Hello all, hope the summer treated everyone well.  Got a new well pump yesterday so have water for showers for the first time (at my weekend home) in a few months, so I decided to celebrate by spending the day at the forge, a first in about 6 1/2 months. 

I decided to forge out a piece of a Damascus billet from I made a while back following what I remember of Dave Lisch's demonstration at the NWBA annual conference in April, and here's what I came up with,  1095/15N20 quenched in Parks 50 followed by 3- 1 hour tempers at 375-400F (my oven isn't the most accurate).  Also my first blade I did completely on the belt grinder.  Not finished yet, but close (I left my 800-2000grit sandpaper down in Longview, so won't finish it until next weekend, most likely)

Comments/critiques are always welcome

As I was shaping the handle, I noticed that the handle isn't that long, but the butt fits in my palm pretty well and I'm wondering if this is a flaw due to my lack of planning or is this an OK design feature for a knife?

and here it is, etched and ready for the handle and final shaping...

That's a very pretty little blade. If the handle fits your hand and is comfortable to use, it's a good design.

Thanks JHCC, I hope to do more of these in the near future, playing around with the Damascus pattern.

Here it is, pretty much finished, handle wet sanded to 2000 grit, I may go to 5000 to see if that helps. 

I'm a bit upset I scorched the handle around one pin as I was cutting it off, feel free to provide other critiques/suggestions as this is my 4th knife

On a mildly related note (as it has to do with this knife...) I was planning on giving this to the guy at the mill who gave me my stack of 15N20 saw blades this upcoming Monday, when I have a day off work, should I feel obligated to supply a sheath for it?  Is this good enough to give as a gift (to hopefully get more saw blades in the future...)???

quick question-what did you etch it in? it turned our really nice!

                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

A sheath would certainly be nice, but even the knife by itself is a fine gift. 

Thanks, guys, I hope to do more soon.

1 hour ago, littleblacksmith said:

quick question-what did you etch it in? it turned our really nice!

                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

50/50 mix of distilled water/Radio Shack PCB etchant (Ferric chloride).  2 -15 minute dunks with a good scrubbing with a firm bristled toothbrush between the baths to remove any oxides and get a deeper/more uniform etch.  Was planning on doing 3 but was able to feel good topography with my fingernail after the second so I decided to stop there.