Richard338
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 3, 2005
- Messages
- 7,235
I will document a dagger build that I've been slowly planning ever since getting inspired by Bruce Bump's Tomb Raider piece a few years ago.
One image of that piece showing a close up of the trapped ball pommel is here.
I recently posted a collection of mostly Coop photos of more than 60 daggers that I also used for inspiration/discouragement... #28 shows more shots of the Tomb Raider.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/celebration-of-daggers.1762400/
I did get some steel balls plated in gold, but to change things up a little I recent picked up a pyrite sphere (20mm) that has some character (imperfections) and lends the name to this project.
I am using all three of my pieces of Devin Thomas damascus for this project as well as a nice piece of interior mammoth from Mark Knapp. (my wife knows that all of the materials totaled well under $100)
So far the profile of the blade is in spirograph.
The guard was made from a thick piece of ladder.
The pommel and spacer are preliminarily shaped to fit the mammoth.
These were lathe turned from a piece of twist damascus.
The petals still need to be cut in, but the cup perfectly accommodates the ball.
This part is tricky. I need to heat treat the pommel in order to obtain good contrast in the etch, but it needs to be tempered way down to spring, in order to be able to bend the petals around the ball to trap it...
The mammoth has its basic profile, but will get flutes and twisted gold wire etc.
One image of that piece showing a close up of the trapped ball pommel is here.

I recently posted a collection of mostly Coop photos of more than 60 daggers that I also used for inspiration/discouragement... #28 shows more shots of the Tomb Raider.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/celebration-of-daggers.1762400/
I did get some steel balls plated in gold, but to change things up a little I recent picked up a pyrite sphere (20mm) that has some character (imperfections) and lends the name to this project.

I am using all three of my pieces of Devin Thomas damascus for this project as well as a nice piece of interior mammoth from Mark Knapp. (my wife knows that all of the materials totaled well under $100)
So far the profile of the blade is in spirograph.

The guard was made from a thick piece of ladder.


The pommel and spacer are preliminarily shaped to fit the mammoth.
These were lathe turned from a piece of twist damascus.

The petals still need to be cut in, but the cup perfectly accommodates the ball.
This part is tricky. I need to heat treat the pommel in order to obtain good contrast in the etch, but it needs to be tempered way down to spring, in order to be able to bend the petals around the ball to trap it...
The mammoth has its basic profile, but will get flutes and twisted gold wire etc.
