Jesse Brennan's personalized touches on an elegant Maple Box

This project started with a nicely made Birdseye Maple box that I obtained two years ago at the CLA.
Jesse has performed a masterful job of personalizing and beautifying the original with elegant silver detailing as well as adding extra carving details on the feet and lining the inside of the box with velvet. This box is an anniversary gift to my wife Barbara.

"Just a little box all covered with blossoms white as snow

Chinese red and made of brass that he gave her long ago

Like the red dirt Oklahoma hills and the springtime flowering trees

That she kept with all the love they shared inside her memories

She kept it on her dresser filled with gold and silver rings

Necklaces of turquoise, beads and other things

It filled her heart with the mystery and the magic of the day

When he gave it to her for her own in his quiet loving way".

In China or a woman's heart by Kate Wolf

Update on the Cumberland Rifle

The Cumberland Rifle is just about finished - just awaiting the final wood finishes to dry (reminds me of the old joke about watching paint dry - it does require a measure of patience!)

Part one: Hardening lock parts in the forge using moose-bone charcoal.

Part two: All inletted parts removed from the stock for staining.

Finally, the lock, trigger guard, side plate and patch box are reinstalled and the screws are ready for gold heads.

Here are all the finished parts shown separately

Once again the author must state:

No felines were harmed in the taking of these

photographs!

In fact, Jud has started a lucrative side business

selling kittens! 

These are a rare breed known as the

Tenderfoot Tigers.

Demand has outstripped supply!

A Stunning New Dirk from Jesse Brennan

This Dirk is styled after the early period of Scot's Dirks with a very light weight, slender and sharp blade and an ornate handle of fossilized walrus bone. The color of the Fossil Bone that Jesse chose adds to the overall beauty of the handle and gives depth and context to the skillful fluting and carved knot work.

I have taken multiple photographs of this project as it started with a hand forged blade, a trip to Mark Knapp's knife maker's supply store for the handle material and the careful carving of the handle. Jesse has fabricated every item on this knife including the leather scabbard, the silver buckle and the Celtic Rose that adorns the pommel.

This Dirk establishes Jesse once again as a skilled artist and artisan of the first rank. I am proud to be able to add this beautiful piece to my collection.

Jesse wishes to express his thanks to James D. Forman whose excellent monograph "The Scottish Dirk" contained descriptions and photographs that inspired him to make this knife.

Shape of things to come: A sgian dubh  is next on Jesse's agenda.

Here is a sneak peek at the blade - forged last night and annealed today.

These images of the finished Dirk show its length and final coloration but were photographed at the end of our 4 hours of daylight, on a day in the midst of a snowstorm and the color temperature is excessively cold. They do show more of the detail of the blade shape and the purpose made strap and buckle.