Hunter Douglas Martin

Unless you're Batman... that guy has some skills

>< Unfortunately, Assistant A decided he'd rather be fishing, B decided he would join the carnival, and C decided he didn't much care for hot work any more. (true story)

As long as the sword comes out functional I'll be a happy camper!

Okay so I finally decided to up my game.

I've been working on knives galore now for months and decided it was time to take a shot at sword smithing.

It's certainly a work in progress but I'm jazzed at how well it's coming along.

31" OAL, 25" Blade

Basket hilt is the plan.

For this piece I decided to not only shoot for sword smithing but also authentic sword smithing.

Everything has been done by hand.

Forged by hand (just my trusty hammer and anvil :D), Hand filed (ugh... so many blisters) and hand sanded.

So here are a few pics so far :)

Did this one just for fun,

started with 1.5x1/4/12" 5160 stock.

Hammered out the basic shape.

Annealed and ground the blade into roughly final shape.

Quenched in Vegi

Tempered in Oven at 360 for 2 hours.

sanded and polished, then acid etched and polished again.

Camel Bone scales attached with epoxy.

all of it sanded down and buffed :D

well it's not that I offered anything, but I was thinking about offering him that if got the materials and learned on a practice piece

Well I was commissioned to do a survival knife in exchange for a very nice crossbow.

So I hopped on out to the forge and started pounding metal!

5160 semi-clip point 12" OAL

It'll eventually get a very simple wood grip w/ paracord wrap over it, and I'm waiting to hear back if he wants a mirror polish or

a blade coating to keep oxidation at bay.

Oh and does anyone have any ideas on good blade coatings?

Yes it is :D I get the leather at a local hobby shop. It's bolo leather (stuff they make those bull whips with.)

@ Phil I put a simple edge on it and it seems to be holding up just fine :D

@Thomas - That actually sounds very cool. I have some more steel on its way so I may just have try that out.

Finished :D I have suddenly fallen in love with this knife.

Though I'm going to sell it.

So yeah here are the finished pictures.

Well I've posted this same damascus piece before.

However I tried some experimenting on it and I created a result that I think is pretty cool. I sanded the etched damascus up to 600g and polished it on my buffer. I then etched it quite dramatically for 5 hours in a 1:3 ratio Furric/Water mix. I cleaned it all off and then sanded, and buffed the blade again and was left with this! Some of you may like it, some of you may hate it. I certainly think it has character :D

Thank you!

I've posted this knife before,

but I'm so proud of myself I had to make a new thread.

This is my first finished (not just functional but pretty finished) knife :D

My Father got me caswell buffer which is absolutely wonderful!

So without further delay, I give you Rose.

@ Loneforge, If you use the actual reply button instead of the fast reply, at the bottom will be an uploader thing. I've tried the advanced uploader a hundred times to no avail but if you use the simple uploader, 1 picture at a time it's fairly easy.

Just upload all the pics then on the right side it should say something like add to post next to each picture name. Just click somewhere in the post like you're going to type, then click add to post and it'll add it.

@ Phil - Well I basically have a walmart diamond & Arkansas stone sharpener that uses guide angles of 20&25 degrees.

Thank you! I sort of wanted to do a very low layer count blade. I've seen a whole lot of high layer count blades and I actually prefer the low layer count patterns.

Well I did it again

4 layers of 1095&15n20 welded, folded, and welded.

Drew out the billet and hammered in the blade shape.

Quenched and tempered,

hand done hollow ground (Paiinnnnn)

Etched the blade in Radioshack furic acid.

Used a nice Bolo braided leather cord & Epoxy for the grip

I really need to learn to sharpen though I can't sharpen to save my life.

Some updated pictures

Yeah I'm almost certainly going to point the triangle up, seems so much simpler and It'll still look great!

Also, I finished the temper and the knife has some seriously great flexibility! :D

Haha well it's just a zelda themed dagger

You know I'm not sure.

I thought about a peen but I just don't see how thats possible in a way that would maintain

a triangular shape.

Unless the triangles point was up.

In face I'm an idiot, don't listen to me, that sounds entirely more sensible than what I had planned.

Yup so there you go, triangle's point will face up and the end will be peened

Well my best friend wants me to make a dagger for his brothers birthday.

A double sided 7" blade dagger made from 1095

Handle will be burned in and wire wrapped.

I plan a simple straight and rounded cross guard.

The neat thing will be a triangular pommel with the triforce etched in

Do I know how I'm going to attach that yet? no but I'll figure it out!

Here are some pics after I ground and hardened the blade.

Thank you!

I use gorilla epoxy which is about as strong as gravity 0.o

I've tried breaking wood to metal bonds with gorilla epoxy before and it's a whole lot like trying to pry Angelina Jolie from Brad Pitt.

Woo!

Almost done with the handle, just have to wait for the stain to cure and to finish.

I need a buffer and compound which I'll likely acquire today so I can shine the blade

Anyway here are some updated pics:

Shape is finished, handle is being glued on!

Nearly done!

Finished the wood with a nice polyurethane finish

sanded the blade till I was happy with it.

Gave it an edge.

All that's left is to sharpen and make a sheath!

@Grundsau: Thank you

@pete46: Yes, the handle was glued with gorilla epoxy, The blue paper is just painters tape, used to prevent the excess epoxy from marring up the blade.

And Thank you! :D