- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Arkansas bladesmith Ron Newton needs little introduction on these forums. He is without question one of the most talented and versatile bladesmiths out there. I had the pleasure of meeting Ron a few years ago at the 2003 knife show in Little Rock, and have been fortunate to own a few examples of his work. This latest addition, however, is by far my favorite.
Those of you who attended the recent American Bladesmith Exposition in Reno may have had the opportunity to see this bowie among Rons very tempting offerings. First the details this knife sports an 11 5/8 blade of 1084 / 15N20 ladder damascus. The guard is nickel silver and a damascus ferrule and butt cap bracket a gorgeous India sambar stag carver for the handle. Overall length is 16 ½.
My only criticism of the knife is that it proved to be an absolute bear to photograph. I tried a number of different light combinations and backgrounds, but found that either the handle showed well, with the blade somewhat washed out (as above) or the blade detail showed well with the handle all but invisible (as below):
That aside, lets move on to the good stuff. The first thing that impresses is the loooong elegant blade. With the knife in hand, the blade looks even longer than its not-insubstantial dimensions suggest. This past weekend Murray and Phyllis White both vastly experienced in the world of custom cutlery looked the knife over and said that the blade simply had to be comfortably over a foot long.
The overall blade shape may strike some bowie aficionados and vaguely familiar. Ron explains why: The blade is actually taken from the antique dog bone bowie. The antique blade had a gold ricasso wrap. For a long time I've been trying to get the courage to make a blade like this but without a wrap.
Contributing to the fluid lines of the blade is the absence of the more ubiquitous rectangular ricasso the blade thus tapers gracefully from guard to tip and from spine to edge without any sharp angled lines to disturb the flow. I figured that this just had to present an additional challenge to the fitment of the guard, and Ron agreed: Fitting the guard to an angular tapered wedge tang was not easy. I had to hand file the wedge shaped tight fit in the guard where I normally just slot a rectangular hole on the milling machine. It took about 4 times as long to fit this guard. The result, as Ron describes, is a blade that looks as if it jumps right out of the guard with no disruption to the flow of the lines, as the following photo demonstrates. Challenging though it may have been, the fitment of blade to guard is nonetheless immaculate:
Regrettably, the photographs will not show the most striking aspect of the blade itself the shimmering chatoyant effect displayed by the damascus pattern. In fairness, given that this effect is a function of light moving along the length of the blade, no still photo could be expected to capture it, but it is a delightful 3-D visual effect that makes the rungs of the ladder pattern appear to shift and move. I asked Ron how he managed to pull this off: "As far as the chatoyant character.... this one has more than any knife I've made. The layers of steel are disrupted drastically and very close together ( by forging in the ladder rungs) which corrugates the layers and makes it all happen boldly. I was going to just say I have a new chatoyant switch on my power hammer but I didn't figure you'd believe it.
If you will follow me away from the blade for a moment, well take a look at some of the other terrific details that are characteristic of a Newton knife. The next photo gives us a nice look at the graceful Spanish notch; the striking elliptical guard and the damascus ferrule. The guard is actually the feature that first drew me to this knife. I remembered it from Rons appropriately named Muy Grande damascus bowie which he produced a while back (that knife did have a blade well in excess of a foot long). I think it works very well here, particularly with the contrasting brushed finished on the flats with a mirror polish on the edge:
It doesnt matter much which way you turn the handle, all youre going to see gorgeous sambar stag with exceptional colour and texture. In my humble view, a nice stag carver simply cannot be beat for the handle of a bowie:
Finally, we have an appropriate finishing touch in the damascus butt cap. It is rendered in 448 layers of same steel as the blade and has an internal tig welded wedge with corrugated teeth that are imbedded into the epoxy cavity. It is also doweled with 52100 dowel pins to the carver and hand filed to match the natural contours of the stag.
