Hachidori

P. McKinley

P. McKinley

Joined
Jan 27, 2008
Messages
2,010
"Hachidori", literally "bee bird", or hummingbird.

This piece has been a long time coming. I forged the blade at the beginning of the summer and have been slowly, but steadily working on it as a side project. This is a light weight, nicely balanced piece that feels like a feather in my hand. The blade has very little rocker as I intend this to be an herb chopper and fine slicer. The Red Maple "onion burl" is hard as Hades, takes a nice polish, and is a fine color compliment to the copper. The habaki has a nice tight fit, but has a light coat of epoxy to make it water tight.

The saya was a challenge! The onion burl pin is a three-part affair... the hand carved flower bulb, the pin/stamen, and the Rosewood "pollen" at the top. The flower petals attached to the top of the saya and the flower "bottom" on the reverse side were carved with teenie weenie little gouges. I can't capture on camera how chatoyant the Red Maple saya case is... it shimmers spectacularly!

Over the years I've prided myself on doing every step of knife making by myself. However, for this piece I swallowed my pride and in so doing "upped" my game a notch by having the heat treat done by Rick Marchand. I just can't do a proper job on 52100 with my set up. He can.... and did. Thank you Rick!!

Hachidori

Blade: 8 7/8" x 2" x <1/8"(to the habaki) of hand forged 52100. Heat treat by Rick Marchand! Full flat grind with a 600 grit hand sanded finish.

Handle: 5 1/2" of Red Maple "onion burl" and Rosewood with stainless steel and copper spacers and peened pin, and a copper habaki. The handle wood has a food safe bee's wax finish.

Saya: Highly figured Red Maple with Rosewood hummingbird inlay and inset collar, inset onion burl flower(front and back) with Rosewood "pollen" on the head of the pin.

Please let me know what you think, I'd like to have your comments and critiques.

-Peter



















 
That is incredible. I'm really scared to show this to She Who Must Be Obeyed. She is a fantastic cook and a hummingbird nut. I'm betting that she will love this even more than I do.
 
That turned out great, Pete. You up your game with every piece, brother. Incredible!
 
Peter,
That is excellent work with the Hummer inlay! We have a large Humming bird feeder outside our kitchen window and we love to watch them feed and the males with their brilliant colors are a real treat. They are noisy territorial little men to! LOL.

The whole knife is excellent looking, the only thing I would suggest if possible is on the next one if you can start with a block of wood big enough to cut the handle and the Saya out of one block of maple. With your inlay and accent wood pieces in between it would round out the continuity of the whole look.
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
wow fabulous work! very , very impressive. love the retention pin , I've never seen one like it before.

only critique is personal I feel the copper is out of place with the rest of the aesthetic.
 
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