First Try At Damascus (Photo)

Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford

Joined
Apr 14, 2001
Messages
380
Hello all,

This was my first try at damascus. It's a letter opener made from a piece of steel cable. Special thanks to Mr. Ted McMinn who has been helping me get started in knife making. Enjoy the photos.

Thanks -chris

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Letter_Opener_3w.jpg


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Chris, That looks great, I hope you had as much fun making it as I did mine, Bruce Evans instructed me with my first one and I haven't stopped yet. Provide a little more info about yours, handle and guard material, OAL Etc.Keep up the good work and keep having fun doing it.
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Tim

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Tim Duncan
 
The guard of the letter opener is made of bright copper with a red spacer which I'm not exactly sure what you call it.

Mr. McMinn gave me the wood for the handle from a box of wood that he had, so again I'm not sure exactly what it is. I'll try to find out more and post back.

The pin is made form rods that I found at Hobby Town and epoxy mixed with a drop of black model paint. The outer round is copper, the square is brass, and inner round is aluminum.

I treated the wood with Thin CA, (from my RC Airplane building days,) and sanded smooth with a 2000 grit wet/dry sheet.

I etched the blade in board etch from Radio Shack cut at 1 to 3 parts water. Then I treated it with Cold Blue and a little WD-40.

Thanks -chris


 
The Cold Blue worked great. It helped to bring out the design a little. Infact, after adding the guard and sanding down the solder, I had rubbed some of the etch off the blade with sand paper. I didn't want to etch the entire blade again, so I used some Cold Blue on a Q-Tip to touch up the sanded area. Then I used a 2000 grit and lightly removed the top layer away from the Cold Blue leaving the etch back on the blade. Then I went back and applied the Cold Blue to the entire blade again and sanded it lightly to make it all look more even.

I don't know if you can use the Cold Blue in place of your etch solution, but it seems to work great for touch ups. By the way, It Stinks!

Thanks -chris
 
Chris,Glad to here that you got to hook up with Mr.Ted,He told me you had been coming over to see him.He is a really great guy to know and will help you out allot,he has 20 + yeras in this craft,so just keep your eyes and ears open and he can teach you allot.He has been my Coach and good friend,and has been known to tell people that I was like his addopted son,and I think of him as my addopted Dad.Me and him have spent many long hours talkin knives while on the road and at hotels while going to different shows and symposiums,and a great many more hours on the phone and at each others shops for the last 9 years and I owe allot of what I know about knifemaking to him.
The Damascus looks great.
I can answer your question about the bluing in place of etching.It won't work,you have to etch the blade to get the high and low spots so the bluing will stay in the lowes when you polish off the high spots.
Keep up the good work..
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society
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[This message has been edited by beknives (edited 05-13-2001).]
 
Thanks for the info and compliments Bruce. Mr. McMinn only lives about 15 minutes from me, so it's been nice to be able to run out there whenever I have a couple of hours. I plan on going to some of the knife events when they come up, so I look forward to us all getting together. Later -chris
 
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