- Joined
- Nov 28, 1999
- Messages
- 14,985
Early Spring, a good friend and coworker of mine came over and helped me till up my garden for me. He brought his whole family with him. While here, I gave them the tour of the shop, where I occasionally make a knife. His boys were particularly interested in the knifemaking part of the day. Since then, my friend's oldest boy(Caleb; age 10) has been begging his Dad to let him come over and watch me screw up some steel(I mean, make a knife). Well, life gets in the way and it was just this weekend, that they were able to come over for part of the day, Saturday. The plan was to pick out a piece of 1084, let Caleb provide input as to the design and allow him to help a little. We agreed on a simple design and I went to get him a piece of 1084.
I cut off a piece of 1084 and headed to the workbench and spotted a thinner and narrower piece of damascus instead. So, we went with damascus , even though I wasn't quite sure of the pattern. I did know who made it and what it was made of(critical info, for proper heat treat, ya know). I did most of the work, but Caleb did some profiling on the KMG horizontal grinder, drilled two of the holes and filed the little choil and did some filing on the thumb checkering on the spine. From there, I let him watch as I rough ground the blade and did the heat treat. Never seen a kid's eyes so big, as when that red hot piece of steel was quenched in the oil.
Didn't take long, before time had gotten away from us, and they had to go home. Besides, I still had to do a couple 2 hour tempers on the blade. I vowed to myself to get this little blade done in time for me to give to his Dad Tuesday, when I went back to work. Wish I could be there tonight, to see the look on little Caleb's face, as he sees the gorgeous Firestorm Twist pattern Dan Seaver damascus blade and it's razorsharpedness.
Anyway, here's the little knife. Firestorm Twist pattern 1084/15N20, from Dan Seaver. Flat ground nice and thin, from 1/8" stock, this one will cut very well, methinks. Caleb and his Dad plan to wrap the handle with paracord.
:thumbup:
I cut off a piece of 1084 and headed to the workbench and spotted a thinner and narrower piece of damascus instead. So, we went with damascus , even though I wasn't quite sure of the pattern. I did know who made it and what it was made of(critical info, for proper heat treat, ya know). I did most of the work, but Caleb did some profiling on the KMG horizontal grinder, drilled two of the holes and filed the little choil and did some filing on the thumb checkering on the spine. From there, I let him watch as I rough ground the blade and did the heat treat. Never seen a kid's eyes so big, as when that red hot piece of steel was quenched in the oil.
Didn't take long, before time had gotten away from us, and they had to go home. Besides, I still had to do a couple 2 hour tempers on the blade. I vowed to myself to get this little blade done in time for me to give to his Dad Tuesday, when I went back to work. Wish I could be there tonight, to see the look on little Caleb's face, as he sees the gorgeous Firestorm Twist pattern Dan Seaver damascus blade and it's razorsharpedness.
Anyway, here's the little knife. Firestorm Twist pattern 1084/15N20, from Dan Seaver. Flat ground nice and thin, from 1/8" stock, this one will cut very well, methinks. Caleb and his Dad plan to wrap the handle with paracord.
:thumbup:
lol