Krenovian carving knife

Krenov carved many of his cabinet handles and catches freehand using a range of small knives he made as required. I stumbled across some very nice nickel steel blades at a woodwork fair in Harrogate by Nic Westerman of Machynylleth and bought a couple. The handle was made from some very old English walnut salvaged from firewood cut from ancient walnut plantations in South Derbyshire where it was once common. In this case it was from the estate of Elvaston Castle south of Derby.

I carved and rasped the organic shape until it felt comfortable with sufficient shape to allow close control over the blade. Finish was oil and wax.

It's off later today as a secret santa present so I'll have to make the other blade for myself later.

Boring Bars - not an anti drinking comment

Spent today making some boring bars for work on the ML7. I use a piece of 8mm HSS to make a cutter which I mount in a square hole drilled and filed in the bar and retained with a 6mm screw from below. Today I had to run down some 25mm stock and tried the travelling steady to control chatter. In practice it worked very well.