Beer hops as knife handles...!

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robutacion

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Joined
Aug 6, 2009
Messages
6,514
Location
Australia - SA Adelaide Hills
Well, folks, I get challenged all the time by the KOI knives from Adelaide with ideas/requests they get from talking to potential knife buyers, in some cases, they have either a very specific handle/blade design they want or a specific handle(s) made with materials that were not meant to be used for such type of work but after a few years working with these KOI guys they learnt that there ain't much I can't cast and on that note, they send me an aluminium can full of beer hops from a local beer factory they visited.

They want knives (kitchen knives) made for their restaurants that somehow would "represent" the beer company and their logo (colours black and white) they seem to make an excellent and expensive beer, something that I hope to try out, soon. Interestingly, the idea of the beer hops did happen after one of KOI guys spotted a big bin of hops and he said, "our casting guy will be able to make handles out of the beer hops", now, at this time this guy had no idea of the consistency and hardness of the hops but he throws that though out there and they heard it clearly so the next thing they grabbed an empty aluminium can (big can) from the production line and filled it with hops, put a lid on a couple of rubber bands and said, "well, that's a brilliant idea, let's see what your casting guy can do...!"

I have worked with a lot of crazy stuff in my early days of casting experimentations but never beer hops, the closest thing I can think of that I used was granulated rabbit food, similar in size and shape to these beer hops as for the rest I needed some testing.

I finished the 2 knives today and are ready for the courier pick-up tomorrow afternoon, however, the "talking" about this experience stops right here, from now on, you will see a bunch of pics with notes of the process from beginning to end so without further ado, enjoy...!

Cheers
George
 

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Mart

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Aug 31, 2020
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Canada
Really nice. When I started reading this I thought "huh? How's that gonna turn out" but wow, beautiful work.
Mart
 

robutacion

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2009
Messages
6,514
Location
Australia - SA Adelaide Hills
Very interesting approach and process. I'll bet it smelled great working on these. I'm hoppy it turned out for you. - Dave
Well, yes and no, the only time they smelled real beer Hops was when I open the aluminium can and while coating the pellets with CA, after that no smell until I turned and sanded them but then, it was more a combination of Hops and CA smell, still not too bad.

Cheers
George
 
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