zebra scrimshaw on a Cowles knife

Wonderfully realistic. Only those who understand what you have done can truly appreciate it. The casual passer-by will think "interesting, how'd she transfer that on there?" or "look, someone painted zebra at a water hole"--very beautiful and skillful work. Than you for sharing both your skill, talent and enthusiasm with us-You are a remarkable artist Fred

Katherine, A masterful rendition, and +++ to all the previous posts.

That is outstanding!! I don’t know what else I can say this is incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very, very beautiful Katherine. I have to ask, how many hours do you have in it.

Les Schowe

I think that is the best thing I've seen fom your bench. Great work!

Wow! Amazing work. Every detail...wow!
Amy

Katherin, A real thing of beauty, this knife, and the first of many I predict. Good Luck and thanks for sharing. Dave "Spank" Spanski

Katherine that is absolutely one of the best scrims I ever seen. You just raised the bar for the best, and you put it pretty high.

Rock on Katherine!!!............That ought to knock their lights out..............

Fantastic work Katherine!!!

I told you you were ready for the big time when we met in Reno!!!! Good to see that I was right about something. Now the question that nobody else asked.....WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SCRIM ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE KNIFE?

Great work,

Mark

so lifelike! Scary good work.
Darcy

Wow, is it okay if I admit I'm kinda feeling like a rock star after reading all that? :banana: Thank you SO much everyone, I really appreciate all the comments, seriously I can't stop smiling. I'm so happy with how this piece turned out, it was hard for me to say goodbye to it! Really!

I will try to answer all the questions..

Paul- yup, you got it! Engraving on ivory, bone, or similar materials (there are a couple of good "synthetics" out there too)

Carlo- I use a microscope, generally 10X magnification and sometimes less if I want to see more of the surface that I'm working on.

About the bolsters- heh, I knew someone would ask. I'm sure it's tough for you engravers to look at blank piece of metal. I understand, think I start drooling when I see ivory handled knives and guns.. Don C. and I discussed the bolsters (that was one of my first questions, "are they going to be engraved?" because that would influence my image) and it was decided they would be left blank. With that dark blade and my detailed image, anything on the bolsters would make the knife too busy. And I totally 100% agree with that decision.

Sam- I just noticed your official title and laughed

John- I hear they're a rough ride!

Les- nothing personal, but that's a question I won't answer in public (I've always been weird about that one, sorry)

Mark- Good question! There's quite a story there. Okay, when I first got this knife it took me a while to figure out what to put on it, I kicked around a lot of ideas but decided that I really wanted to somehow echo the damascus pattern a little bit in the scrim. Stripes, ripples....both! It was a real "ah ha" moment when I decided on zebras at a water hole. The original plan (plan A) was just to put an image on one side. And then I thought well heck I hate to neglect the other side, so I figured I'd do something simple on the back, maybe a head shot of a couple zebras or something (plan B). And then I went totally gung ho, as I am prone to doing, and sketched out this totally cool image for the back of these zebras splashing out of the water hole (Plan C). Totally complicated, totally cool, and went very well with this one. But then I got to thinking well heck, this image rocks, do I really want to put my good stuff on the B-side, so to speak? So I'm hanging onto that one for another knife down the road some time. So it was back to Plan B. But then a HUGE project with a very tight deadline rolled in, and that put the knife back to Plan A, and I decided that if time allowed I would work on the back also. But time did not allow. With me soon heading out of town for a while, and needing to get the knife back to Don before Blade Show, I did not feel that I could do justice to a second image, and opted to leave it blank as he and I had originally discussed anyway. So, (wow that was rambly) I'd say whoever buys it can talk to me about getting an image on the back, should that person so desire. How's that for an answer. Yeah, nobody let me talk all day...

To everyone who commented, thank you!!! I think I'll go bounce around the room a few more times now.

-Katherine

Katherine...You certainly did it right. Shazaam!!!
Great stuff.

Stunning work Katherine!

I'm looking forward to seeing it at BLADE - hope I get there before one of the collectors snaps it up!

Katherine, kudos. I am humbled and awed by your work on my knife.

Beautiful! Don, I am ashamed to admit that I didn't even look at the blade until Carlo made his comment. Really nice work by both of you!
Gary

Katherine that's the first thing I thought too same as Marcus, it looks like a photograph was stuck to the knife handle! WOW you are really getting amazing! Have you scrimmed pearl yet? I wanted to bulino a zebra head on the front bolster of an interframe with white pearl and have something like that scrimmed into the pearl!
Now you reading my mind and stealing my ideas? LOL That really is fabulous. At first view of the small pic the water and reflections looked so real! If you ever want to do a piece with me just say the word. We could do snow leopards/tigers and use that pearl inly idea with just different animals. In fact I have a gorgeous photo of a lounging white tiger with the sweetest expression on her face a knife like that would be fabulous.
Pleas let me know, i would love to work with you on a project.

Katherine :
My congratulations on such beautiful work and is one of the scrim most beautiful I've seen. This work on a piece of my brother Cowles makes this knife is very special and very well liked by the collector.

Greeting
Antonio

---
Amiga Katherine :
Mi felicitación por tan bello trabajo ; es uno de los scrim más bellos que he visto . Ese trabajo en una pieza de mi hermano Cowles , hace que ese cuchillo sea muy especial y muy deseado por el buen coleccionista .

Saludo
Antonio

Thank you everyone. I hope everyone has a great time at Blade Show!

-Katherine