Draco Nobilis

[Bruno]

This one was finished earlier today after some swearing. I came up with the design a week or 2 ago at 1 am. It started out shaped like my Arwen razor, but I decided that it had to become something new, and as I was doodling, it became more and more of a dragon. Hence the name. The fins do not touch the hone or the strop, and they are rounded on top and smoothed at the sides, so there is no risk of messing up the strop either. It is 17/16 in size, made from O2/L6 Damascus by Howard Clark.

The scales are Kirinite Starlight Neon. This is a beautiful green glow in the dark material which I bought recently just because I had to have it. The glowing effect is so strong that if you take it out in sunlight for just a minute, a scales sized blank gives off enough light to read by. I also had some shamrock green and grey shokwood lying around I was considering for this. It would add to the dragon theme by resembling dragon skin. I pondered the choice for a moment, and decided to use the kirinite. I'll probably use the shokwood as dragon skin scales, but I am a kid of the 80s. When in doubt, go with glow in the dark because everything is better with glow in the dark

This type of kirinite is actually much harder than the other kinds. So much so that it has to be worked more carefully. I ruined the first set of scales after pinning when I wanted to give it just a couple of extra taps, just to make it a little bit tighter. Only I hit the tip of the scales with the rim of the hammer, and there went more than an hour of work down the drain. But being stubborn, I decided to make new ones and just be more careful.





Closeup of the pattern



So, where did I leave that razor... Let's just turn out the light and it will show up.