Another Large Chopper

mohd

mohd

Joined
Jun 3, 1999
Messages
1,989
I though of sharing the following pictures with you all :)

Picture # 1:

BFDamascusGP02.jpg


Clue # 1:

mohd said:
And if you have time, I would really appreciate several pictures of the knife in the making at the selected different phases such as the finished damascus blank, the finished blade without handle, the finished knife with handle, the knife with the leather sheath etc. I've a plan to post those pictures in our local Malaysian Knife Forums some times later. Anyhow if it is difficult to take shots in between of your work then you just forget about this particular request, OK :)
Click to expand...

the smith said:
I'll take some photos. Sorry I didn't get any of me making the damascus. You can just say it was too secret to photograph. There was just so much magic that my camera exploded. Or something like that.

.. I attached a photo of the forged blade .. it has a long slightly dropped point blade, and a much more dropped handle .. They're a lot to refine about the shape as I go on from here .. this blade is 15" long ..
Click to expand...

Hints # 1:

The smith who forged the blade in the above picture is a registered member in BF since 2003. He'd started quite a number of threads mostly in Custom & Handmade Knives. And he'd posted more than 200 postings so far :cool:

Guess who is the smith that forged the blade in the above picture?

I know that it's very hard to make the guess just from seeing a single picture and reading couples of sentences as a clue, so I/A I'll post the second picture and the second clue in my next posting :)

BTW, I like this particular design of a large chopper because it has a so very close resemblance to our traditional knife in Peninsular Malaysia which is called as Golok Perak. This Golok Perak is considered as a male version if it has an integral bolster and the one that has a separate bolster (i.e. as shown in the following picture) is considered as a female version ;) Don't ask me why :D

BFDamascusGP00a.jpg

Source: silatpanglimakasim dot blogspot dot com

mohd.
 
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got some Foster flavour going on there. That's my guess anyway
 
Yup, my guess too. The handle and the comments about magic and the exploding camera made me think of Burt.
 
No! Not now! Let's build a little bit more suspense in here :D Lorien and Stuart, lots of thanks for the guesses! Anyhow I'm not going to say either yes or no for now ;)

mohd said:
I know that it's very hard to make the guess just from seeing a single picture and reading couples of sentences as a clue, so I/A I'll post the second picture and the second clue in my next posting :)
Click to expand...
As I promised in my first posting, so here it is!

Picture # 2:

BFDamascusGP03.jpg


Clue # 2:

The smith said:
I'll be heat treating the knife this morning. Here's a photo of the rough ground blade. Because of the length of the blade and relatively thin cross section, I elected to rough grind as little as possible, and do as much finishing after hardening as possible. So there are still forge marks on the blade as you can see. And it is a lousy photo - sorry about that. I'll take a photo of quenching the blade if I can.
Click to expand...
So let's guess some more .. whose work is that in the above picture?

BTW, take a little closer look to the above picture! The blade has an integral bolster :)

Mohd.
 
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mohd said:
The blade has an integral bolster :)
Click to expand...
Yes, the integral bolster shows better in the following picture.

Picture # 3:

BFDamascusGP05.jpg


Clue # 3:

Mohd said:
I've shown the design of my order to some elders here in Malaysia. They like the design very much. Anyhow they advice me to have a rounded choil for the knife to comply with the design of our Golok Perak.
Click to expand...
The smith said:
.. and the rounded choil, though not my normal method, is something I do from time to time, and it looks good on this knife, so I say let's do it.
Click to expand...
I think the above shot was taken after quenching. If you looks closely you can see that the large knife is having a swedge along the spine. Or, is it called as a swage? I don't really know which of which is the correct one, a swedge or a swage! Both words existed in the net and they were used by knifemakers!

And the other thing which I still don't have any info yet is about the reason behind the hollowing of the full tang. Should ask the smith about it. Why it should be made that way? Anybody knows why?

Mohd.
 
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mohd said:
And the other thing which I still don't have any info yet is about the reason behind the hollowing of the full tang. Should ask the smith about it. Why it should be made that way? Anybody knows why?

Mohd.
Click to expand...

some might tell you that it is to remove weight from a full tang handle.
Maybe it's for stashing some fishing line and hooks, like with some 'survival knives' or on a knife this size, you might be able to stash a whole fishing rod in there;):p
 
And the other thing which I still don't have any info yet is about the reason behind the hollowing of the full tang. Should ask the smith about it. Why it should be made that way? Anybody knows why?


