I pulled it out of the vice and looked it over, didn't see any cracks, so I went ahead and put it back in and laid it up.

After sanding down on the bone, sure enough, I found the crack.

It looks good from this side...






But the flip side make the heart sink!





The bone is brittle enough that a flake of bone covered the crack when I pulled it out of the vice. But after sanding down, it showed plain as day...






This one is a lay-up scale of Arizona deadfall Mesquite, and black Mycarta, followed by the infamous bone, with mosaic pins.

I think it'll probably end up in a Christmas stocking this year. I have someone in mind, they'll understand.


Back to the shed to redeem myself!

It is called "character". Beautiful work. So sorry it's cracked. I'm sure you put a lot of work into that piece.
That's gonna be one happy recipient.

I hope it's my stocking Still looks good

ya i wouldnt mind it in my stocking either.lol

Crack, smack...if the knife isn't going to fall apart when used, then there's nothing wrong, IMO. Like was said, it adds "charatcher".

Oh, it won't come apart, the epoxy bled up thru the crack as it clamped, it's essentially once piece again, just with a line thru it. It came out beautiful aside from that, but I've got a real worthy recipient come Christmas Morning. He'll be tickled. Hard working guy, uses his vacation days to hunt... there's a good gauge of character! He deserves something nice.

Several good lessons learned for me.

Gosh Steve I hope you were'nt trying something new on my account! Sure a nice looking knive though.

Bearle

Keep watching, Bearle! The pinned bone wasn't new, I should have done two or three things different (things I knew but had never bit me before) and that's where the problem arose... The joint between the Mycarta and the Mesquite on the other hand......


The blade is flawless, I just didn't clean it properly or get the lights out for these photos.