Despite the nice weather, there's no escaping the fact that another summer is fading away and it's time to get back in the shop. I started this one a while ago, but summer projects intervened and it sat on my bench until now. This is my take on a fruit knife. The fruit knife was very popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The traditional fruit knife was a pretty basic friction folder or slipjoint that featured a blade made of silver or gold which would resist the acid of fruit. They were something of a status symbol, in the same way the mobile phone is today. Everyone could easily tell how important you were by how fancy your fruit knife was. The gold-bladed, pearl-handled, gold-inlaid ones were the equivalent of having the latest iPhone. (iPhone5 to be announced Sept 12th, for those who care.) Sadly, my gold and silver blade stock is a bit low at the moment, so mine has a blade made from O1. This one is made as a slipjoint. To help alleviate the effects of cutting fruit with it, I added a patina to the blade. The rest of it is pretty basic. I used titanium for the liners to prevent discolouration and 416 for the bolsters. The scales are white paper micarta which gives a reasonable impersonation of bone without being as porous. I tried to create the illusion of something old by leaving in a few marks and scratches on the blade and bolsters. I also sanded down the scales near the bolsters to simulate wear from using it. I finished off by carrying it around for a week in a pocket full of change. I'll leave it to you to judge how successful my aging was. Specs: Closed length: 102mm (4") Handle width: 16mm (5/8") Blade length: 73mm (2 7/8")
