This knife was made specifically to go with the tweed corset jacket. I wanted it to be able to be worn in a variety of ways…as a necklace or across the front like a pocket watch. The inside of the knife was done in the traditional way but with double titanium liners; the inside ones are riveted to the mechanism and the outer ones are covered and screwed to the inside liners.
The blade and spring are done and fitted to the inside titanium liners and now it’s time to start on the fabric covering.
The wool was fused to a dark silk so that the corners didn’t poke through or the metal gleam through the weave. The additional strength was worth the added stiffness.
The liners were temporarily stitched through the screw holes and then laced tightly around the back. Stitching the fabric allows me to create even tension along the piece and get a smooth, even curve around the end. When it is done they get steamed and pressed as flat a possible. I’ll then impregnate the fabric and the threads with superglue and clamp them flat until they dry. This ensures that even if the threads are damaged, the fabric stays.
I am also having purple liners made from the material that I lined the jacket with. These are just glued around a thin sheet.
These are all the pieces ready to go (well, nearly! The inside of the liners still need relieving – I’m not using washers on this one so I need to remove some material to prevent the blade from rubbing)
This is what the pieces look like loosely stacked together. There was a delay on this one last week while I considered my options. I originally had decided to do gold fittings for it and I had to wait for all the gold to arrive…now they have and I’ve made the knife, I’ve changed my mind and I think that I’ll go for silver instead!
I also decided that I didn’t like the purple liners. The extra layers made the knife chunkier and felt unnecessary.
