I know some people have finishing issues with white micartas because it can stain easy with other materials - with elforyn do you have to be careful in this regard too?

I noticed that I couldn't find any sources for bakelite like yours. That explains it. They just look so good though

 

[apicius9]

I talked to the makers about finishing elforyn, and they told me that the product was chemically related to car paint and would not need finish except sanding to a high grit. I was worried a bit also because it did get dirty while working with it, but once it is sanded and buffed, is seems o.k. and things wiped off in the shop. Maybe I should test it with beet juice or something...

Stefan