February 27 work in progress: Cheetah Knife

I have the opportunity to do another collaboration! This is going to be a great piece. I've been asked to keep this somewhat under wraps while I'm working on it. So, I will show you some work in progress stuff but won't unveil the finished piece until it's been professionally photographed.

This is the knife I get to work on. As you can see, it's pretty small, and gorgeous!. It was made by Kirby Bletcher and engraved by Christopher Malouf. I will be scrimming a cheetah on the handle, which is pre-ban elephant ivory.

First step was to get the first line of the border on there, which was SO grueling because this knife has curved edges, so measuring was quite a challenge, and I needed to match my border with the one that's engraved onto the bolster. My border will mirror the engraved one... two thin black lines with gold in the center. I think the cheetah is going to be the easy part. ;-) I know, you're looking at this and you're not impressed. That's okay. Just wait. And ignore those little ink smudges.