This was a Christmas 2016 gift to my brother-in-law. The material is aluminum bronze (85% copper, 15% aluminum). The compass is a 20mm grade AA button compass. Start-to-finish it took 12.5 hours to complete.
December in Canada and the workshop is mighty cold
The metal bandsaw quickly separates a piece from the bar stock
A large drill gets the compass pocket started
The pocket is then finished with a boring bar
Threads, an o-ring groove and some knurls are added to the head
Then the head is parted off and the bottom cleaned up.
Knurls are rolled onto the body before drilling starts
A slender pilot drill is followed by a much larger drill
Test-fitting the head after threading is complete
The outside of the body gets a quick skim pass to restore the shiny surface finish
The yellow arm swings in an arc, cutting a radius onto the bottom of the body
The body mounted in my tiny mill.
The bottom of the body gets flats milled into each side
Taped up my freezing cold fingers as the friction of turning the tiny handwheels was wearing off my skin
Adding a hole for the leather lanyard loop.
Removing all sharp edges with a sharpening stone
