new guy, simple Vic Florist mod

[Photoshooter]

So this is where all the SAK addicts hang out...
Greetings all. SAK enthusiast and tinkerer by nature. (Which makes the SuperTinker my favorite Vic). Nothing is safe in my shop. I seem to have accumulated a bunch of these florist knives. I decided to rescale this one in cherry burl. The brass pins are purely decorative. I find these florist knives great for leather work, especially since I'm a lefty and they're ground on one side only. I plan to add serrations to a few and make them dedicated rope knives.

I also like other traditional knives; Opinel, puukko and of course multitools. I seem to have the Alox disease as well.
Gonna get to work now, I've got a lot of posts to read...   

[colt 1911]

Sweet !  Where the original scales brass rivets decoration ?

[Nhoj]

Hey Photoshooter nice job there!

[sawman]

Nice mods.  It's great to have you here 

[Photoshooter]

Thanks all.
I'm skimming the various forum sections here and I feel a wallet plague coming on 

[pthycrpg]

WOW Great work  Now I know who took all of my talent. 

[AHB]

Excellent ctaftmanship PS.. 

[North Man]

i like them alot nice combo there, ps welcome to forum!

[Zed]

Lovely work mate  Welcome 

[nuphoria]

Splendid bit of modding there

Great to have you with us

[Photoshooter]

Thanks all! I should probably confess that for every good mod or knife there are "a few" that end up in the recycle bin 

Sweet !  Where the original scales brass rivets decoration ?

If I remember correctly the scales on the florist may have been lightly pinned to the liners but the pins did not go all the way through the knife. I was prepared to replace the pins when I took off the scales but discovered another set of pins holding the knife together. So I left them and simply glued the new wood scales with epoxy.

[WoodMan]

Beautiful burl, is it stabilized?

Also, mind letting us in on the source?

[MARIOS7319]

Very nice work there Photoshooter. 
Welcome aboard.

[Syph007]

Welcome and nice work!

And yes, this is the hot spot for swiss army knife enthusiasts for sure! We have alot of very knowledgeable folks around here and the SAK modding scene is very active lately.

Cheers!

[PTRSAK]

Nice work and welcome. I have a few of the florist knives and have been playing around with ideas of fitting one of the blades into a"normal" SAK, but that looks sweet as it is. I might do one myself in horn and brass our something.

[Wootz]

So this is where all the SAK addicts hang out...
Greetings all. SAK enthusiast and tinkerer by nature. (Which makes the SuperTinker my favorite Vic). Nothing is safe in my shop. I seem to have accumulated a bunch of these florist knives. I decided to rescale this one in cherry burl. The brass pins are purely decorative. I find these florist knives great for leather work, especially since I'm a lefty and they're ground on one side only. I plan to add serrations to a few and make them dedicated rope knives.

I also like other traditional knives; Opinel, puukko and of course multitools. I seem to have the Alox disease as well.
 
Gonna get to work now, I've got a lot of posts to read...   

Excellent taste!  Welcome to you

[Sparky415]

Thanks all.
I'm skimming the various forum sections here and I feel a wallet plague coming on 

That happens 

Nice work there 

[colt 1911]

Thanks all! I should probably confess that for every good mod or knife there are "a few" that end up in the recycle bin 

Sweet !  Where the original scales brass rivets decoration ?

If I remember correctly the scales on the florist may have been lightly pinned to the liners but the pins did not go all the way through the knife. I was prepared to replace the pins when I took off the scales but discovered another set of pins holding the knife together. So I left them and simply glued the new wood scales with epoxy.

Nice, thanks

[Syph007]

I took one florist apart and it was pinned as normal through the scales.  The pins were larger than normal though.

[PTRSAK]

I took one florist apart and it was pinned as normal through the scales.  The pins were larger than normal though.

+1.   The one I have broken down had HUGE pins at the ends..  3.5mm from memory, it was a model with aluminium liners.

I do have another one with brass liners which would be the one I would do any fancy scales mod to. Don't know if that one has smaller or different pins.

[Photoshooter]

Hmmm, don't remember exactly as it was a while ago. I'll have to take apart another and see.


Edit to add:
If the pins do go through I likely cut and filed them flush, then glued on the new scales.

[enki_ck]

Nice introduction. Welcome.

[Photoshooter]

My first thread and already I have spread misinformation...

Apologies, the pins on the Florist do go all the way through. As mentioned above I cut them flush to the scales, peened and glued new scales over top. The end pins appear to be 3.5mm and the center pin 2.5mm.

[Photoshooter]

Beautiful burl, is it stabilized?

Also, mind letting us in on the source?

Sorry Woodman, I somehow missed your questions. No the cherry burl isn't stabilized. I finished it with Tru-Oil. I'm a pack rat when it comes to wood. Most small pieces for knife making come from various eBay sellers as well as from members of different knife making forums.

[WoodMan]

Beautiful burl, is it stabilized?

Also, mind letting us in on the source?

Sorry Woodman, I somehow missed your questions. No the cherry burl isn't stabilized. I finished it with Tru-Oil. I'm a pack rat when it comes to wood. Most small pieces for knife making come from various eBay sellers as well as from members of different knife making forums.

The reason I asked is that some time ago I picked up some Cherry burl on ebay with the goal of making some wooden pens out of it.  The wood, while definitely Cherry, was much less dense than normal Cherry, almost punky.  It does have the attractive burl grain, but it's so soft that I wouldn't even consider making something out of it without stabilizing it first.  So I was wondering about the density of your Cherry burl and how to find a reliable source for it since you can't examine it in advance.

[Sidhartha]

nice work! 

[Photoshooter]

The reason I asked is that some time ago I picked up some Cherry burl on ebay with the goal of making some wooden pens out of it.  The wood, while definitely Cherry, was much less dense than normal Cherry, almost punky.  It does have the attractive burl grain, but it's so soft that I wouldn't even consider making something out of it without stabilizing it first.  So I was wondering about the density of your Cherry burl and how to find a reliable source for it since you can't examine it in advance.

I know exactly what you mean when you talk about punky wood. I've run across that several times. The cherry burl I used was quite dense so I had no difficulty getting thin slices for scales. I often buy pen blanks or turning blanks on ebay. Since these items aren't expensive I'm willing to take a chance without seeing them in person. I usually rely on the photos. Obviously pen blanks are only suitable for small projects like folding knives. I also tend to save every little scrap that has potential. I have shoebox-sized plastic storage containers filled with bits and pieces of wood.

I'll go through my ebay history and list some of the vendors I've dealt with multiple times (as long as it's not against forum rules).

[ICanFixThat]

Here are a couple Gardners done by someone that lingers in the shadows here I think.



The scales are thicker than the stock ones, makes the knives really nice to hold.

[Photoshooter]

Very nice!