Battleship Texas WIP

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The plan all along has been 1914 and 1948 coins as spacers, bookends if you will, to commemorate the ships active years. My jewelry rolling mill guy isn’t available, and they’re currently too small. Will get ‘em rolled Friday and finish out the rough in next weekend.
 
Today I got the coins rolled out. Tomorrow will be spacers and handle material fitting.

In the mean time, here’s the shot everyone wants to see… the test etch. It’s epic, but not quite as epic as I had in my mind. About the only change I will make is to adjust the blade profile a little bit to balance out the proportion between the sea and sky, by taking some off of the belly of the profile

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OK. Everything's fit, checked, re-fit, checked, re-fit, checked, and so on lol. Tedious! Resting a bit after 6 hours on my feet messing with tiny parts.

Next is shaping the spacers to match the butt and guard, then shaping the handle material to fit the fittings. I thought I was 2-3 days from done going into the weekend but after working today, I think I'm still 3-4 days out.
 

I stopped for the day. Was working on a sword, noticed a crack, so I broke it. I figured if I was breaking stuff, it would be better now than closer to the deadline, so I worked on straightening the remaining ones that were warped using a torch and a vise. Broke two more. Grain was too large, must've been hotter than it looked in those quench videos. Now I get to order some more 1084 and forge a few more, as I don't have enough to make my order. Fortunately I'm still 6 weeks out on that one, but it's not much time.
 
Fittings are ship and 15n20. A little disappointed that the ship etched just meh gray, but it’ll work for fittings. This is after ferric and then coffee. Usually coffee will push the dark parts to near black, but not with this steel.
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Glued it up last night. After the glue stiffened up I took off the clamps to clean up the extra glue. All right, so I went to bed. Overnight without the clamps, a gap opened up. Choice words were spoken.

Currently deliberating. I don’t have enough clean wood to redo both scales as is. Plan a I think it’s going to be some heat and try to get that one scale off so that I can re-glue it. Plan B, tear the whole thing apart and rebuild the scales with a spacer behind them. I don’t have the width of material to replace it as it is without some kind of spacer.

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Got it apart with some heat. Trick, 200 degree oven weakens glue just enough without damaging the blade or handle material. No damage of consequence. Cleaned up, pins shortened, and glued back together with “only” 7 clamps lol.
 

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Fixing to put on my 10th coat of LinSpeed. Tomorrow I’ll clean it all up, wax it, and sharpen. I’m having a custom box built by a local wood guy. Also sending the knife out to Jim Cooper later next week.
 
I'm at the point where I'm going to say I'm done with the knife. Still need to sharpen, but otherwise finished. Total time was 100-105 hours over about 8 months. It's sleeting and gross here right now, not conducive for even a quick finished pic. As soon as I get some decent light I'll share a finished photo.
 
My family is from Texas, and I myself was born there. I saw the USS Texas at San Jacinto back in 2004, and previously as a child. I am also a history buff, so this really tickles my fancy. My grandfather would have loved this were he still alive, and probably would have bought it were he alive. I can't even fathom the cost of this, but kudos to you on a work of art. I feel in a way like this should be a museum piece to go along with the ship.
 
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