It has been some time since I have posted here, but I wanted to share some pictures of my latest projects. Some people on here might have seen some of my knives I've posted over the years. Keen observers might have noticed that I have never posted any Damascus blades, since until rather recently I didnt make any. I was never a big fan of Damascus blades, but now I think Ive caught the bug.
For these two pieces I made an 80-layer twist pattern billet, which was quite a lot of fun....and really exhausting, because when it came to twisting I used an adjustable wrench with a handle welded on, but I was bit of an idiot and made the handles too short. So I forged my billet into an octagonal shape to prepare it for twisting, put the wrench on and managed to do half a twist. I just added some length to the handles to increase the lever and it worked fine, but the initial experience made me feel like a wimp.
It was also quite fascinating how the pattern changed when grinding into it. When forging out the blades I left them very thick on purpose and really only forged the general shape and the tip because I really wanted to grind into the pattern.
I've gone for a two tone look on the leather sheats on these two which I quite enjoy recently.
Anyway, here they are. I am quite pleased with them considering those are my first proper try forging damascus blades:
This one has a Desert Ironwood handle, which i really like.
The other one has a bogoak handle that has been stabilized with epoxy and copper powder. So the voids in the bogoak have these very interesting copper streaks, looks quite unique.
I also did something on these, which I have never tried before: since they are fulltang knives I was not sure initially how to handle the spine of the blade when working the handle scales, since I definitely wanted the etching to show on the spine with the twist pattern. So I made the spine a bit proud of the handle scales and rounded the corners for something like a reverse museum fit.
Thanks for looking.
For these two pieces I made an 80-layer twist pattern billet, which was quite a lot of fun....and really exhausting, because when it came to twisting I used an adjustable wrench with a handle welded on, but I was bit of an idiot and made the handles too short. So I forged my billet into an octagonal shape to prepare it for twisting, put the wrench on and managed to do half a twist. I just added some length to the handles to increase the lever and it worked fine, but the initial experience made me feel like a wimp.
It was also quite fascinating how the pattern changed when grinding into it. When forging out the blades I left them very thick on purpose and really only forged the general shape and the tip because I really wanted to grind into the pattern.
I've gone for a two tone look on the leather sheats on these two which I quite enjoy recently.
Anyway, here they are. I am quite pleased with them considering those are my first proper try forging damascus blades:
This one has a Desert Ironwood handle, which i really like.
The other one has a bogoak handle that has been stabilized with epoxy and copper powder. So the voids in the bogoak have these very interesting copper streaks, looks quite unique.
I also did something on these, which I have never tried before: since they are fulltang knives I was not sure initially how to handle the spine of the blade when working the handle scales, since I definitely wanted the etching to show on the spine with the twist pattern. So I made the spine a bit proud of the handle scales and rounded the corners for something like a reverse museum fit.
Thanks for looking.
