It’s the time of year to build another knife for the annual scholarship auction……
This years is going to be a rustic frontier knife, so a bit unique be it should be a collector!
This one will be out of fishhook canister damascus…..the loaded canister with 1084a fishhooks and 1084 powder with 2% nickel powder……I actually loaded it up almost to the top the I use the press to put the 3/8” cap recessed inside the can so this all gets compacted!
In the forge getting its spa treatment….it spend about 1 hour 15 mins soaking up the heat……once it starts looking like melted butter I let is sit another 30 mins……
Then right in the square dies for a light press to start setting the internal welds….. man feeling the 2300 degree can squish in the press is an addicting thing!
Ok so I was a very bad photographer on this build and didn’t get too many progress shots of the billet……but here it is cut to shape and sanded down and almost ready for ready for bevel grinding…..
The auction blade is at the lower part of the pictured. The upper knife is one I’m building with it…..I may auction them both off…….on the fence…..the upper one was hand forged out of old CruVForge stock, a knife steel no longer made (manufacture went bankrupt) but just classic……the handles are deer leg bone from Arizona…..I picked the bone up from a frontier store in Sedona last year…..it was dried, antique dyed and then stabilized….
The look and feel test…… man I really like the lines of both of these blades!
All heat treated and ready for final bevel grinding and the guards…..the small one is going to have a rustic hammer texture flats…..I will also do the second temper at 500 degrees after it is final ground….CruVForge goes a rusty orange color (if you look close you can see the color on the textured blade). Once the leg bone was cut in half all the “soft tissue is removed leaving a hollow cavity.…..
The bone cavity will be filled with epoxy when the blade is set, however, bone is very brittle and this is were a little “modern” comes in…..I ground down the bone just a bit and then did a Kevlar epoxy wrap at the stress point of the handle…bingo brittle risk solved!
Once the blade is set the handle will have a antiqued stitched goat skin leather wrap to cover the Kevlar…..the leather wrap is the traditional way to reinforce the bone handle
Next up is grinding the bevels, acid etching, and the guards……
This years is going to be a rustic frontier knife, so a bit unique be it should be a collector!
This one will be out of fishhook canister damascus…..the loaded canister with 1084a fishhooks and 1084 powder with 2% nickel powder……I actually loaded it up almost to the top the I use the press to put the 3/8” cap recessed inside the can so this all gets compacted!
In the forge getting its spa treatment….it spend about 1 hour 15 mins soaking up the heat……once it starts looking like melted butter I let is sit another 30 mins……
Then right in the square dies for a light press to start setting the internal welds….. man feeling the 2300 degree can squish in the press is an addicting thing!
Ok so I was a very bad photographer on this build and didn’t get too many progress shots of the billet……but here it is cut to shape and sanded down and almost ready for ready for bevel grinding…..
The auction blade is at the lower part of the pictured. The upper knife is one I’m building with it…..I may auction them both off…….on the fence…..the upper one was hand forged out of old CruVForge stock, a knife steel no longer made (manufacture went bankrupt) but just classic……the handles are deer leg bone from Arizona…..I picked the bone up from a frontier store in Sedona last year…..it was dried, antique dyed and then stabilized….
The look and feel test…… man I really like the lines of both of these blades!
All heat treated and ready for final bevel grinding and the guards…..the small one is going to have a rustic hammer texture flats…..I will also do the second temper at 500 degrees after it is final ground….CruVForge goes a rusty orange color (if you look close you can see the color on the textured blade). Once the leg bone was cut in half all the “soft tissue is removed leaving a hollow cavity.…..
The bone cavity will be filled with epoxy when the blade is set, however, bone is very brittle and this is were a little “modern” comes in…..I ground down the bone just a bit and then did a Kevlar epoxy wrap at the stress point of the handle…bingo brittle risk solved!
Once the blade is set the handle will have a antiqued stitched goat skin leather wrap to cover the Kevlar…..the leather wrap is the traditional way to reinforce the bone handle
Next up is grinding the bevels, acid etching, and the guards……
watching !
