Meteorite Knife - Finished!

Hello, again. Here's a new update. It may not seem much, but at this stage a lot of detail work is needed to fit the pieces together.

Don, your idea about using native copper stone sounded very good, thanks a lot. Your idea reminded me about a slab given to me by Karen (karenfh). Thanks a lot, Karen!
From this slab I could extract a cab big enough to include in a bolster. So, even if initially I planned to put a cab only on the front-left bolster, I also cut a window and a matching cab on the front right one.
Here it is:


This native copper cab is not polished. It would be flushed to the bolster's level and then polished.



For the other bolster, I had in plan a special stone: a fire agate. For this reason I contacted Christopher (christopherl) and he was very helpful in choosing a piece to fit my project. I chose one not only big enough for the triangular cab, but also with a "cosmic" pattern, kinda matching the meteorite theme. Here it is, the cab roughly cut, firstly pictured dry...


... and then wet:


Then, slowly bringing it to the window's shape, until it fit inside:

(What might look like scratches on the cab are in fact the reflections of the wood grain of the table.)

I was polishing this cab, as I plan not to flush it to the bolster level (I am affraid of loosing the fire inside the stone).

Christopher, thank you for the top grade fire agate you gave to me. It was a pleasure to work with it. Very hard and solid stone.


The scales are next, For the moment, I only made the copper separators. These would go in between the two stones which I would use for each scale.




Thank you for looking,

Adrian

Looking great as usual. More fantasical with every update.

Adrian, couldn't you grind the back of the Fire Agate to bring it down level with the bolster?

SPECTACULAR Adrian! That's to say the least. Your workmanship is amazing.
steve

phweeew phweew ..lol i just whistled at a knife ..

dang adrian this is comming along well cant wait to see what you use for the handle

It is astonishing. With a BIG fire agate as a centerpoint, a meteor for a point, I can't wait to see what crazy stone you use for the handle! This knife should be on display somewhere when finished... with a giant poster behind the glass case showing the step by step photos of its making. What an accomplishment!!

Hello everyone,

I finished the metal work and prepared the handle to host the stone scales.

I riveted the front bolsters. Bearing in mind the slightly domed fire agate cab in the left bolster, I wanted to add some round head rivets here to match the domed cab and especially protect it when the knife would be put this side down.

But I didn't have anything but some copper thick electric wire, so this is how I made those rivets myself: I cut a groove some 1 inch long in two metal sheets. When those two metal sheets were sandwiched together, the grooves formed a sort of mold for the wire to stay in tight:


Then, using this cup shaped snap...


I shaped the rounded head of the rivets by gently hammering:



Not all the rivets I made this way had a well centered head. I didn't pay attention to this detail and used one of those out-of-center rivets. It was only when the riveting was completed when I noticed the hole was still visible:


So I removed this rivet and replaced it with another one, better centered:


I also flushed the upper spine of the blade with the freshly riveted front bolsters and I glued the copper strip separators (using two parts epoxy for metals). So, this is how the handle looks now, waiting for the stone scales:


Thank you for looking,

Adrian

I agree. I LOVE looking at the pictures, but sometimes just don't know what to say. His work is just superb.