Generally, grinding the tang that way is to reduce weight and make it easier to flatten and/or taper the tang because it reduces the amount of surface area that has to be ground all at once. It also can help make it easier to alter the balance and overall handling of the finished blade by causing the weight of the finished handle to counterbalance the weight of the blade.
 
Hollowing the handle like that is for a 2 fold purpose, 1. to provide an easier mate up with the scales (as mentioned) and 2. to provide more epoxy purchase when glued up.

It still looks like a Foster to me too, I can almost see a contrast in the last photo with a possible 416 over carbon laminate. Could be the pic too but it looks like it.
 
mohd said:
Picture # 3:

GP03.jpg
Click to expand...

Sorry, your game is up. That's Burt's background. ;) :D

As far as hollowing the tang a little, I think that the above answers cover it but the same thing can be a little trick in woodworking when doing large joints and you want to make sure that the edges mate cleanly. Taking a little from the middle guarantees edge contact under pressure and also keeps glue in the joint.

I guess the same could be at work here to some degree.
 
Lots of thanks to Lorien, Holmes and Chuck for all the exact reasonings behind the hollowing of the full tang! Ah .. ha .. all the while I thought the smith just want to trap some air in the handle to sort of protect the wood slabs from a shrinking problem :D

Don and Chuck, thank you very much for your visits to my thread, I'm honored :o

Again lots of thanks to Lorien, Stuart, Don, Holmes, Chuck and John for the guesses :)

I think now is the right time to let you'll know how correct your guesses are ;)

Picture # 4:

BFDamascusGP04.jpg


Yes! Burt Foster! He's the master smith who made this large damascus knife for me! Not a single guess went wrong! Congrats to you all to make the correct guess :thumbup:

It started with a CLI Fighter deal say about 18 months ago. I like the design of CLI Fighter because it has a very close resemblance to the design of a Malaysian Golok. Anyhow I'm not a MA person. So I asked Burt to build it with a specs that could translate the CLI Fighter into some sort of a chopper! And I specifically requested for a rounded choil to comply more with the design of a Malaysian Golok Perak (i.e. as I mentioned in my very first posting in this thread).

Picture # 5:

BFDamascusGP00e.jpg


During the forging, the hammering and the grinding processes Burt saw through his master smith's eyes that he'd to slightly change the design of the chopper. And I liked it so I told him to proceed on with the changes!

Burt Foster said:
Your drawing had a very straight blade with a fairly straight handle. The blade as forged looks a little more elegant in my opinion - it has a long slightly dropped point blade, and a much more dropped handle.
Click to expand...

And the following picture shows the final result of Burt's work :thumbup:

Picture # 6:

BFDamascusGP06.jpg


Burt Foster said:
.. I'm very pleased with the final knife. The blade is light and fast. In fact, the whole knife weighs about 22 ounces, which makes it 1 ounce lighter than my personal 10" bladed camp knife! The handle is wide so it's very secure, but it's not as thick as you might expect, so it seems to be comfortable with a wide range of hand sizes ..

.. the size of the finished knife is: Blade: 14-1/8", width 2", thickness (at thickest part) .265", overall 19-5/8" The blade as forged was almost 15" but with finishing, we came back to almost 14". I had the blade thicker originally, but I felt the balance was poor. The blade is just over 1/4" thick at the thickest, but it has a very "alive" feel to the blade. It is very fast in the hand. In fact, the balance point is only 2" in front of the integral bolster, which gives it great cutting power, but still keeping it very light and fast ..
Click to expand...

Where's Burt? Oooops .. I think he's tied up in the dress making for this tall elegant lady! Who knows .. maybe he'd finished making the dress .. and now he's doing the photographic session for her :D

Meanwhile .. anybody knows the answer to my confusion about the swedge and the swage? Which one is the correct terminology?

Mohd.
 
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cool thread man:thumbup::cool:
 
Absolutely beautiful!

And how cool is it that a Burt Foster knife can be spotted even in its rough stages.
 
Wow, what an awesome piece of work this turned out to be. No surprise, given the maker, but it still knocks my socks off. A BIG knife that is also light and fast really appeals to me. And good looks never hurt.

Congrats on a fine new piece and thanks for sharing it with us.

Roger
 
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