Pacific Yew wood handle scales Media
Published: 10 years ago
https://northarmknives.com/
At North Arm we (john and mike) do everything ourselves. Raw materials enter our shop and don't leave until they are a finished knife in a box going to a customer! With our pacific yew wood handle scales we've taken this one step further. We harvested the wood from the log and did every step of the process after that.
To mill the log into slabs we used our chain saw and Alaskan mill. We then transported the slabs home. Once at home we painted the ends of each slab to prevent them from drying too rapidly and cracking; they were then stacked in two large piles to keep them flat.
After the slabs had dried out fully we used a table saw and planer to process part of a slab into small blanks. Each blank makes 2 handle scales. The blanks are then screwed down to a special fixture on our CNC mill where they are milled to rough shape.
The milled handle scales now need hand sanding. We start with 150 grit sand paper and work up through multiple grits the refine the finish ending with 1200 grit.
Now the scales are ready for finishing. We use a two different products to achieve the final finish. The first two coats are the base product and the final coat is a different product. We use a vacuum chamber to force the first coat deep into the wood. The second coat is wiped on and the third is applied with an airbrush.
After finishing the scales are ready to be attached to a knife! We use threaded standoffs and small flat head screws to attach the scales to the tang of the knife. This makes them easily removable, replaceable and repairable.
If you like the video please subscribe to our channel!
https://northarmknives.com/
At North Arm we (john and mike) do everything ourselves. Raw materials enter our shop and don't leave until they are a finished knife in a box going to a customer! With our pacific yew wood handle scales we've taken this one step further. We harvested the wood from the log and did every step of the process after that.
To mill the log into slabs we used our chain saw and Alaskan mill. We then transported the slabs home. Once at home we painted the ends of each slab to prevent them from drying too rapidly and cracking; they were then stacked in two large piles to keep them flat.
After the slabs had dried out fully we used a table saw and planer to process part of a slab into small blanks. Each blank makes 2 handle scales. The blanks are then screwed down to a special fixture on our CNC mill where they are milled to rough shape.
The milled handle scales now need hand sanding. We start with 150 grit sand paper and work up through multiple grits the refine the finish ending with 1200 grit.
Now the scales are ready for finishing. We use a two different products to achieve the final finish. The first two coats are the base product and the final coat is a different product. We use a vacuum chamber to force the first coat deep into the wood. The second coat is wiped on and the third is applied with an airbrush.
After finishing the scales are ready to be attached to a knife! We use threaded standoffs and small flat head screws to attach the scales to the tang of the knife. This makes them easily removable, replaceable and repairable.
If you like the video please subscribe to our channel!
https://northarmknives.com/