Knife saga ends well!
Wiley Horne
Hi all,
Recently, Bill Tindall approached our group, asking for information on a Japanese knife, and there was lots of talk...some time passed...I acquired this knife from Bill, and had a stimulating experience along the way.
The box arrived from Tennessee. Very sturdy box. On opening, there was the knife Bill had shown us in its own box, along with a hefty stick of roughsawn wood. I thought, Bill does bulletproof packing to have put this stave in here to keep the box from getting bent, and the knife with it.
Going to sharpen and buff the knife, the serendipitous thought occurred: this block of wood is right-sized to make a scabbard. Roughsawn, clearly walnut, not much else jumped out.
Started planing the wood. Lot of figure, grain going everywhere. Then gradually emerging from out of the shavings was a stunning piece of curly walnut. Only then did I have the head-slapping moment, no, this isn’t a package stiffener, Bill hand selected this very block of figured walnut to be a scabbard.
I asked to find out more. Turned out Bill had logged and sawn this Tennessee walnut himself. He wanted the knife to be suitably accompanied to its new home.
Here are a couple photos. Click or tap on them to enlarge. One, first view of what emerged from the band saw fuzz under planing. Two, scabbard with a few coats of 1/2lb blond shellac:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78661951@N07/albums/72157717368345638
Bill suggests rounding the edges a bit. All other suggestions welcome.
Big thanks to Bill Tindall for making this knife something special!
Wiley
