Salem Straub - Deschain Dagger

Absolutely INCREDIBLE!! If I had 1/10th your skill set. I'm not sure I would have the patience? A true work of art.
 
I took a crack at making a wire wrap handle following Salem's instructions.
He was kind enough to tell me that the wire he used was 26 gauge dead soft iron wire.
After tediously carving flutes for another project, I jump started this one by getting a 6" sample of "full round rope moulding", 1 inch diameter available in oak.
I tapered the ends to 3/4" to get some palm swell.
This flattened the "rope" a bit, but was easily rounded again with some sanding.
I had a bit of difficulty keeping it tightly packed as I wound it, perhaps due to the palm swell.
I didn't have the spring loaded spools that Salem describes, so I bribed my daughter (with FunDip) to hold them.
Anyway, I'm relatively happy with my first attempt.

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Hell yeah dude, that looks pretty darn good! And you even used Fun Dip in the process. Full marks!
 
Salem, you're direction to my doAll was life changing in my shop. You found it on Craigslist 30 miles from me. Thank you.
 
Not sure how I missed this the first time around, but WOW!

I used to think I'd one day like to become a Master Smith. Now I want to become a Salam Straub. :D
 
Salem,

Great information and thank you for sharing. Some information on the topic is available out there but it is scarce. Your "give-back" or "pay it forward" attitude is much appreciated. Kevin may give the information if asked but I suspect he gives it a bit more freely to people like you, Salem, who have proven themselves to be serious, hard working students of the art who gain most of their knowledge from study, application and trial and error. Giving information to people who just expect everything to be handed to them is a bit like a tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it.


BTW Richard, Awesome job!



Here is a downloadable pdf I've been saving for the day I'm ready to try the wire wrapped handle:

http://www.culverart.com/Making A Spiral Fluted and Wire Wrapped Dagger Handle Part 1.pdf

http://www.culverart.com/Making A Spiral Fluted and Wire Wrapped Dagger Handle Part 2.pdf

http://www.culverart.com/Making A Spiral Fluted and Wire Wrapped Dagger Handle Part 3.pdf


This is another link I found which may be of some interest also:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Barbarians-Sword/
 
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Wow! Thank so much for sharing this Salem! Pure awesomeness!!!

Daniel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Marc,
The three-part Culver tutorials that you link to are great.
Those are what I tried to follow to make the other two handles at the top of my photo.
I got my two blades back from Peters HT (only profiled and tapered before HT).
I have been reading all the dagger grinding threads (thanks Stacy and others), did a couple trial runs in mild steel, and am working up the nerve to grind my blades...
 
Good day to you Salem. This is a "master piece"! Any one area of this one might be enough to declare it very special but with it all being so advanced including the precision shown in the Damascus it jumps to the top of "wonderful stuff"!!!
Didn't I once say your work was off the wall? "Out of the sky" is a better expression. as far as I'm concerned.
 
!!!!Big shout out to Salem from me too!!!!

I loved your description and it inspired me to rehandle my long sword.
I used your idea of using multiple spools and the adjustable friction slow downer. I also rigged up a similar handle holder to make wrapping easier and consistant.
Instead of wires though I used 3 differently colored strands of Kevlar, Spectra and Dyneema, 1mm each.
I also didn't go all spirally on the underlying wood since the threads wouldn't hold that shape and just create cavities. I smeared epoxy on everything to prevent unraveling if one of the threads breaks under an impact. It's nothing to write home about and im sure a second attempt would look far better but it held up 5 weeks of sword fighting already including some good hits to the handle. The altered handle shape makes holding the sword almost effortless.
All guys in the club like it and not only because it's in the club colors black Red and yellow.

Salem, I couldn't have done it without you and wouldn't even have had the idea to begin with.
Thank You!
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Wow, that's very cool! I'm glad that folks seem to be getting use from my input on things. Carry on y'all, and thanks for the generous remarks!
 
Salem Straub said:
I think it's a big experiment in a way, sharing trade "secrets" freely now. I do think it has benefited the knives greatly, and to a purist, that is the most important thing. I personally have benefited hugely from freely imparted knowledge- the internet has been an absolute game changer. I am part of that last group of makers who can remember back to books, videos available for sale through catalogs, and personal interaction being the only ways to learn. I've seen the number of younger makers especially, who are doing seriously impressive work, seemingly increase exponentially in the past fifteen years.

I think the competition is fierce out there, the market is saturated, and there are more makers doing fine work at reasonable prices than demand can support.
Hopefully this is changing due to things like the ascendancy of food TV and foodie culture opening up the handmade kitchen knife market, and shows like Forged in Fire informing the public, in however distorted a fashion, that we exist. I've had several people in the last few months buy their first custom knife with me, and that is heartening.

In the end, I'm not at all convinced we are heading into a brighter future in the custom knife trade at least- there will be the strong who survive, but any profession that relies heavily on discretionary income will always be precarious, especially in these economically tempestuous times. I'm just trying to retain a compartmentalized, detached interest in the experiment, whatever the outcome. Perhaps in the future, we will all have learned a bitter lesson and be less sharing once more with our fellows...
Click to expand...

Your dagger is amazing Salem, just wild.
Your take on the market is very interesting as well. I guess I am one of the internet generation makers. I've never seen another maker work in person, and never even held another makers knife except at a show.
My gratitude to all of the makers here and elsewhere who share their methods. I try to contribute to that body of knowledge where I can, but my experience is fairly limited and green.

I guess I have the luxury of not relying on making to pay my bills. Honestly, I don't know how folks do that. So many hours spent making a great knife. ...
In my 2 plus years making I've seriously considered giving it up twice due to the cost in time spent to produce what I feel is a presentable knife. Hats off to those that can forge a living from this craft.

Thanks for showing us some techniques, and thanks for sharing that great knife. I love the chess set inspiration you've imparted to it.
 
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