A ‘small’ job. That is how it looked in the beginning. My brother had a favorite folding knife, but he hated the rubber surface of the handle. After seeing one of my (many) creations, he looked at me like a beggar boy, and asked me in his sweetest tongue if I could do something about it.

Of course.

I can do (almost) anything.

I did not have to look long to find the appropriate wood for the project. Another brother was the source for ‘kayu hitam’, in plain English Macassar Ebony. I guess these days you would have to call it Palu Ebony as the Sulawesi town in Indonesia is now named.

It proved quite testing and tricky, with strict tolerances for thickness, curves, hole locations and sizes, cavities, heavy-duty epoxy gluing, and the pleasure of finishing, I choose Tung oil.