INFO! 2020 Gold Dollar Mod Competition *EXTENDED UNTIL AUGUST*

[Dilbone]

Well, when the deadline was extended I knew I'd be waiting until the end to finish this. This blade's uneven grind made honing it a bear, so much so that I had to go back and do some additional grinding on the tang at the stabilizer area from my DMT cutting into the thickness of the spine so much as I honed it and leaving a ridge. As a result it pretty much just sat there until the last couple of days. I also had to unpin the wedge and rethickness it...too much wedge which was putting the blade in a bind with it opened to 180 degrees but loose when at 90.

It still won't center very well, I grabbed what I thought was a 16th bit but it was 5/64 and the amount of play and twist in the scales and the holes has made it nearly impossible to get it any better. Other than that it's great!!! Lol

I do however love the olive wood scales and the fact that it was harvested right here from our tree which was planted in honor of my late mother-in-law. A couple coats of tru-oil really brought out the grain and color variation.

I spent some time working out the DMT 325 scratches with the King 1k, then onto a midrange coti I have. Next the King 6k which seemed to progress quickly. My finisher coti just wasn't getting me where I wanted to be so i pulled out the film and went 3u to 1u and it's ready for a test shave. It's not my favorite or my best work but it'll do.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Saxonbowman]

Well, when the deadline was extended I knew I'd be waiting until the end to finish this. This blade's uneven grind made honing it a bear, so much so that I had to go back and do some additional grinding on the tang at the stabilizer area from my DMT cutting into the thickness of the spine so much as I honed it and leaving a ridge. As a result it pretty much just sat there until the last couple of days. I also had to unpin the wedge and rethickness it...too much wedge which was putting the blade in a bind with it opened to 180 degrees but loose when at 90.

It still won't center very well, I grabbed what I thought was a 16th bit but it was 5/64 and the amount of play and twist in the scales and the holes has made it nearly impossible to get it any better. Other than that it's great!!! Lol

I do however love the olive wood scales and the fact that it was harvested right here from our tree which was planted in honor of my late mother-in-law. A couple coats of tru-oil really brought out the grain and color variation.

I spent some time working out the DMT 325 scratches with the King 1k, then onto a midrange coti I have. Next the King 6k which seemed to progress quickly. My finisher coti just wasn't getting me where I wanted to be so i pulled out the film and went 3u to 1u and it's ready for a test shave. It's not my favorite or my best work but it'll do.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Looks great!

 

[Wolfdagon]

I agree. That looks great, Dilbone. I really like the olive wood scales.

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't make the deadline. I thought that I was going to be able to finish it before the end of the night, but it's not going to happen. I should still be able to finish it tomorrow or Sunday, but that will be too late. I'll still post pictures when it's done, though.

Good luck to those still left in the running. I look forward to seeing the entries.

 

[Saxonbowman]

I agree. That looks great, Dilbone. I really like the olive wood scales.

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't make the deadline. I thought that I was going to be able to finish it before the end of the night, but it's not going to happen. I should still be able to finish it tomorrow or Sunday, but that will be too late. I'll still post pictures when it's done, though.

Good luck to those still left in the running. I look forward to seeing the entries.

I will be posting the entry thread shortly. You have a week to post your entry before we open the voting.

 

[Saxonbowman]

Please post your completed entries in the entry thread on this sub forum. Even if you have posted the completed pictures here we need them to be in the entry thread so we can have folks view them before voting opens on August 8.

 

[Wolfdagon]

Well, I screwed up twice trying to do the wedge. First, I drilled the pin holes in the wrong spot. Not sure how I managed to do it, but the blade would hit the pins when closing where they are located. I decided that I could hide the holes somehow, and went ahead and glued the wedge in place and clamped it. I waited a few hours and removed the clamp. The wedge had moved before the glue set. Probably while placing the clamp, since the clamp would have obscured my view of the wedge. It took some work, but I managed to remove the wedge without damaging the scales. I have shaped a new wedge, but have decided not to do any more work on it tonight. After two close calls, I don't want to risk damaging the scales beyond repair. I'll try again tomorrow.

I thought I would go ahead and show my progress so far, though. Here is where I am at with my razor, the Honey Bee.

I had planned to make three curved stripes on the wedge end of the scales, like the stripes on a honey bee. However, I decided that my woodworking skills were not up to the task of matching the curves perfectly enough to fit together. Instead, I decided to try dyeing the stripes with black wood dye. Unfortunately, my tests on scraps of the canary wood did not work, so I just decided to leave the stripes off.

I was happy with my first try at saltwater etching, although my test piece had a deeper etch on my test piece than on the Gold Dollar. I had just about given up on finding a suitable stencil for the honeycomb pattern. Everything I found online had much bigger honeycombs. I gave up on the search for several days, and then tried again. I finally stumbled across fingernail stencils which were the perfect size.

The honey bee on the scales is a sterling silver charm that I found on etsy. I thought that it was too bright, so I darkened it with some gun blue solution.

Once I finally get this finished, I plan to make a matching beehive shaving brush. I have another one of the honey be charms for that.