Hey guys, well I tried my hands at a idea that I have been pondering for a while, as Dan said I like to push the boundaries, and so I tried making a Glow & Float knife! here is my first attempt, I used the glow resin and used it for the guard and butt bolster, thinking to myself what part of a knife that will get the most sun or light exposure...the butt end! then the float part...I took sheets of cork and stacked them up, thinking that it would create enough buoyancy to keep the knife afloat .... it dint. Snaps so for the float part its back to the drawing board. so anyways here is the final result. notice the camo pattern on the blade...the came out of tempering that way and I found it cool. kinda matched the resin pattern. Hope you guys like it! Cheers
What if the sheath was stabilized cork? Might be just enough there to float. Looks impressive with the glowing bits
Right now its at a point of almost buoyancy...maybe I'm not using the proper cork material...if there is such a thing ?
Might need another ring or two of cork, you definitely want more than neutral buoyancy at the surface.
By the usual tricks. Drilling out excess metal or a tapered tang or the like... Being a hidden tang knife obviously there is less room for this type of thing. I was just thinking more about buoyancy...
Oh...yeah well I did take that into consideration and brought the tang down as much as I could with out compromising the integrity. right now I'm guessing the cork, I think there is different density.
Not sure about a different grade of cork, but it never hurts to look into it. The blade looks like it's almost color case hardened, and looks REALLY nice. My dad has this Case folder that has the same effect.
Thanks Dan! Well from what I read about cork is that the bigger the grain in the sheet the more air trapped inside the material...and also read about balsawood being extremely buoyant and porous, but the trouble with that is that it can get waterlogged really quick...unless its protected or sealed some how, for sealant I'm thinking of the product called plastic dip. liquid plastic rubber used to make the rubber handles on tools. Any input would be welcomed. As for the blade, this is the first time I have seen this type of pattern before...I really like it before it just use to come out different shades of blue issshhh nothing really to write home about and would just sand it off... but this one is cool, I just need to know how to reproduce it and protecting the effect so that its not rubbed off.
I have heard that cork handles look good at first, but they wear out pretty quickly. Cork that you are using on this handle is made of many little pieces glued together. Try to find solid cork cut of actual whole pieces of cork tree bark, they are more solid. Any grain sealant will add more weight to the handle, so whatever you gain using more porous material you will loose with sealant. You basically have two ways to go - make the blade lighter or make the handle bigger or both. I would go for a narrow blade, like 15-18 mm and longer barrel shaped handle. Also I would consider wooden bolsters instead of resin. Resin is heavy stuff. But then you loose that glow which is pretty cool I think...
Hey Guys, so after reading all of this I just got a brain fart.... ( just love these types of challenges ) Ill be working on a solution tonight and hopefully will have the new functioning proto in a few days!
Balsawood can be sealed with CA, Epoxy or Polyurethane. should also be stabilized easily and the plastic should float.
Neat idea for a fly fisherman! or any fisherman at that.. just an idea for extra buoyancy, could add a wrist strap with a old cork float (bobber) attached, might work, it could look alright or might look funny but never know till you try haha
Ok. This is a little outside the box. It's part joke and part real. I just haven't figure out how to make it work. There is an old science experiment that discusses bouyancy and mass etc. involving a rubber glove with alka seltzer tablets in the fingers stretched out over a glass of water. You drop the tablet into the glass and the glove fills with CO2 and becomes bouyant. If there was a way to make something like a knife handle condom that contained alka seltzer tablets, you could fit it over the handle of any knife. There would have to be small holes in it somewhere to let water in. Drop the knife in water, alka seltzer reacts, condom fills with CO2 and bam a little floating balloon brings the knife to the surface. Like i said. It's kinda funny but i think it might work. It could have bigger applications too for bigger gear. I'd call it the PFD, Prophylactic Floatation Device.
There is or was something like this short story is in theory it will work as long as it does not jam up. Far easier and reliable method is to have fishing weights that fall out of the handle. You need a material holding the knife together that will dissolve and create a path for water to flow into a reaction chamber. cannot activate during normal use (saltwater activation is easiest) weights on either side of handle drop and knife floats , need over sized handle ideally Balloon inflation method, can take time too fill and needs dissolvable section to allow balloon to expand and increase buoyancy. can use water pressure to activate C02 cylinder that will fill a balloon. There are systems available for what you described if you search a little,
