Damascus and ironwood

[mnavarro]

Just finished this one for a friend it's a shame that it will only be a safe queen, but hey it was fun working with damascus. This is the second damascus blade that I have made. It is 1095 and 15n20 random pattern. I put two 1/4 mosiac pins and one stainless pin in the center. I decided to do a polished finish instead of putting it in the ferric acid. What do yo guys think overall. Improvements or suggestions are much appreciated?

My question is leave it with a polished finish or go ahead and dip it?
Thanks

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[Greenberg Woods]

Did you ever etch the steel?

 

[mnavarro]

No, not yet I asked my friend if he wanted it etched and he said to do whatever looked good to me. I like the polished finish, but I wanted to get some second opinions from you guys here.

Thanks

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Honestly i feel like you wasted the damascus if you dont etch it. There are a lot of differnt levels of etch you can leave on a knife, but doing none at all seems like a waste

 

[JTknives]

Well are the scales attached? If thy are then my advise is to leave it.
But yes Damascus for me really shines when etched. You can polish after etching to, you do t need to leve it gray etched finish. I once left a blade it the FC tank for to long and when I cleaned it up you could feel the pattern. It ended up looking good but yeah etching is good.

But honestly what caught my eye first was not the Damascus being not etched. it was the grind on the blade. The grind towards the tip dropping looks off. But that's just me, might be worth hitting the grinder a little to bring the edge bevel back up. The way it is makes for a really thick tip. On my knives I actually go the other direction and do a wider sweet twords the tip. I love thin tips with a bit more meat in the belly.

 

[ludo410]

Personally I kind of like the non-etched look, you can still see the layers even with the polish. Different strokes for different folks though, etching might have given you a deeper pattern that you could have still shined up. I'd think it's too late to etch now (especially if you wanted to show the damascus through the tang) since it would only affect the handle material aversely. The handle is a bit too wide for my own personal taste, but still I think it looks good as is. :thumbup:

 

[mnavarro]

Personally I kind of like the non-etched look, you can still see the layers even with the polish. Different strokes for different folks though, etching might have given you a deeper pattern that you could have still shined up. I'd think it's too late to etch now (especially if you wanted to show the damascus through the tang) since it would only affect the handle material aversely. The handle is a bit too wide for my own personal taste, but still I think it looks good as is. :thumbup:

Thanks. Those were my thoughts as well. I could dip the whole knife in the ferric, but as you said it might affect the handle material. By the way I like the designs of some of your knives, the sheaths are exceptional.

 

[mnavarro]

Well are the scales attached? If thy are then my advise is to leave it.
But yes Damascus for me really shines when etched. You can polish after etching to, you do t need to leve it gray etched finish. I once left a blade it the FC tank for to long and when I cleaned it up you could feel the pattern. It ended up looking good but yeah etching is good.

But honestly what caught my eye first was not the Damascus being not etched. it was the grind on the blade. The grind towards the tip dropping looks off. But that's just me, might be worth hitting the grinder a little to bring the edge bevel back up. The way it is makes for a really thick tip. On my knives I actually go the other direction and do a wider sweet twords the tip. I love thin tips with a bit more meat in the belly.

I see what you mean about the grind. I am going to take it back to the grinder and touch that up.
Thanks for the tip.