goblin skinner

hellize

hellize

Joined
Sep 24, 2010
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It is 21 cm / 8.3 inch long, the blade is 9 cm/ 3.6 inch long.
I hand forged it from 5160. The handle is made of deer antler and leather disks.
The sheath is made of 4 mm/ 0.16 inch thick, sturdy cowhide.
 

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RaiderJameson said:
Is the sheath hand tooled? If so how do you do it? It looks very cool. Also, for the finish, do you do a fine sanding or just the sulfuric acid?
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Yes, it is hand tooled. I carve the desired pattern into the leather with a kiridashi, than I finalize it with pyrography.
After the bath, the acid leaves a residue, a black soot on the blade, witch has to departed, or it slowly corrodes the steel further. So first I rinse it with water, which washes away most of it. Sometimes I stop here, but other times I sand it a bit P2000, and again other times I also go to the buffing wheel. Depending on what finish I think it's appropriate for the give blade.
 
hellize said:
Yes, it is hand tooled. I carve the desired pattern into the leather with a kiridashi, than I finalize it with pyrography.
After the bath, the acid leaves a residue, a black soot on the blade, witch has to departed, or it slowly corrodes the steel further. So first I rinse it with water, which washes away most of it. Sometimes I stop here, but other times I sand it a bit P2000, and again other times I also go to the buffing wheel. Depending on what finish I think it's appropriate for the give blade.
Click to expand...
Nice. Will the sulfuric acid etch prevent rust by itself?
 
RaiderJameson said:
Nice. Will the sulfuric acid etch prevent rust by itself?
Click to expand...
Yes, it does.
While I am not a chemist or anything, but I suspect it is a kind of oxid, which remains behind the bath. Similar to the red rust, which we all know and hate, but this is grey. Now I observed that till the layer of grayness is intact, red rust does not appear.
My tools usually start to rust in the wake of scratches, where the grey layer is removed and the "clean" steel is exposed.
 
hellize said:
Yes, it does.
While I am not a chemist or anything, but I suspect it is a kind of oxid, which remains behind the bath. Similar to the red rust, which we all know and hate, but this is grey. Now I observed that till the layer of grayness is intact, red rust does not appear.
My tools usually start to rust in the wake of scratches, where the grey layer is removed and the "clean" steel is exposed.
Click to expand...
Cool. Another question if you don't mind. I noticed that the deer antler is used for the guard and butt cap. do you do a cold peen or can you heat it up without ruining you material. i have tried a few different ways such as cutting a notch in the metal, putting a guard on and then spreading the notch with a chisel or just beating it flat while heating it, but there is always a small protrusion at the end of the handle. I utilize it as a skull cracker but i know i am not doing it right. Any tips? because it looks like you have the process very refined. I'm sorry about the questions i am just starting blade making and am getting kinks worked out.

By the way. that sheath is amazing now that you said it is hand tooled.
 
RaiderJameson said:
Cool. Another question if you don't mind. I noticed that the deer antler is used for the guard and butt cap. do you do a cold peen or can you heat it up without ruining you material. i have tried a few different ways such as cutting a notch in the metal, putting a guard on and then spreading the notch with a chisel or just beating it flat while heating it, but there is always a small protrusion at the end of the handle. I utilize it as a skull cracker but i know i am not doing it right. Any tips? because it looks like you have the process very refined. I'm sorry about the questions i am just starting blade making and am getting kinks worked out.

By the way. that sheath is amazing now that you said it is hand tooled.
Click to expand...
Thanks! :)
No, heating it up would burn the leather, the antler and the glue as well, after all, you would need 6-700 celsius to make steel workable. There is no handle material which would survive such an extreme. All of them are sensitive to heat. You can not do that, without ruining the whole thing.
So I do it when it is cold. But there is a catch. You can not really peen steel as wide as I like, so I cheat.
The very end of the tang isn't steel at all. I forge weld a small piece of iron to the end of the tang, which is incomparably malleable next to any steel. Now this allows the peening to happen.
 
hellize said:
Thanks! :)
No, heating it up would burn the leather, the antler and the glue as well, after all, you would need 6-700 celsius to make steel workable. There is no handle material which would survive such an extreme. All of them are sensitive to heat. You can not do that, without ruining the whole thing.
So I do it when it is cold. But there is a catch. You can not really peen steel as wide as I like, so I cheat.
The very end of the tang isn't steel at all. I forge weld a small piece of iron to the end of the tang, which is incomparably malleable next to any steel. Now this allows the peening to happen.
Click to expand...
aha. very cool. not cheating if it works. I took a look at your website. I want to be just like you when i can bladesmith full time. love you motorcycle chain damascus.
 
RaiderJameson said:
aha. very cool. not cheating if it works. I took a look at your website. I want to be just like you when i can bladesmith full time. love you motorcycle chain damascus.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot! :D
Well, I am just an enthusiastic amateur. If you want to see something really astonishing, check out Ariel Salaverria. He can do magic with steel.
 
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