THE WATCH FOB

My customer has written this text:
We have a saying that if you want to know the time then you should ask a policeman. It should be, if you want to know if the impossible is possible then you should ask Finn Hornslien.
I wanted to have a 4cm silver £2 coin mounted as a watch fob but had been told by British jewellers that it was either impossible or was so expensive that the job was out of the question.


After several emails and a phone call to Finn and I began to believe that perhaps the work could be done.

WORKING OUT

The final design was achieved through several rough sketches  from Finn, which arrived within the hour on my computer, several  photographs with notes sent by me, followed by a dummy mount mad by Finn to see if he had understood what I was asking for and that I liked what he was proposing and that the coin would fit.

The end result was just what I wanted. Now that's what I call service and the impossible can be possible. All you have to do is ask!

THE KNIFELESS SHEAT

The Knife originally was given to the present owners father in 1902 as a reminder from another person.  Sadly the knife had become lost leaving the sheath sad and all alone.  The belt strap for the sheath was also missing; in fact it may never have had a strap at all.

Often in the older type of knives the sheath is made first and the knife is made to fit afterwards.  These are generally only held by the upper part of the sheath and it is common for them to fall out.

The sheath inner area of the sheath was measured,and tadjustments were made to incorporate the metal bolster and the shape of the knives shaft.  The bolster was made of german silver ( the same as the fittings on the sheath), and the shaft was made with bolster and top button..  To finish the shaft was coloured, oiled and and a new strap was made for the sheath.  This time the strap incorporated a safety device that would hold the knife in place.  This involved a lot of work due to the fact that one had to fit a pattern that was already given , without knowing the finer points.

Overall the project was successful.

LARGER VIEW

THE LILAC WOOD KNIFE

Thoughts about Lilac wood and about drying wood.

His father had a special relationship to that particular tree. When it was cut down the son took care of some of the wood, in order that he could make a reminder for his father.

He carefully whittled the bark from it and put it away to dry.  One day he decided that it was going to be a knife and he contacted me.  

Lilac wood does not grow particularly thick and to get enough material for a shaft it has to be cut lengthways.  It is common to see colour difference in the sapwood and the older wood.  You could almost compare the wood with the colouration of a fox, red on the top with a white stomach.

There was however a problem…. The wood had dried far to quickly and the tension between the old and sap wood had caused the piece to spilt.  Out of all the pieces there was only one that had a slight chance of being used.  After removing the damaged wood there was about 10 cm left and even this had a split in one end.  There was little else to do other than fill the split with glue and make a metal bolster as extra protection.

I found a blade from an old master smith in Tinn. His name was , Knut Knutsen Kvisterud, and with some grinding the and other treatments we ended up with a nice knife.

Here are some thoughts about drying wood.

Never let it dry too fast, the slower it dries the better and NEVER REMOVE THE BARK!

Seal the ends, and pack the wood in some old newspaper, then put them away and forget all about them. Put them somewhere where it is well ventilated and where the sun doesn't shine.

As a rule this tends to do the trick.

THE LUMBERJACK KNIFE

It was decided by a Grandmother that the three children were old enough to have their own knives.   Knives had earlier been made for the first and eldest children. The knife maker was an old lumberjack who had lived in the area where she had her summerhouse.  Unfortunately he was now dead and when Grandma became sick she made her son promise that he would make sure that the last knife was made.
Upon her death the son came to see me and asked if I could make the knife that he wanted.  I borrowed one of the originals and set to work.

Picture text
The knife at the top is the original and the lower one is the one made by me.

The shaft of the original knife was made of plum wood; I chose a piece of twisted ash. I found the blade ( made by Kåre Nordli) amongst my treasures but had to by the branding pen to decorate the sheath is the same manner as the original. The presentation of the knife was a success and was made at a family reunion in July 2001.

THE SGIAN DUBH

I received an e-mail who asked if I could make a SGIAN DUBH.  My first question was" what on earth is that?"
It turned out that the guy who had taken contact with me was Scottish and on the Scottish national costume the man carries a knife. Today this is put down the top of the sock, but in earlier times it was hidden under the arm of the jacket. You would think that something as diverse as this would be almost impossible to find out about, and even by use of the wonderful World Wide Web it was hard.

But they say that patience is a virtue and after a long search I managed to find a picture that showed me the knife was very similar to a small dagger.

After careful research and further contact with the client we found out the name of the knife was Celtic and meant literally " Black Knife.

From this I estimated that the shaft material was most likely Swamp Oak. Swamp oak is basically oak that has fallen into a bog and has laid there for several thousand years.  The acidic contents of the tree together with the low acidic content of the bog makes the wood a dark grey or black colour.  It becomes softer but can still be used as a shaft material.
Luckily for me I had a piece in the workshop.  The client wanted a simple knife with silver endplates top and bottom, and he wanted this for a reasonable price.

We agreed, I set to work and he got the knife that he wanted!

THE "BORGER BLADE" THAT BECAME A KNIFE

Wolf Borger is a famous German knife maker and blade smith. He is also well known and respected in Norway.  Some years ago he partook in a show her in Norway. At this particular show he did sell knife blades.

There was a guy who had  bought a very nice hunting blade and had it laying around, waiting for the occasion that he would get around to making the knife.  One day he arrived on my doorstep.
I had seen a fair amount of Borgers knives and had an idea as to how the knife should look.

The client was luckier than he was aware of, because I had a piece of material of the same type that Borger himself used.  The knife turned out really well, the shaft was stabilised elm and the sheath sat nicely on the belt.

We were both very satisfied.