Damascus Hunter with Integrated Bolsters

[HEAP of JEEP]

Here is my latest effort.  I'm not super happy with the pattern, but its okay.  My main goal was to do the integrated bolsters.  Doing it all on the anvil turned out to be more of a task than I had imagined, but with a lot of filing, I finally got them to look somewhat decent. 

Length is 10", Blade is 5.5", Handle is 4.5"

Scales are birds eye maple with some walnut inlays.

Lots of overall improvements on my fit and finish, so I'm taking it as a positive, but there's 360 layers in this knife, and it doesn't look like it.  Oh well, I was trying something new on how I stacked the billets, and I guess it didn't work, so lesson learned on that.

[Jonah k]

Nice

I could see those bolsters taking a while on the anvil. What kind of steel?

[HEAP of JEEP]

3 hours ago, Jonah k said:

Nice

I could see those bolsters taking a while on the anvil. What kind of steel?

5160, 15n20, and 1080

[Michael Cochran]

Looks really good. I can definitely see some improvement. I have to ask, is it bent forward/down at the bolsters? It may just the the pictures and my eyes so I can't say for sure but it definitely looks like it.

[HEAP of JEEP]

1 hour ago, Michael Cochran said:

Looks really good. I can definitely see some improvement. I have to ask, is it bent forward/down at the bolsters? It may just the the pictures and my eyes so I can't say for sure but it definitely looks like it.

Yes, I put a slight bend in it.  I forged it straight, but it just didn't feel right, so I played around and giving it more of chopper feel, made it feel good to my test subjects... those consisted of me, my wife, and my teenagers. lol.  Don't know if its right or wrong, but its where it felt to good to me, and I like the look, so hopefully it doesn't hamper the function.

[Dustin Quade]

Really interesting blade shape on this one. I have no luck with integral knives yet but this one looks great. How did you get those neat slashes of colour in your handle?

[HEAP of JEEP]

41 minutes ago, Dustin Quade said:

Really interesting blade shape on this one. I have no luck with integral knives yet but this one looks great. How did you get those neat slashes of colour in your handle?

Thanks.  For the handle, I took the birds eye maple and cut it at a 45, then cut a small strip from the end of the 45 I just cut.  The dark wood is walnut, and I just cut a couple of thin strips on the table saw.  Then I put the maple back together so it made a straight board again, but added the walnut in, so it sandwiched the the thin strip of maple.  Glued it up, and when it was dry, just ran it through the planer to clean up the sides, and I was left with this.  I was still thick enough that I just split it down the middle, which made lining up the stripes a lot easier... I didn't get it perfect, but for my first try with this technique, I think it came out pretty good.

I did take video while I was making this.  I have one up now that is just highlights of the whole process (just over music), but tonight I should be finished up editing the much longer one where I try to explain everything I was doing and my thought process behind it.  I'm not sure what the rules on this forum are for posting video links (I have them on my Jeep channel which I actually make money on), so don't want to chance posting the links, but if you send me a PM I can direct you to them.  I'm not sure if I covered a whole lot about making the handle, but I think I got enough video for the longer one, that you'd be able to kind of see how I did it.

[Michael Cochran]

3 hours ago, HEAP of JEEP said:

Yes, I put a slight bend in it.  I forged it straight, but it just didn't feel right, so I played around and giving it more of chopper feel, made it feel good to my test subjects... those consisted of me, my wife, and my teenagers. lol.  Don't know if its right or wrong, but its where it felt to good to me, and I like the look, so hopefully it doesn't hamper the function.

I don't know right from wrong half the time. I usually just try to see what looks and feels good and if it works it works.

[TheoRockNazz]

I've gotta admit, I am jealous of the remarkable speed at which you've improved. This blade beats the fit and finish of all your previous blades combined, kudos. 

I agree, the forward bend works, but maybe could have been more gradual, perhaps starting halfway down the handle. The wood choice complements the bold pattern nicely - you could have probably gotten away with mosaic pins without making it too flashy. Some jimping where the thumb rests (both normal grip and choked up) could be beneficial.

Time to get your maker's mark made

[HEAP of JEEP]

38 minutes ago, TheoRockNazz said:

I've gotta admit, I am jealous of the remarkable speed at which you've improved. This blade beats the fit and finish of all your previous blades combined, kudos. 

I agree, the forward bend works, but maybe could have been more gradual, perhaps starting halfway down the handle. The wood choice complements the bold pattern nicely - you could have probably gotten away with mosaic pins without making it too flashy. Some jimping where the thumb rests (both normal grip and choked up) could be beneficial.

Time to get your maker's mark made

I appreciate the kind words.  One of these days I'll come up with some kind of mark that represents me, but for now, I'm just having fun making them... the few bucks I'm getting from the occasional sale just means my wife doesn't have to complain to much about my hobby.  Its pretty much paying for itself at this point...  now if I could just get her to stop complaining about how much time I spend in front of an anvil, life will be all smiles.

Gotta admit though, I am not familiar with the term "jimping".  I'm going to have to look that up.

[TheoRockNazz]

When you choke up to do fine work with the tip of the knife you put your thumb on the spine - jimping is that file work done on the spine to add texture for your thumb to grip.

[HEAP of JEEP]

31 minutes ago, TheoRockNazz said:

When you choke up to do fine work with the tip of the knife you put your thumb on the spine - jimping is that file work done on the spine to add texture for your thumb to grip.

Thanks.  I looked it up last night, and watched a couple of videos of people doing vine patterns and the like.  I've seen it, but never realized it was called jimping.  It can be quite artistic.  I've got a knife I'll be working on this weekend, and I think, after a little practice on some scrap, I may give it a try on that blade.  Its a gift for a coworker's husband, so if I screw it up, I'll probably be the only one complaining.

I'll have to do a little more research on it, but one early question I had was how do people clean up inside the file marks?  From the little bit I saw, a lot of people are using very tiny files, so how do they get sand paper down in into the design to clean up the file marks, without dulling the crisp edges at the top of the spine?  Or do most folks not even worry about it?  I'd worry on the damascus, because every little blemish seems to get magnified in the etch.  Maybe its not so noticeable if its just small grooves rather than some of the intricate vine patterns I saw.