Tony has been gracious and extremely patient enough to let me learn from him in our spare time. I get over to the Wilfred Works whenever I can. I had Veterans Day(Nov 10)off from work and started this Damascus "Backpocket".

Tony suggested that I grind this blade on his 14" wheel as my grinder only has a 10" wheel right now. I ground the edge bevels after some help from Tony on one side. After the rough grind, Tony stress relieved it in his HT oven and I waited for my stamp.

When the stamp came I went over one evening and stamped the blade last week and got it ready for HT, which Tony did. Last Saturday morning I ground the edge bevels with Tony looking over my shoulder for a bit. I'm starting to like that 14" wheel.

Rather than take the chance on horkin up the nice blade, I asked Tony to grind the swages. Tony says, "Grindin' swages aren't for the faint of heart". That is the fact.

Anywho, here are some pics of the progress with my first folder project. I have tinkered with the action between spring and blade and can work on the liner/bolster assy's now. I'm learning alot and have to thank Tony for being so patient with me.

Looks great Kerry! What kinda handle did you plan putting on it?

Thanks for the encouraging comment. I will probably use a very light mammoth ivory. I've been looking at what is available and there are several choices. A piece of steel this good needs a great handle.

I have seen Damascus Blades like yours with Damascus Springs, Bolster, Pins…Iron liners, the whole thing, and with the Mammoth Ivory that would set it off. I am really looking forward to seeing your finished knife.

Very nice Kerry!! Can't wait to see the finished product! ..when can I put an order in.

Randy

Thanks for the nice comment. Your question sent a chill down my spine. I don't think I will ever take orders, especially at my current rate of completion

Kerry, looks that that's going to be quite a knife. The damascus blade in a BP is definately cool!

Chris

I spent Wed. and Thur. learning more about how to build this BP knife I'm working on. I have a ton of pics and text to upload and a puney dialup link to do it with, so, that will have to wait until after Tuesday when I return to work. Until then, you can see what I have posted up to this point on my BladeForums thread at http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=441633

I do have this one "glamour shot" I can post. This should hold you over until I can do more serious uploading.

Hey Kerry..Nice to get a chance to put a face to the name last week. Hope we can get together at the shop again soon. Checked out the post on Blade Forum..Love the knife head pic!!

Hey Randy! Yep it was good to meet you too. We should have got a group shot dangit!

There are more details about Backpocket construction to be found @ http://boseknives.com/backpocket-construction/

That is a fledgling website under more thought than construction at the moment. I registered the BoseKnives.com domain in November and a real website will follow when all the planets come into alignment(or something like that)

I took so many pics of Tony building the ivory Backpocket that it only made sense to use the new site space. I am currently adding text to the pic pages so some of them don't have any text yet, but they will.

Thanks Kerry, it's nice to see how it goes together. I have a BP in stag that Tony made me last year, now I can see how it went together.

Almost finished...ahhhhh! I went over to the Wilfred Works this morning on a mission to complete work on my first folding knife.

There has been a lot of work since now; drilling holes in liners, adjusting the walk and talk so the spring is level with the liners in all three positions, cutting out and shaping the liners, cutting out and shaping the handle material, gluing the handles material and drilling final holes, etc., etc.,.

Today I pinned the handles to liners and put the knife together and have it sanded to 800 grit.

I think the knife is coming together real well. I attribute that directly to using the same hammer that Tony has used to put together every knife he ever made(seen in the last picture).

You can just send that to my home address..Or leave it with Reese and I will pick it up next time I am down that way ...I want the next one..

Oh it's a dandy for sure. Tony helped a little bit.

Well...lets see it

Ok. Now this ain't ready for you Stand-back-I'm-carrying-a-loop-and-I-know-how-to-use-it type guys, but I plan on backing up a grit or 2 and doing some more sanding before the Blade Show. Be kind, I'm a virgin.

Looks great man!!!

Kerry, You did good. I look forward to seeing it at the BladeShow.

Looks aweful sweet to me!

Thanks for the nice comments guys. Going to need some more polishing before I let anyone look at it up close though.

So, are you carrying this one with you still?
Beautiful work sir, very nice!
G2

I've carried it almost every day since I finished it.
As a matter of fact, I used it to disable some noisy, floppin' crappies yesterday afternoon. I cleaned and oiled her up and she's back in my pocket today.

Nice! post some new photos when you can!
G2

Got to see this one up and personal last night,
was able to drive down from Champaign IL to Tony's
and Kerry was on hand too, had a great visit and
sereral cups of coffee that served me well for the
long drive back that night!
Great knife sir!
G2

Was good to finally meet you Gary. Thanks for sharing your expertise with me and bringing by some of the leather you use. Much appreciated!

I got my gumption up to flush joint this knife which is the subject of this thread. On old knives they would sometimes make the end of the bolsters flush with the end of the tang(closed position). Additionally, a riskier move was to make the end of the spring flush as well. Take some off the end of the spring and the blade will fly up into a most unsightly position when opened....bad move. Do it just right and slip joint nirvahna is achieved.



Thought you might like to see this thing again after it's been riding in my backpocket every day since I finished it. Well, actually I guess I just finished it again. Oh..new camera and better lighting helps.


http://knifehead.com/images/firstbp2.jpg
http://knifehead.com/images/firstbp3.jpg
http://knifehead.com/images/firstbp4.jpg
http://knifehead.com/images/firstbp6.jpg

Great looking knife, Kerry. All dressed up too! Well done.

Kerry,

Excellent work, like the total package look, very well thought out.

James Culpepper

I love how you've got it tapering down in thickness all the way from the butt thru the bolsters. This makes for a sweet feeling knife in use (or just to hold in the hand). The old cutlers would almost always do this when they hafted a knife - but unfortunately, way too many modern custom makers still have no clue whatsoever about this.

-- Dwight

Kerry,

Really a great job on this piece! Keep it up!

Kent