Damascus Take-Down

I was considering what to do about the guard for this knife. I'd already fashioned (and discarded) a fairly common S-guard using a block of brass I have, mimicking the guard on the original Musso design sheet. But since this knife has departed from the Musso design in so many ways, I no longer feel bound to that guard design.

When I went through my materials looking for the right stuff for making a guard, I came inevitably to the big bag of mammoth ivory scrap I have. There was this one big piece of bark I have been cutting chunks off that I though might make a decent guard. I was still thinking in terms of a sort of traditional shape, but the material would be non-traditional.

So I cut off a big hunk and started cleaning up the roughness to get to the usable material. As I did so a rather non-traditional shape occurred to me. I started noticing that the natural curve of the piece didn't lend itself well to being flattened... it wanted to be curved. Also, I noticed that when I had sanded it down to a usable oval, the shape and colors really appealed to me. Kind of reminds me of a Zulu warrior shield from old "darkest Africa" type movies.

So here's a picture of what's left of the bark piece and the guard piece I made from it. I haven't finished it yet, obviously, but I think it will be very functional. I will have to put a curve on the adjoining part of the handle, but that will be dead simple.

Not sure this will go well with the blue jean burl handle... but it will definitely go well with something. ;)

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Greg, slotting the guard and fitting it when it is square (or squarerer..? in this case) and not shaped yet makes life easier.
 
I meant easier to hold, in a vise for example, for slotting and getting a nice tight fit. It also lets you see the piece installed to get a better idea of where you want to go with the shape.
 
Fortunately, slotting ivory is much simpler than slotting metal. I do almost all of my ivory work by hand, bot in a vise. It has another advantage too... it shows you where you need to file a bit more to get a snug fit.

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I sanded the guard up to 800 grit and lightly buffed it, then set up the "experimental Bakelite" handle to fit. Still rough, but I think they go well together.

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tryppyr said:
I started thinking about handle solutions in more detail today and it occurred to me that one advantage of a take down is the opportunity to create multiple handles and guards for use on a single blade.
Click to expand...

I think you may have a selling point there, change your suit, change the knife handle to match your suit ;0)
 
jonekatt said:
I think you may have a selling point there, change your suit, change the knife handle to match your suit ;0)
Click to expand...

As if to illustrate the point, here's a handle I made for another take-down (that ended up as a glue up). I just modified it slightly and voila... a second handle for the same guard. Truth be known, I like the look of this one better.

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I agree that looks better with that guard. The previous green one looks great but would need a different guard material to do it justice.
 
Today I finished hand sanding the blade, sharpening the edge to hair-popping sharpness, etching my makers mark, and etching the damascus. Still some left to do, but it's getting closer. Partial list of the to-do items:

* sand blade with 2000 grit until it is evenly bright
* make the pommel for the wood/ivory combination
* make the guard and pommel for the blue jean micarta handle
* make the sheath(s)


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Nice to see it develop, Greg.

I will give some design advice, but it is not meant to demean the hard work you have put into this knife.

Look at the basic shape....it is straight as an arrow. That is good if you are shooting it from a bow, but not as good for a knife that will be hand held. There looks like a little lift to the spine as it reaches the swedge. Adding some down curve to the spine and handle can make a huge change in the blockiness of the look.

Look at the guard ....It is over twice the blade width. That makes it overly dominant. It is hard to look at the knife and see much beyond the guard. It should be asymmetrical. Wider and less high at the top, and narrower and longer at the bottom. Egg shaped is a good look. 1/4" above the spine is plenty. 1/2" to 3/4" below the edge is more than enough,too. It only needs to be large enough to keep your hand from going on the blade. If going for a fighter look, the guard can be some type of "S" shape.

Look at the ricasso.....there isn't one. The blade should drop back a bit from the rise after the edge. Even a 1/4" will make a big change in the look. 1/2" would be about normal. This will also allow the blade to fit to the guard without such a noticeable gap. The main advantage of the ricasso on a knife is that it allows sharpening of the knife edge without the guard getting in the way. The knife as made could only be sharpened to near the guard without either damaging the guard. I know it is a take down, but that isn't the point. Fit and finish as well as shape should be the same on a fixed blade or a take down.

Look at the distal taper.....The tip tapers from the swedge, but the blade has no distal taper. If it was a smooth taper from the ricasso to the tip, it would look much sleeker and lighter.

Look at the swedge and edge....it is OK as made, but would add a lot of flow and sleekness to the blade if the swedge was moved back toward the blade center. The edge is pretty good, but could use just a tad smoother taper in its overall path toward the tip. Avoid the appearance of it being fatter at the area under the swedge as it looks now. That is often an illusion, but can be countered by the tapering curve of the edge.

Look at the handle.......The wood is pretty, but the shape is just a modified dowel. Give it some taper and flair. Lower the butt. Even just a little shaping can make a big change. Generally, it should be narrowest at the guard and wider/thicker at the butt. On almost all knives, the butt should drop to some degree. The larger the knife, the more pronounced the drop. The top of the handle should be a smooth curve. Large knives look and function best with a little palm/finger swell.

As a comparison for the above notes, look at the drawings and photos of this Nick Wheeler Fighter and see the things I mention:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ck-Wheeler-Prototype-Fighter-quot-Oh-YEA-quot

If you look at the basic blade cut-out profile in post #3, it is very close to yours, but where it went from there is very different.
 
Well, the good news is because it's a takedown I can (and will) have multiple guards and handles. As with all my knives, it's all about experimenting and trying something different. I definitely wasn't looking to copy anyone's style (once I got past the whole scaled down Musso thing). ;)
 
I didn't mean to copy Nick's knife...just showing what these features add to a knife. The end look will be different for each knife.

Many of these suggestions can still be made/modified on the knife you have.
For instance:
The shoulder could be ground back 1/4"at the height of the handle and make a small ricasso. That would change nothing ...but change a lot.
The guard can be re-shaped smaller and more egg shaped.
The edge could be brought up a bit below the swedge to give it a bit more taper.


I have more than once completely re-ground a finished blade that wasn't looking right.
You could carefully add some distal taper and adjust the entire shape of the blade if you wanted to. At the worst, the HT would need to be re-done.


But, the last post was mostly for future thought.
 
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On thing to bear in mind... this was based on the Musso Bowie design. That design has a guard that is roughly proportional to what I did with the ivory. It definitely isn't egg shaped. ;)
 
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