Captains dagger. Lorien Design and a ton of firsts for me...

A

Adam Reese

Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Messages
400
Hello everyone,

Ok, here is the back ground story. After Lorien posted some images of the pay it forward knives earlier this year, I emailed him and told him I would love to make one of his designs and sell it to donate the money to a charity. He asked me what I would be interested in making and since I really wanted to push myself I told him I had been wanting to make some kind of boot dagger. Boy did he challenge me. This was my first double grinded blade, my first sweeping plunges, my first time using metal for bolsters and my first time dovetailing the bolsters. I have to say that I am not completely happy with this one, so I may end up making another to sell, but who knows.

The charity will be the Ronald McDonald house charities of Augusta. (changed from Childrens Charity fund. See post below)

The particulars:
I am calling this thing Captains dagger, because to me it looks like something a pirate captain would carry. The blade is 1084 (the first three were 1095, 1095, and 440c, but we will just call them practice...they didn't make it...) It is vinegar etched and then the high spots were hit with 2500 grit. The bolsters are copper, they are epoxied and have two copper pins peened in then they were given a hammer finish. The wood is padauk with a danish oil finish, and the pins are copper peened and hammered to match the bolsters. OAL is 9 3/4"

Things I'm not happy with are the plunges, where the wood meets the bolsters, and my etch. I have one of those cheap etchers from "letroetch". It doesn't have any settings or anything. It was ok for a while, but I need something different. Oh, I also neet to get a stencil with Loriens mark so I can put that on the other side.

There, I think I covered everything. Well here are the pics.

This is the drawing Lorien sent me:
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Here is the knife:
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It is sharpened on both edges, with the exception of about 1/2" worth on the top right up next to the bolsters where your thumb would likely slide onto if you ever thrust it into something. Think Shrade sharpfinger saftey edge like.

Well, thats it...What do you think?

-Adam
 
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Very worthwhile project, great gesture on both your and Lorien's part.
Solid looking knife, the bolsters do look too bulky/thick to my eye.
Nice job on the dovetails. :thumbup:
 
Nice knife. Lorien has some great designs. The etched blade and hammered copper compliment each other nicely...very cute!
 
Very nice! It has a real "old-world" look.

Kind regards,

Jos
 
:cool::thumbup:

"I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success"
- Nicola Tesla
 
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Adam,
Thanks for sharing this, the knife came together very well. It is great to see that you are willing to share it even though you may not be 100% happy with the finished blade. I also was pushed by the first PIF a few years ago, I have had fun with many of Lorien's designs. Keep up the good work!
 
Very cool what a great little knife with a nice story to go with it. Lorien has sent me a couple very cool knife designs I keep them taped up in the shop so I see them all the time and I plan to make one some day. what I think is really great about his design skills is his ability to look at what that maker is doing and then design a knife that uses those skills and pushing the maker to add new new skills. And that is cool
 
Thank you all for the compliments. Lorien definately has a knack for designing knives, which is why I wanted to make one of his knives. I just don't have the ability to come up with cool looking stuff like he does.

David, you hit the nail on the head. Lorien looked at some of my previous work and pushed me to try things that I tried to avoid.

Ryan, I was definately hesitant on posting this, because when I look at it, all I see are the flaws. Also, I want to give an accurate portrayal of where I am at so far and posting something like this gives the opportunity for constructive criticism, which I always welcome.

-Adam
 
Ok, just an update.

I was showing the knife off at work Friday night, and my boss insisted he wanted it. So in short, I did decide to sell it. Also, I was looking a little deeper into the Childrens Charity Fund, who I was originally going to donate to, and I just got an uneasy feeling about them. They got terrible reviews from a few charity rating websites for various reasons, so I decided to go with the Ronald McDonald house charities of Augusta. The good thing about them is they are local, and they help children and families, which is what I was wanting to donate to anyways.

I still have to add Loriens mark onto the knife first before I deliver it, and I was wondering where the guys that have made some of his designs before got their stencils from. I figure if a company is already set up to make that one, I can order it from them and not have to pay that initial set-up fee. It would basically be like a re-order. Or, if someone has an extra, I could buy it from you.

-Adam
 
Adam, I would love to be able to send you the stencils I had, but a series of unfortunate events took them out of my hands. Ernie Gospitch (www.erniesknives.com) originally made them and might still have the template.

With that being said, don't feel obligated to put my designer mark on there I'm cool with it all as is. Hopefully there will be another opportunity :)
 
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