[gdenby]

A quick post, because I am packing for a 6 a.m. flight tomorrow. Haven't been idle, but not done a lot of work over the past weeks.

Some shots of a sort of mash up. The shaft was made months ago. The handle has been in the works since then. 2 somewhat similar woods. Soft maple, and a hard maple handle.

I considered a figure for the front end of the handle, but ended up fitting a piece of wave shaped quartz I found at Lake Superior years ago.

Polished it more by hand, which may not have been the best idea. The surface went from an even milky white to a glassy greyish mass.

Still need to finish the handle. Need to fill and clean the seams where the parts were epoxied together.

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[gdenby]

I've wanted to inset some of the rocks I picked up along Lake Superior beaches for some time. The self defense function, if any, was accidental. Tho' the stone is hard, I'm not sure if the setting adhesive would hold it. Still, it has a visual punch that is OK.

 

[gdenby]

Finshing will be straight forward. A last fine sanding and cleaning, followed by coats of tung or teak oil.

The hard part will be filling the thin seam around the stone, and at the joint of the handle and the shaft.

Polishing the stone wasn't too tedious. The surface was already quite smooth. I roughened the side to be glued w. 60 grit paper. I placed finer grit papers on a rubber cushion, starting w. 400. Then 600. Then (and this made a big difference,) a wet sanding w. some 800 grit crocus paper, which produced a glass like gloss. Finished w. wet 1200 grit.

About 150 circular rubs for each grit.

Almost made a mistake. Tried jewelers rouge on a buffing wheel, and the fine paste ended up putting a layer of dull red color on the stone. Had to retart at 400 grit.