D. Martell Gallery - Re-Handles

Miura knives
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
ecchef said:
The gloss finish you're getting these days is unbelievable!
Click to expand...


Thanks Dave! The pictures look OK but trust me that in person the handles look so much better and the feel is smooth as silk. It's been awhile since I've been this happy with the results I'm getting so having you comment really makes my day. :)

What I'm doing is finishing the handles to a high gloss by hand and then applying a blend of polymerizing oils in several layers to get the look I'm after. This has taken me about 6 months worth of rehandle work to figure out and I'm just starting to get something I feel is good. I'm after a waterproof, durable, permanent finish.

There are some woods that this won't work on (like ironwood) so for that I use a non-drying oil satin finish instead. I may also chose not to go with the high shine on some other woods too (like thuya burl) and I'll either do the satin ironwood thing or a combo of the two. It comes down to sometimes some woods look better satin low gloss where others look good high gloss.
 
Just finished up on this wa to western conversion for Matus. Rosewood burl, African Blackwood, and copper accents.

Martell wa to western conversion.jpg


P1010020.JPG


P1010022.JPG


P1010028.JPG


P1010038.JPG
 
Dave, that is just ... wow! :bigeek: Thank you so much. I can not wait to see it in person! I hope my wife will like it too.

:thankyou333:
 
Matus said:
Dave, that is just ... wow! :bigeek: Thank you so much. I can not wait to see it in person! I hope my wife will like it too.

:thankyou333:
Click to expand...


That's all your design their Matus, you have good taste. :)

I'm glad you like it though, enjoy!
 
Beautiful handle Dave.
Congrats Matus. I am betting your Wife will love it.
 
Mark, in the case that rosewood looks familiar - than you are indeed correct. It is one of the two absolutely stunning pieces I got from you few months back. I have one more that will be used on some very special knife one day.
 
Beautiful work as always Dave!

This is one of my favorite threads on here. Just looking through the pages make me smile.
 
Here's an Artisan gyuto that has been completely reworked. The blade was thinned & (per customer request) highly polished, the spine/choil/bolster were de-burred (man were they sharp) and rounded for comfort, and the handle was upgraded to maple burl with comfy contours. I doubt that the owner will recognize this knife as the one he sent in, it's that different now....and hopefully better too. :)

Artisan_gyuto_refurb1.JPG


Artisan_gyuto_refurb7.JPG


Artisan_gyuto_refurb9.JPG


Artisan_gyuto_13.JPG


Artisan_gyuto_rehandle14.JPG
 
seriously guys, if anyone out there is considering getting a job done by dave, stop thinking about it and do it! this guy's work is incredible!!! :ubersexy: it already looks gorgeous on the pics, but if you see it in person, this is just breathtaking! :2thumbsup:

dave, you are a master and your work is outstanding! :notworthy:
 
This is one of the nicest rehandles I've done. I wasn't sure how it was going to go initially tough, the knife presented some problems.

First off this is the first one of these knives that I've worked on besides sharpening so I didn't have any expectations. I quickly found out that the maker does a nice knife but crappy handle/tang/bolster..I'll explain in more detail later. Also, the wood used is something I never worked with before and was supplied by the customer from an unknown ebay source, and as a lot of you know - I'm not fond of any of that. :eyebrow:

So why is the handle/tang/bolster crappy? Well upon removal of the scales (which was quite the chore - unlike most Japanese knives) I found there to be paper liners glued in between the scales and tang and also the scales and bolster. I was puzzled by this as this isn't what is normally seen. Upon some inspection of the tang it became apparent that they had good reason to use these liners as they were being employed to fill in the gaps between the flat scales and W-a-V-y tang. Later on I found the bolster was also not square to the tang in any direction. :scratchhead:

I gave this some thought and then went to the customer with options on how to deal with the problems and fortunately he chose wisely and went with a hidden tang. :doublethumbsup:



I really like how this knife turned out as a package, I'd own this in a split second if possible, it's that nice. :eek:vg:


Takamura Uchigumo 240mm Gyuto in dyed Russian Karelian Birch with nickel silver & copper accents.....

P1010041.JPG


P1010046.JPG


P1010052.JPG


P1010055.JPG


P1010058.JPG


P1010059.JPG


P1010063.JPG
 
As much as I wanted to wait and be surprised when I got this back in the mail, I just had to come and take a look. Dave, you have really outdone yourself on this one!!! So happy we went the route we did, and that wood turned out as nice or nicer than I had hoped for. Great work Dave, as usual.

For those of you out there that have never used Dave's services, his work is impeccable and he really cares about the end result and pays attention to all the details. He has done a lot of work for me over the years and it has always exceeded my expectations. If you ever need any work done on your knives, Dave is your guy and I promise you will NOT be disappointed!!!

Thanks again, can't wait to get this one back!!
Anthony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top