Emerson Three Layer Backspacers

Hey All,

  Recently I've been getting a lot of inquiries regarding my replacement backspacers on Emerson knives.  I've been making three layer spacers for Emersons for about a year and a half, and they usually come standard on my customized Emersons.  The three layer spacers are simply that- three layers of laminated G10, and they're a great way of adding some flair to your Emerson, even if you don't replace the scales.  If you're interested in having one made for your knife, they're pretty affordable at 35$ each (+10$ for Moonglow) and I can make them in a couple day's time in whatever color scheme you'd like.

-Will

C-Tek Emerson Persian

Hey All,

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd been working with the new C-Tek material, and I wanted to show off some of the fruits of a very long and arduous struggle to find out how to best finish the stuff.  I found that, like some others who are starting to work with C-Tek, the material deforms easily with heat, as such normal Alox belts simply won't be usable for working with the material.  My best results came from using 36 grit Blaze cermanic belts to profile and rough contour the material, then I finished contouring with a 120 grit Blaze ceramic belt and hand sanded to a matte finish up to 300 grit.  This produces a nice satin, non reflective finish that really shows off the depth of the resin and highlights the aluminum honeycomb.  I think the results speak for themselves:

-Will

Five Flute Gentleman Jim

Hey All,

I just wanted to show off a project I've been working on.  It's no secret I love orange knives, but the standard G10 I use, contoured and smooth, doesn't really offer too much grip.  I've been experimenting with ways of adding a bit of grip to my knives without sacraficing any of my pockets to the evil villian Peel Ply, and I think I may have come up with a workable solution to my dilemma.  Using my mill, I added a similar five flute pattern to what will be available on the tactical version of my custom framelock to the contoured orange scale of my Gentleman Jim.  This scale gives a lot of grip while maintaining the hull integrity of your pockets, very functional and cool looking.

-Will

A Word about C-Tek

Hey All,

Recently a new material has been introducted to the market that I'm really excited about.  In my work, one of the most interesting and exciting things that I do on a day to day basis is I get to work with and learn about new and innovative materials for my knives, and C-Tek may be one of the coolest materials I've seen to day.  For those of you who haven't seen C-Tek yet, it's a new material that was recently introduced to the market as a lightweight alternative to G10 and Micarta.  Unlike G10 and Micarta, resin filled C-Tek doesn't have a fiber weave to give it strength, instead it uses honey comb aluminum mesh, which is lighter and stronger than G10.  Likewise the resin used with this material is translucent, allowing for a very cool visual appearance when used on the handle of a knife.

I will be working with this material on my future projects, and plan on integrating it into a lot of my future work.  I see this as being one of the most revolutionary and interesting materials to hit the market in a very long time, it's expensive but you get what you pay for in cool factor.

-Will

Quick Note Regarding Service Changes

Hey all,

As of this past Thursday I am now back at school full time.  As such I will be ceasing custom orders until next summer.  Please be aware I may be somewhat pressed for time, so email response may be slow.  I will still be working on the integrals, but because of my personal time constraints they will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.  The first knives will be ready for market around September, as it takes roughly a week and a half to complete a single knife.  I'll post more information regarding pricing on the knives when I have a concrete number of how many hours it takes to mill the final version, needless to say they are milling and labor intensive, so they will be pretty pricey, but I'm trying to make them as inexpensive for the buyer, I will say this: the basic knives will be less expensive than a production XM-18.  I appreciate all the support, thanks for a great summer,

-Will

Non-knife Customization: Kassa Fabrication Mass Effect Rifle Case

Hey all,

I wanted to post a non-knife related project up and show off some work I did customizing something a little different.  Those of you who know me personally probably know I'm a huge Mass Effect fan, likewise I'm also really into guns.  Recently I bought a couple of Pelican 1700's and me being me, couldn't not customize the cases and make them my own.  I laid out some custom Kassa Fabrication stencils using some painters tape (fans of the Mass Effect series will recognize the weapons manufacturer) and went to town with the airbrush and some enamel paints.  I used Sunburst Orange and Dark Metal Grey from Boyd and Model Masters respectively, and cut them with a quarter by volume laquer thinner for a matte finish.  The results speak for themselves, now this Pelican 1700 is ready for action.

-Will

Moon Framelock Update: Working Prototype!

Hey All,

I just wanted to update my blog regarding the framelock.  Progress has been start and stop due to our heavy breakage of tooling, however my father and I managed to finish a working prototype of the knife last night.  The knife is still extremely rough, and we're doing some redesigns from this rendition of the knife to make the finished version of the knife that much better.  This is just an iPhone video of the knife working, bear in mind the knife in this video doesn't have the framelock stop that the pivot secures to or washers, likewise the aluminum test blade hasn't been precision surfaced to smooth up the action.

Some of the things that will be redesigned will include the framelock locking bar, which while still being angled for increased surface area, we've found is a little more solid and totally void of play.  The curved locking surface I had initially come up with just didn't work out the way I had hoped.  Likewise we've made some small changes to the internals of the knife, for example adding thumb relief for the lockbar, an increased finger choil for grip, slightly altered thumb serrations, ect.

Next step is to go ahead and make another frame with the new locking interface and mill some blades out of steel.  In the mean time I've gone ahead and started to lay out my different grind patterns to visualize what everything's going to look like.

Stay tuned for more vidoes and pictures as we move into the final stages of prototyping and the beginning of production.  

-Will

Orions almost sold out! A BIG thank you to my customers!

Hey All,

  I just wanted to post a huge thank you to my customers; after reviewing my current inventory I found that I only have a few Orions left.  With the model nearly sold out, I'll be moving intoproducing framelocks full time.  You may still custom order an Orion until the model is sold out and I also have a few complete knives in stock, however after the last Orion leaves the door I will not be making any more balisongs and discontinuing the Orion model forever.
  If you're interested in ordering an Orion, please contact me at willmooncustomknives@gmail.com.  Thank you again!

 -Will