Buffalo horn custom Spartan

About a week ago I ordered a few water buffalo horn plates on Ebay and yesterday they arrived. After some inspection, I started with sawing, grinding, sanding and polishing... The result.... a god awful smell, loads of dust and an amazing smooth, shiny finish. I never expected that a rough material like this could result in a beautful smooth finish. Manipulating the material is fairly easy, and if you don't sand it too thin, you should do fine. This type of horn is dark black through and through and the only variation is in the structure. The small cracks and lines give it that "natural" feel. This is an awesome material...

Custom lucite display box with Buffalo horn...

Brass scaled mod

This time I went for the over the top engraving. My last brass scaled mod was a real temptation to engrave, but my wife made me promise to let it as it was. "Less is more" is her credo, and I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with both results. The tool combination is rather chaotic, because I used everything I had lying around, so i ended up with a knife, wood saw, metal saw, scissors, philips head screwdriver, mag-glass, can opener, caplifter, etc... The engraving is a real success. At first I was afraid that it would look to crowded, but after some painful wrist-movements, I was able to make a continuous line with small waves added. It may look easy, but believe me, it isn't! 

Below you can see the scales right after the sanding. My new belt-sander is a great addition and makes producing new scales fairly easy,but sanding brass is still a challenge, since it gets overheated pretty quick.

Buffalo horn scaled Victorinox Golf tool

I thought I scored a 91mm with horn scales and the old style tweezers. I was up for a surprise when I noticed at home that I actually bought a 84mm. I was in a hurry and didn't notice the size difference in the box... When I took a good look, i noticed a long, thin tool on the back. For a brief moment I realized that I bought a brand new in box Golf tool with Buffalo horn scales. Doesn't ring a bell? Well, this is one of those knives, a real collector would pay big money for. I didn't buy it to gain profit, but it feels good to know that I made a good choice... The knife contains the combo tool, scissors, large blade, long nailfile, corckscrew and tweezers/toothpick. This knife has a beautiful white to black fade on both front and back scale. The knife has the grooved corkscrew and combo tool, which makes it's production date situated between 1986 and 1991. 

Victorinox Deluxe series

This series contains 6 58mm "Bijou" knives with enameled scales, or in simple words...glass scales... These scales have each another pattern, going from blue marble to plain black. They were made from the early eigthies till 1999 and are discontinued. While the knives are actually 56mm, due to the fact that the corners are squared off, they are still labeled as a 58mm. From 1987 on Victorinox added the shield on the scales, so this serie should be made before 87... I recently bought four of the six available in a brand new condition. The one I definitely want to add is the gold one, but this is gonna be difficult since this was the first one to be sold out completely...

Share your story Victorinox Classic

Early 2012, Victorinox created a contest in which every Vic-employee worldwide could enter and send in a real life story about their knife. A few days ago I met an ex-Victorinox employee who wanted to sell his "gift"... The white cardboard box with red logo contains a picture frame with cellophane instead of glass. When you open up the frame, you can clamp the Classic between the two layers of cellophane. On top of the frame, there's a small brochure with a text where Carl Elsener thanks his employee for the inspirational story. The knife itself is extraordinary! The scales are filled with "thank you" in all different languages, and the main blade has "for your story" and the signature of Carl Elsener etched on it. This is, according to the small letter included in the box, a set limited to a few hundred pieces worldwide, and that makes me smile, because I'm one of the few with one... ;)