Persian in ebony and stainless

[kevin (the professor)]

Hello Everyone,

I have posted this knife on other forum for design and critique assistance about a week ago. I want to thank Michael, NDunham, and GEzell (GHEzell?) for their input in helping me decide where to go with this knife. They helped me decide to try something totally new. I am generally happy with it, I am going to try other simillar knives to refine the techniques. But, I would not have come up with this initially without some input (at least not for a long time).

1095
Blade 9" long
1.15 " wide
1/8" @ ricasso, with distal taper
last 4" false edge (not sharp, but could be)

Stainless bolster and cap
Leather spacers
Ebony handle (4.5" - wow, I hated working the ebony, but once it is polished, it is beautiful!)

edge quenched in heated canola, tempered 3x at 400F.

So, here it is. Thanks for looking. I am open to ideas, encouragement, or any other comments. As I always say, I am trying to learn without a local teacher, so the input I receive from you folks is very valuable to me.

Thanks,

Kevin

Edited May 20, 2009 by kevin (the professor)
left someone out who helped design

[rokshasa]

that looks really good, im not an expert but i know what i like, the blade is fairly well ground from what i can tell, i like the simple shape you gave it, very fine job much better then i've managed to do as of yet.

[kevin (the professor)]

Thanks for comment.
There is one dip in the blade. It happened because I ground the blade and false edge too thin prior to heat treat. There was a slight warp during the normalizations before hardening (I placed blade directly under burner not thinking, so one area heated much faster than the rest).

In fixing this warp, I accidentally hit the blade too hard with a hammer. I was just really pushing on the blade, but the steel was so soft that the push left too much of a depression to grind out at this late point in the making.

This was a test blade, with a new style. It came out better than I expected. Next time, I am going to center the tang and put the spine even with top of handle. I will still have a heel that extends down, just try to keep the "flow" better.

The reason I did the tang on top of blade and blade offset was to study the look. It is sort of an imitation of Scagel.

thanks for looking,

Kevin

[Frosty]

Kevin:

This is why I use a wooden mallet on a wood block for all my finish straightening. It doesn't damage details, change cross section, etc.

Wooden baseball bats make outstanding mallets. I usually get two from a full sized bat and one from a softball bat. I use the handle for the . . . handle. They're also easily shaped for forming mallets and can be had from garage sales, 2nd. hand shops, etc. for about a buck each.

Needless to say (I hope) al and ceramic clinker bats are no good for mallets.

If it don't go CRACK it ain't a real bat! Well, okay lots go squeak but that's a whole different thread.

Frosty