Thread: Knife box

Knife one Alex.

Another beautiful box Alex.

Absolutely beautiful Alex.

Thanks all. I'm hoping the new owner will post some pics here with the knives, and the story of what the box is destined for.

The owner has sent some pics of the box with the knife and sheaths in it.

:Magnificent

Alex, did the box or the knives win first place @ the 2011 Sydney Royal Arts & Crafts Show ?? Silly question!! .....give self a swift uppercut! Of course the box won the prize!!....Doh!

After weeks trying to log in here & reply I managed to get in finally. The story of the box is briefly this. I'm going to auction on evilbay - the box and knives that have taken me 12 months to source from all over the world from individual owners, and put back into a matched set, with the beautiful box that Alex made which you see depicted in the photos.

The purpose is to raise funds for a new not for profit charity called the "Hayley foundation", designed to provide assistance to families of long term missing children in Australia, (starting with WA first). Its named in honor of WA teen Hayley Marie Dodd (17 years old) who went missing on 29 July 1999, while walking to a friends farm located east of the mid west WA wheat belt town of Badgingarra, to participate in shearing shed work as a roustabout.

Missing Persons : Dodd, Hayley Marie

I am authoring a book about the case, and have been researching her mystery disappearance for 3 years now. I am also the search coordinator for the girls family. The intent of the book (like this box and knives) is that all sales proceeds will go toward the foundation to help other families who find themselves in the same situation as the Dodd family. The book - while a riveting tale about solving a 12 year old mystery, that's defied all efforts thus far by WA Police to solve, will fulfill another role, in that each chapter will be summarized into a list of essential steps that the families of missing persons MUST ensure they take in chronological order to ensure that their loved one has every opportunity to be found.
I.e. it is a "how to" book for these unfortunate families who at present have no one to turn to for help - simply because going missing in Australia is not a crime hence police manpower and budgetary resources are strictly limited for missing persons cases, and they receive no cold case periodic reviews etc. Our hope is that the Hayley foundation, will be able to attract lottery's and corporate funding support to invest a reasonable sum into Govt bonds, and that the Board Of Directors will be able to make the annualized interest on these investment funds, available to these families by way of small grants, to fund things like having fingerprint, DNA and dental records entered on as many databases within Australia (and internationally) as possible - in the hope that unidentified remains will be assigned to the missing person, & not buried in an unmarked grave as a John or Jane Doe for example - and to have searches undertaken by trained cadaver scenting dogs. Maybe for limited investigation by licensed Private Investigators, once Police are all out of budget time and leads.

W.A. for example doesn't have a trained cadaver scenting dog on the WAPOL Dog Squad - and even WAPOL have to hire one in from NSW Police with a handler on an as and when required basis - just as the Dodd family have had to recently do, bringing in a handler and Trained Cadaver dog from Queensland at their own expense.

Its hoped, that the Foundation will fund a full time Cadaver dog for WAPOL in the hope a few more of these long term missing kids will be found. We know there's a similar need within the eastern states with cases like Daniel Morecomb in Qld and many others. Eventually we'd like to see the foundation nationwide with reps in each state but small steps first to get it off the ground.

Alex was kind enough to offer his work at a much discounted rate to help us achieve these aims - for which I am most grateful. It now remains to be seen if it will sell on Evilbay and return us a decent amount for all the combined efforts to help get this worthwhile cause kicked off.

Those of you based in WA may have seen on Wednesdays Ch 7 & 10 news that I conducted a search for Hayley's remains with the Qld cadaver dog for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) this week. Also the West Australian did an article on Thursday mornings edition. My sincere thanks to The forum or enabling me to contact Alex and for his support with this little project, and to all of you for your interest.

Anyone wants it for their own is welcome to search US ebay for "Gerber Knives Presidents Collection, FS I, II & III," and bid away - remember all proceeds go to this worthwhile charity. These poor families have no one else to turn to for help.
This is not a situation I'd like to see any more families stuck in, it's long past time they had somewhere to turn too, and the "Hayley Foundation" aims to fulfill that role for society in assisting them to form a mutual self help organization.

Members of family's of long term missing loved ones are encouraged to contact me to become part of the organization, no matter where in Australia they might reside.

Yours Sincerely,
Shann Low
[email protected]
Researcher/Author & Search Coordinator, Hayley Foundation.

Stunning work.

im intrigued how you went about creating the male and female moulds?? can you elaborate a little

Hi Milesy. I made wooden male patterns of the knives from drawings and dimensions supplied by Timeless Timber, and stuck these to 19mm laminated chipboard. I also routed out slightly larger female patterns out of the same material. These were given several coats of shellac to stop them absorbing water from the wet leather when it is pressed in the moulds.
Let's know if there's anything else you need to know.

Missed this the first time round. Very nice Alex.

Cheers
Michael

Very clever Alex, many thanks for sharing. That is a real eye opener.

Just two questions on the laser work in photo #2 -

1. How did you ink the laser engraving after it was cut, to get the black artwork?

2. What sort of format do you give the engraver the logo you wanted done?