kuraki
Fimbulvetr Knifeworks
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2016
- Messages
- 4,679
Hi guys. Been some time since I've posted anything here but given that these are my first pro pics, and of a knife I'm quite proud of I wanted to share it with you all.
America's knife is the Bowie, at least in my opinion, and while I've seen mosaic and other pattern welded knives with the flag, I had an idea on how to do it a little differently that I believe is novel and allows for a very detailed representation with very little deformity in forging. So of course, my first attempt at using this process had to be a bowie with the stars and stripes
This won't be quite a WIP, but I took a number of pictures throughout the build and know some of you appreciate seeing that stuff so I'll try and present them chronologically. If you don't care about any of that just scroll to the bottom or send complaints to my press secretary @Matthew Gregory
The other reason is that I'd like to show in a single post that the finished product is not simply a carefully masked etch of the flag.
Because I'm keeping the process to myself for the time being, I'll start with this- the billet has been forge welded and is ready to be forged to shape. The flag is present on both sides in the same orientation and forge welded over a 1095 core.
Forged to shape and quenched, you can see the pattern sticking out through the decarb and scale.
After some finish grinding, a test etch to see how things are looking, and I notice there's some hamon formation likely due to the thickness of the blade and that the majority is 1095 and 1075. I didn't do it on purpose, but like the effect it had on the finished knife. At this point I was worried how it would look when finished though and almost chucked it to start over.
I had some crushed W damascus made up that I forged into this guard thinking I would do a flat S guard with spacers
Then changed my mind and decided I wanted a sculpted guard instead. So I took a remaining lump of that same damascus and TIG welded it in place for a dry forge weld.
After further forging and shaping, as well as beginning to fit and shape the stabilized black walnut handle
After bending the guard in an S (at this point I figure I'm passed the point of no return and am going to finish this knife, though as you can see from how the blade looks, I was even more worried how that auto-hamon was going to look
)
Etching and assembling again and it's pretty close to complete. I attempt to parkerize the blade hoping that would give me the contrast pop I was really looking for, and got just the opposite
Etched looks like crap. Parked looks bland. I'm pretty ambivalent about the knife at this point but clean everything up, electro etch my mark and give it a final dip in ferric before going to a coffee etch. Thank god that worked just how I hoped. Now instead of washing out the entire flag, the hamon looks more like smoke surrounding it.
Finally satisfied I sent it off to Paul Long because while my leather skills are improving and adequate for most things, I didn't think they would do this knife justice. Paul knocked it out of the park in record time with brown leather and shark skin. @sheathmaker
And since I was in a bit of a time crunch, wanting to have it back to put on my table at the Badger Knife Show this month, he then he sent it to
SharpByCoop
for photos. Jim of course knocked it out as well and I couldn't be happier with how he framed and presented it.
So, thanks again to both of you, Paul and Jim, and thanks for looking.
America's knife is the Bowie, at least in my opinion, and while I've seen mosaic and other pattern welded knives with the flag, I had an idea on how to do it a little differently that I believe is novel and allows for a very detailed representation with very little deformity in forging. So of course, my first attempt at using this process had to be a bowie with the stars and stripes
This won't be quite a WIP, but I took a number of pictures throughout the build and know some of you appreciate seeing that stuff so I'll try and present them chronologically. If you don't care about any of that just scroll to the bottom or send complaints to my press secretary @Matthew Gregory
The other reason is that I'd like to show in a single post that the finished product is not simply a carefully masked etch of the flag.Because I'm keeping the process to myself for the time being, I'll start with this- the billet has been forge welded and is ready to be forged to shape. The flag is present on both sides in the same orientation and forge welded over a 1095 core.
Forged to shape and quenched, you can see the pattern sticking out through the decarb and scale.
After some finish grinding, a test etch to see how things are looking, and I notice there's some hamon formation likely due to the thickness of the blade and that the majority is 1095 and 1075. I didn't do it on purpose, but like the effect it had on the finished knife. At this point I was worried how it would look when finished though and almost chucked it to start over.
I had some crushed W damascus made up that I forged into this guard thinking I would do a flat S guard with spacers
Then changed my mind and decided I wanted a sculpted guard instead. So I took a remaining lump of that same damascus and TIG welded it in place for a dry forge weld.
After further forging and shaping, as well as beginning to fit and shape the stabilized black walnut handle
After bending the guard in an S (at this point I figure I'm passed the point of no return and am going to finish this knife, though as you can see from how the blade looks, I was even more worried how that auto-hamon was going to look
)
Etching and assembling again and it's pretty close to complete. I attempt to parkerize the blade hoping that would give me the contrast pop I was really looking for, and got just the opposite
Etched looks like crap. Parked looks bland. I'm pretty ambivalent about the knife at this point but clean everything up, electro etch my mark and give it a final dip in ferric before going to a coffee etch. Thank god that worked just how I hoped. Now instead of washing out the entire flag, the hamon looks more like smoke surrounding it.
Finally satisfied I sent it off to Paul Long because while my leather skills are improving and adequate for most things, I didn't think they would do this knife justice. Paul knocked it out of the park in record time with brown leather and shark skin. @sheathmaker
And since I was in a bit of a time crunch, wanting to have it back to put on my table at the Badger Knife Show this month, he then he sent it to
SharpByCoop
for photos. Jim of course knocked it out as well and I couldn't be happier with how he framed and presented it.
So, thanks again to both of you, Paul and Jim, and thanks for looking.
. 
) and, true to form, it didn't do this magnificence 'justice'.
