Carving steel

[kbright]

I see photos of art knives that seem to be carved. Maybe this is a form of engraving, but seems deeper. The discussion on fullers may touch on this, and filework on the top is maybe a form of this. Has anyone tried carving steel, either the blade or bolster, or pommel? Can it be done with files and Dremel tools?

 

[Alex T.]

I think you are refering to deep relief engraving. From what I know (wich is very little), it is done with pneumatic engravers (lindsay, grs) and micromotors (like very precise fordom).

 

[Hengelo_77]

Some use steel chisels.
I used to have a dvd from a guy using dremel cut off disct and forex flexible abrasive wheels. Forgt who made the dvd

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It is done various ways. Most is done with carbide cutters to remove the steel and Cratex wheels to smooth it. There is a DVD available on doing steel carving on knives.

Some chaps use a CNC milling machine to cut the design.

 

[Hengelo_77]

Cratex, yes not what I first typed

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Ha-ha … my spell checker tried to change it to Kotex, too.

I absolutely hate trying to text any knifemaking terminology because of auto-correct. You have to carefully re-read it to change the words back to what you typed. I rarely even try to text answers to technical questions.