By way of brief summary, I could not conceivably be more pleased with this blade. My thanks to Ron for the knife and for the detailed information about its construction. And further thanks to Coop for lending a welcome and much needed professional touch in the following photo:
Roger Pinnock
Those of you who attended the recent American Bladesmith Exposition in Reno may have had the opportunity to see this bowie among Rons very tempting offerings. First the details this knife sports an 11 5/8 blade of 1084 / 15N20 ladder damascus. The guard is nickel silver and a damascus ferrule and butt cap bracket a gorgeous India sambar stag carver for the handle. Overall length is 16 ½.
My only criticism of the knife is that it proved to be an absolute bear to photograph. I tried a number of different light combinations and backgrounds, but found that either the handle showed well, with the blade somewhat washed out (as above) or the blade detail showed well with the handle all but invisible (as below):
That aside, lets move on to the good stuff. The first thing that impresses is the loooong elegant blade. With the knife in hand, the blade looks even longer than its not-insubstantial dimensions suggest. This past weekend Murray and Phyllis White both vastly experienced in the world of custom cutlery looked the knife over and said that the blade simply had to be comfortably over a foot long.
The overall blade shape may strike some bowie aficionados and vaguely familiar. Ron explains why: The blade is actually taken from the antique dog bone bowie. The antique blade had a gold ricasso wrap. For a long time I've been trying to get the courage to make a blade like this but without a wrap.
Contributing to the fluid lines of the blade is the absence of the more ubiquitous rectangular ricasso the blade thus tapers gracefully from guard to tip and from spine to edge without any sharp angled lines to disturb the flow. I figured that this just had to present an additional challenge to the fitment of the guard, and Ron agreed: Fitting the guard to an angular tapered wedge tang was not easy. I had to hand file the wedge shaped tight fit in the guard where I normally just slot a rectangular hole on the milling machine. It took about 4 times as long to fit this guard. The result, as Ron describes, is a blade that looks as if it jumps right out of the guard with no disruption to the flow of the lines, as the following photo demonstrates. Challenging though it may have been, the fitment of blade to guard is nonetheless immaculate:
Regrettably, the photographs will not show the most striking aspect of the blade itself the shimmering chatoyant effect displayed by the damascus pattern. In fairness, given that this effect is a function of light moving along the length of the blade, no still photo could be expected to capture it, but it is a delightful 3-D visual effect that makes the rungs of the ladder pattern appear to shift and move. I asked Ron how he managed to pull this off: "As far as the chatoyant character.... this one has more than any knife I've made. The layers of steel are disrupted drastically and very close together ( by forging in the ladder rungs) which corrugates the layers and makes it all happen boldly. I was going to just say I have a new chatoyant switch on my power hammer but I didn't figure you'd believe it.
If you will follow me away from the blade for a moment, well take a look at some of the other terrific details that are characteristic of a Newton knife. The next photo gives us a nice look at the graceful Spanish notch; the striking elliptical guard and the damascus ferrule. The guard is actually the feature that first drew me to this knife. I remembered it from Rons appropriately named Muy Grande damascus bowie which he produced a while back (that knife did have a blade well in excess of a foot long). I think it works very well here, particularly with the contrasting brushed finished on the flats with a mirror polish on the edge:
It doesnt matter much which way you turn the handle, all youre going to see gorgeous sambar stag with exceptional colour and texture. In my humble view, a nice stag carver simply cannot be beat for the handle of a bowie:
Finally, we have an appropriate finishing touch in the damascus butt cap. It is rendered in 448 layers of same steel as the blade and has an internal tig welded wedge with corrugated teeth that are imbedded into the epoxy cavity. It is also doweled with 52100 dowel pins to the carver and hand filed to match the natural contours of the stag.
By way of brief summary, I could not conceivably be more pleased with this blade. My thanks to Ron for the knife and for the detailed information about its construction. And further thanks to Coop for lending a welcome and much needed professional touch in the following photo:
Roger Pinnock
I would love to see some of your knives up close and personal but first there's the crowd around your table - they won't let me in. Then, when I come back later - everything you brought is gone! 
But it's on a Fed Ex plane headed to the Netherelands as we speak. We probably will be hearing from him on the forums when the package arrives tomorrow.
When that set of three is complete Stephen is going to have to take them on tour - it promises to be something very special indeed.