Guard fitting with deeply etched Damascus

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
Seems I have a lot of questions lately, sorry. On the positive side I guess it means I finally have a bit of shop time. Plus you guys are so helpful. :thumbup:

On the last knife I made I went with a little deeper etch on the Damascus and I really like it. Downside is that it creates deeper depressions and even though they are still pretty shallow, it can show at a few places at the guard/tang junction. I don't see how to prevent this except by grinding a small shoulder on the flats of the tang.

How do you guys do it?
 
Painting the mated surfaces with nail polish as a resist before etching will assure these areas stay a perfect fit.
 
Just wondering but if you use a file guide could you file down the tang 360 degrees around and have the gaurd mesh up below the layer of etched damascus?
 
Patrice, I do it just like you state. My tangs are put in the shoulder filing guide and filed on all four sides. You can also use a milling machine. All my knives with hidden tangs are done this way.
Brion
 
It's a bit late for this knife, but I do as Stacy suggested to keep the mating areas from etching since they won't be seen anyway

-Page
 
Thanks Page, I did not think about putting resist just up to the guard level, I thought higher on the ricasso and was wondering how that would not show. :o
 
sunshadow said:
It's a bit late for this knife, but I do as Stacy suggested to keep the mating areas from etching since they won't be seen anyway

-Page
Click to expand...

Somehow that just seems reverse logic to me.
I want the areas that won't be seen to be etched/removed MORE than the surrounding areas so they will be smaller. You want the guard slot smaller than the ricasso if possible.
I sand the area behind the ricasso right up to the sholders.
Like so:
Here is a take-down stag, Patrice.
Not only a Damascus blade, but guard, as well.
I etch my damascus usually 15 minutes four times - for a full hour. A really deep etch so I can do good hot-bluing contrast after sanding.
Here's the initial fit-up:





Get my assembly figured out:



You can see here that I have sanded the area where the guard goes to be SMALLER than the ricasso. You could also do a careful resist on the rest of the knife and etch this area MORE!! - not less.



Then I etched the guard after all fit up and shaping was done.











 
I love Karl's work. He not only knows of what he speaks he gives up close pictures :)

He is not one of these guys who takes pictures of his knives 3 feet away :D
 
I know this is old but maybe someone can help.. every time i etch my damascus blade in ferric chlor i get a weird area near the ricasso that does not etch nearly as deeply as the rest of the blade . any idea
 
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dancona said:
I know this is old but maybe someone can help.. everytime i etch my damascus blade in ferric chlor i get a wired area near the ricasso that does not etch nearly as deeply as the rest of the blade . any idea
Click to expand...
Because that part of your blade isn't hardened, or it has decarb not sanded off after heat treating.
 
Don Hanson III said:
Because that part of your blade isn't hardened, or it has decarb not sanded off after heat treating.
Click to expand...

Ahh.. thanks so much for the quick reply. do i need to do a sanding between hardening and tempering ? It is well sanded after final grinding . can you elaborate on what i can do to resolve the issue.
 
If your not quenching your blade fully then it's the transition between hard and soft steel. Hard steel etches darker. If that's not the case then it can be decarb from heat treating. You need to grind away all the surface steel that was exposed to the heated atmosphere while heat treating. Decarb is a layer of steel that has had the carbon burnt out of it from being exposed to super hot oxygen.
 
this just started. i will have to pay attention to my quenching to make sure i am submersion them completely. i wonder if my oil is not evenly heated. if the bottom part of the oil is hotter that the top could that mess things up ? i heat my oil with a heated metal block that sinks to the bottom of my container
 
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