#6 and #7

[SDS]

#6:
blade - 3 1/4" tip to guard face
ATS-34 heat treat by Paul Bos to 59rc
OAL - 6"
brass guard, hidden tang
Elk antler tip, dyed

#7
blade - just a hair over 3"
ATS-34 heat treat by Paul Bos to 59rc
OAL - 7 3/8"
brass guard, full tapered tang
black fiber liner, lignum vitae handle scales finished with danish oil
mosaic pins

All comments and critiques welcome.
Thanks,
SDS

 

[steelshaper]

Looking good I can see some inprovement already. How do you feel about these two? I would think your confidence must be building. I look forward to when you start trying to sell them. I think I would like to have one like #7. I think the design is well thought out. It is small enough to be a caper and has enough belly to be a skinner. The gaurd and spine grooves make so you can choke up on it for fine work.
The only thing I see that could be improved is it looks like there is a deep groove at the plunge line. The plunge line is the hardest part at least for me.

I hope I am being helpfull. Keep up the good work.

 

[SDS]

I am fairly happy with #7. I would change a few things on it and try to do a couple of things a little better but overall I'm happy with it. That groove at the plunge line is where I drilled a hole prior to profiling. I have seen it done and it helped me to get the plunge grinds more even. Those things kick my butt. After I was all done with this one I went back and hand rubbed it out to get rid of more of the grind lines and that helped a lot. This was my first attempt at a recurve blade too. I know I should probably wait awhile before trying things like that but I'm rather impatient.

#6 was made from a piece of scrap metal. It was almost too small to make a blade out of but I didn't want to waste the metal either so....#6. I think I'm going to make it into a frontier type neck knife. Maybe a little fringed up sheath to wear. I have one similar to it that a very good friend made for me out of damascus and reindeer antler. It was odd to figure out how similar they were after making mine. I had forgotten about his until this one was finished. His was a piece of damascus scrap.

Thanks a lot for the comments.
SDS

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I'd personally go for something other than brass, but I really like #7.

 

[SDS]

Keith, I had a fair bit of brass given to me so I was using some of what I have. I got most of the "halo" out from around the pins but I can still see some. I need to work on that.

Do you prefer stainless for a guard? I haven't tried to use stainless for a guard yet. I like the look of copper but it isn't exactly easy to work with and it is one of those materials that people either seem to love or hate. No in between.

Thanks,
SDS

 

[argel55]

Shawn you need to come over and I will set you up with some 416 stainless toplay with tosee how you like it. You can also see my pin press to help you hide those pins. Mike Miller

 

[SDS]

argel, e-mail inbound.

SDS