WmHorus Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 This project started the moment I picked up the antler handle at the local bi-annual Packwood Flea Market. I had been fiddling around with a piece of Cable I had worked earlier in the week and started drawing patterns on the steel trying to figure out what to do with it. Yes it is a piece of cable damascus, I almost exclusively work in it, anywho, I picked up the handle and said BINGO!. I went home that afternoon and started shaping the steel out and grinding away to prep it to knap. The next day I sat down and it took about 90 minutes per side, then laid a couple coats of blue on it, and started opening the tang up more to fit it. No its not finished yet, I am trying to decide how I want to HT the blade still, I am stuck between a standard ht and temper or do it in one swoop by yakiire ( not that you would see a hamon after bluing again but more to not have to worry about tempering later on ) then ofc finish sanding and putting on the tang. I am thinking about just using wedges driven deep to hold it in place rather than the standard epoxy method. Then using some deer hide to make a knot to hide the tang sticking into the hande as well as provide the stop a guard normally would. This is a thinner blade roughly 1/8 inch thick and it is longer than 12 inches by a smidge. I do want to thank Tom Sterling for his work and inspiration as well as time for showing me how to knap steel. So what do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Slick Wm sure shows a lot o planning and execution.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I like It! I am not keen on the idea of wedging it into the handle though... how about gluing it in with melted resin? A small feature that I think would be nice would be to have a bit of choil helpful in use and also make the knapped look even more realistic as a stone knife would be made that way when the tang is knapped out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 cool idea, good exicution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Carnecchia Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Looking good. I am curious as to your ideas on yakiire without tempering. As I recall you took the class with Michael Bell, does he not temper? I am curious because I do all my blades with hamons, but have always felt that tempering is very important both to ensure correct edge hardness and because I have had a number of blades crack from residual stress, waiting to temper. My understanding is the traditional Japanese smiths imediately after quenching reheat the blade and do a second low temp quench, to temper. Personally I have not had good luck with this, and with a tiny speck of modern metallurgy floating around in my head I don't think it would work nearly as well as a couple good long soaks at controlled temperatures. Love the idea for the knife, it would be interesting(frustrating, tedious?) to do it knapped and polish it to show hamon. -Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmHorus Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Justin: I was thinking long and hard about the HT lastnight and decided that I will go with the normal method, just because I dont want to accidently put a sori on this blade. And as far as Mr Bells class went we only did Yakiire once with no follow-up reheat or tempering. But as I said I will do the normal HT and temper method after all.....I really dont think a sori would look good on this blade. Oh no I dont think a hamon would show through the bluing process, the only way it would I think is if I left that portion of the blade without the blue, and to me that ruins the attempt to make it look like knapped stone. Bigfoot: I am starting to think along the lines you suggested using resin, so I will see about looking around to find some....Do you know how long the curing times are by chance? Or is that dependant on what type of resin you use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Natural resin glues are thermoset... like a hot glue... so they are pretty well ready to use within minutes. Sometimes a little beeswax is added for more flexibility. Here's a link but much more info is available on the web. http://www.ehow.com/way_5761915_natural-resin-glue-making.html Ferrule cements are similar glues in commercial form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmHorus Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 I am thinking of natural products like copal or amber for resin but like you said add beeswax to give it some flexibility and remove the brittleness. Question is how best to heat it gently and how much to use...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin1050 Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 They make heated glue pots for use with natural glues. Or you could use a double boiler. Have fun cleaning that pot out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WmHorus Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Ya I was thinking about using a double boiler kinda thing, but I have a feeling it will take me a while to figure out the correct ratio of material to beeswax to remove the brittle issue, so till then I will just stick with the basic epoxy and wedge/cap to cover the fact I used epoxy and then artificial sinew wrap to cover that. I started the heavier bladed version of this already and am using a caribou antler for the handle. Just wish the dang rain would stop so I can do a few things outside that I need to so I can get these ready for sale. Also started a long spearhead or dagger the other day, trying to decide how I wanna do that still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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