Thread: Joseph Allen in abalone

Here is a 5/8 Joseph Allen & Sons. It was all sorts of rusty with broken scales when I got it. Had to grind through the etching to get rid of pits, but that's the choice that needs to be made sometimes.

Scales are abalone shell. Two solid, thin panels on each side. Not the veneer. Layed on top of 1/16 black g10 liners. Epoxy resin with black pigment holds together. No clear coat. Sanded flat as the material would allow. Micromesh, then red/blue compound on buffers, and hand polished. The seams are smooth transition and can't be felt. What you can feel is the shell, and that's nice. This is my first shell without clear on top. I had thought would need additional pins to secure the shell, but concede that is not required. Although, the edges need to be kept square this way, but I really like making rounder edges.

Nickel rods, stainless washers with a slight dome. Blue G10 wedge.

The Abalone is not as straight as the raw mother of pearl, being wavy. You may notice wedge side of scales are thicker show side than back side. Similar at rear. Inboard is flat and square, due to liners. Blade centers beautiful. At first I was very frustrated by the imperfections. Now that it is done, I enjoy it. It is a reminder it is natural.

This was a lot of fun, not just from doing a new project. As I was working with my project, Zomax was also doing some with same material, and it was a blast sending emails back and forth getting tips from each other. Thanks Z!

Many more full size images available here if wanted
Joseph Allen & Sons in Abalone

Looks sweet! Nicely done!

Nicely done! that abalone pattern really pops! Great technique as well!

Very nice. Really like the shell work you do. It is just stunning.

Another beautifully done restore with your usual creativity and thinking out of the box!

Re the ab, I prefer the look of 3 or 4 sections rather than 2 but no denying she's a beauty.

Thanks everyone for kind comments.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Re the ab, I prefer the look of 3 or 4 sections rather than 2 but no denying she's a beauty.

I liked the idea of trying as few panels as possible on one. I was concerned that I would need to pin the seams, when leaving shell naked. Too many pins would look like a studded dog collar. Now that I did it, I fell ok the extra pinning isn't needed.

Good point that the seams of multi panels may have better symmetry with a blade.

Mechanically more panels are easier to have lay flat on the liners. Only negative during assembly would be matching the grain of the abalone at the seams. I felt pretty good with how the pattern matched here. Having one or two more seams per side will be interesting to match the grain pattern.

Yes, surely matching more sections would be a challenge. Used to be an Aussie member bg42 used to do multi sections but he used other inserts like brass etc for contrast rather than trying to flow each section & he used MOP IIRC so the differences weren't as stark as ab.
You have a great flow on those joins.

Walt,
Nice job ...too bad about the etching, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Great finish

Very nice. I think the real stuff looks so much better.