Phillip Patton
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2005
- Messages
- 5,384
What with my new shop being built, moving into it, and helping my best friends get ready for moving to Texas, and other things, I've not been able to do much on knives, but I am getting started back up.
This one was started a couple years ago. It's my first attempt at a double cored pattern welded short sword. The cores were welded very early in my forge welding experience, out of 10 layers of 1095 and O1. A very bad combination, since they both etch dark, and their hardenability is very different....
Anyway, last year, I decided to make some use of the billets, and make a dagger. I over estimated the amount of steel I would end up with, and here we are with a short sword.
The edge is L6, forge welded to the core bars. It was the first time I'd done this sort of thing, and L6 being as deep hardening as it is, it cracked in some places. Also, there are bad welds in a few places, so, this one is not being sold, ever. I did "fix" some of the bad welds with my arc welder.
As I mentioned, 1095 and O1 both etch dark, so when I tried to etch it for contrast, it looked awful, so I just polished it bright again. All that forge welding for nothing.
Well, not nothing; I learned a lot. Like, stick with shallow hardening steels for awhile, and use contrasting and compatible steels.
The blade length is 21", and the weight is 31.5 oz. Balance point is about an inch and a half in front of the guard. The guard is etched wrought iron (check out the pattern), the handle is natural micarta, and the pommel is mild steel.
I ground the fullers in with a 2" wheel. The blade is about 3/16" thick at the ricasso.
Fit and finish is not very good, because I knew I'd be keeping it, and just couldn't afford to take the time to make it perfect. Customers are waiting.
Thanks for looking,
Phillip
This one was started a couple years ago. It's my first attempt at a double cored pattern welded short sword. The cores were welded very early in my forge welding experience, out of 10 layers of 1095 and O1. A very bad combination, since they both etch dark, and their hardenability is very different....
Anyway, last year, I decided to make some use of the billets, and make a dagger. I over estimated the amount of steel I would end up with, and here we are with a short sword.
The edge is L6, forge welded to the core bars. It was the first time I'd done this sort of thing, and L6 being as deep hardening as it is, it cracked in some places. Also, there are bad welds in a few places, so, this one is not being sold, ever. I did "fix" some of the bad welds with my arc welder.
As I mentioned, 1095 and O1 both etch dark, so when I tried to etch it for contrast, it looked awful, so I just polished it bright again. All that forge welding for nothing.
Well, not nothing; I learned a lot. Like, stick with shallow hardening steels for awhile, and use contrasting and compatible steels. The blade length is 21", and the weight is 31.5 oz. Balance point is about an inch and a half in front of the guard. The guard is etched wrought iron (check out the pattern), the handle is natural micarta, and the pommel is mild steel.
I ground the fullers in with a 2" wheel. The blade is about 3/16" thick at the ricasso.
Fit and finish is not very good, because I knew I'd be keeping it, and just couldn't afford to take the time to make it perfect. Customers are waiting.
Thanks for looking,
Phillip
The fuller is very impressive, and love the wrought iron guard! Handle kinda sucks tho, much too nice of a project for micarta:barf:
