It's a good day (to make knives for my JS test) Professional photos added

I couldn't wait to get started on this Bowie.

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Here it is with all the components rough fit together.

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I made a "dummy tang" to hold all the handle pieces together while sanding to shape.

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With the guard and blade out of the way it's easy to shape the handle, ferrule and but cap as a unit.

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The handle is shaped, kind of a classic "Stag Taper" shape. The brass template to the right was used to scribe the same arch on all four corners for symmetry.

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Using a rotary tool and a small diamond burr I carved a "Staggy" looking texture into the moose antler.

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The texturing is complete.

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I mixed up some stain, for this one I mixed burnt umber, black and crimson for a dark, dark burgundy color.

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While the stain dried I shaped the guard, here I am using another brass template to scribe the same arch in all four corners of the guard.

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After shaping, the calipers are used to make sure everything is even.

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After the stain is dry, it is burnished off of the high spots.

Stay tuned. Next time, final fitting of this knife and more.

Thanks for watching.
 
Nice use of the moose antler Mark:thumbup: That stuff is tougher than heck, but often lacking in character.......you fixed that up nicely.
Darcy:)
 
Yes, I never thought about doing that with antler. Very nice!
 
Thanks, Darcy, Bob and Scott, The thing about moose antler is, it can have some very nice natural stag-like texture but like all antler it is pretty near impossible to get any that is the exact shape you want and perfectly symmetrical. Shape and symmetry are the name of the game in ABS presentation knives so natural tines are out.

Moose antler does have some positive attributes, if you are choosy you get some really solid stuff, no pith. Its really big and the solid stuff polishes up like ivory. For these reasons it's a great choice for knife handle sculpting without a huge investment.
 
Looking great Mark. I'm really enjoying following along here.

That jigged moose antler handle looks fantastic to me. Can't wait to see it finished!
 
Finally, I am at the end of testing the cutters for the real test.... I think.

I made three more blades. I normalized them three times. I tempered them three times and I drew back the spines to dull red three times.

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Here I have etched them to show the hamon. As I said earlier, the masters would like to see it at least 1/3 of the width of the blade or 1/2 inch wide which ever is less. These are all plenty wide.

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All these knives cut the rope, cut the 2 X 4s and shaved hair with flying colors. Then I bent them all well past 90 degrees. The two to the right were among the last three I made. I'm saving the last one for the performance test in Boise in about two weeks. I needed a new fillet knife too, so I forged one up out of a piece of the test knife I broke earlier in this thread.

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This is the finished cutter I'm using for the performance test. It has cut up a lot of rope and 2 X 4s already. I couldn't be more confident but you never know what could happen in the real test.

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This is a cross section of the blade geometry that worked the best for me. The blade is roughly 2 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick at the spine with a primary bevel of about 2 1/2 degrees, 5 degrees inclusive. The edge was .025 thick before the edge bevel was ground to 15 degrees on a side, 30 degrees, inclusive. This geometry performed the best overall, in all three cutting tasks. Thinner edge bevels did better at shaving hair and cutting rope but where more apt to wrinkle in the 2 X 4 cuts.

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Here's the finished Bowie with the jigged moose antler handle. Whenever I build I knife I see things that I could have done differently or better, this one is no different. It could be that I have looked at it so much that my eyes are crossed. I'm not sure if I will use it for one of my presentation knives in June but it's in the running. I'll take a step back and look at it again later.

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Here's the finished fillet knife, it's just a user for me. The knife making group that meets at my shop every month is going fishing next week end. We are all making knives for the trip. There will be prizes awarded for the best fillet knife, best filleter, fastest filleter, first fish, most fish, biggest fish, smallest fish, youngest fisherman, oldest fisherman and best "caught-a-fish" dance. It should be a fun time. I should have some pictures later.

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Starting on the next knife, a drop point hunter with spalted birch handle.

Stay tuned, thanks for watching.
 
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Mark, your enthusiasm during this process is infectious,sounds like your having a great time. And that fishing trip..... wish I could go!

Your hard work and dedication will pay off big for you! You will do very well Sir.

I hope to be at the Blade Show to congratulate you, and your wife for her encouragement (I'm sure she is).

Steve
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Member, W.F. Moran Foundation
ABS Apprentice
 
Mark, your enthusiasm during this process is infectious,sounds like your having a great time. And that fishing trip..... wish I could go!

Your hard work and dedication will pay off big for you! You will do very well Sir.

I hope to be at the Blade Show to congratulate you, and your wife for her encouragement (I'm sure she is).

Steve
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Member, W.F. Moran Foundation
ABS Apprentice

Hi Steve, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yes, my wife is a huge support.
 
Got three more of the presentation knives done. From the top, an interior mammoth ivory clip point, a Stellor's sea cow drop point hunter and a dyed spalted birch drop point hunter.

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I leave for my performance test in Boise and an engraving class in Kansas the end of this week. I'm looking for a master smith near Kansas City to have a look at some of my presentation knives while I'm in Kansas.

Root for me on my performance test. I'm as ready as I can be. I've no hair on my arms, made fire wood out of lots of 2 X 4s, cut up about 70 feet of rope and bent lots of steel.

Thanks for looking, more later.
 
OK, a lot has happened since I last posted. Last Friday I flew to Boise for my JS performance test with Bill Burke. I'm happy to say that I passed. Here's a link to the video of the test if you'd like to check it out..

https://www.facebook.com/markknappcustomknives/?fref=ts

Here's a picture of the successful knife.

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While in Boise I asked Bill to have a look at four of the knives I was planning to submit at Blade show, Atlanta to be judged for fit and finish in June. Bill is a very tough critic and as I was sure he would do, and hoped he would do, he looked the knives over with a very discerning eye. He told me some things I already knew and some things I wasn't sure of.

First, what I already knew, I have a grit problem, everything in my shop has grit on it and as soon as I was sure I had all the scratches out of a blade, new ones were put in by just the most seemingly benign things, like wiping fingerprints off the blade. I did have some J-hooks that needed attention. Scratches that weren't visible even in my very well lit shop showed up really nicely in his photo enclosure with different kind of light. I will need to provide myself a clean area to finish knives in, and be sure to check them in different kinds of light.

There was some good news, I did a pretty good job of execution. My form was good, fit good and plunges even and symmetrical. I needed to make some templates and check the radii on some of the guards for summitry, but all and all pretty good. That was a relief because I really didn't know where I stood in those regards.

Also while at Bill's we watched his pet herd of about 250 elk, some of them were visible at almost all times of the day. When there weren't any elk visible on the hill behind his house we shot Sharps buffalo rifles off-hand at clay pigeons a hundred yards off. It was a lot of fun and I am happy to report that I held my own and came very close to hitting what I was aiming at every time and on my third or forth shot hit a clay pigeon dead on.

After a way too short visit at Bill's, I was off to my, week long, GRS engraving class in Emporia Kansas. For anyone wanting to learn engraving I would recommend this class wholeheartedly. On the first day of class we hit the ground running and with the foundations covered were already cutting steel.

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Here are two of the exercises I completed during the class. There was an amazing amount of material covered in the week. With the basics down a person like me, who had previously not known anything about engraving, can be on the way. I feel like with some more practice and the knowledge, as well as the right tools, I can become an accomplished engraver. I can add another element of interest to my knives. It's also a lot of fun.

Since I was at Emporia I took the opportunity to ask another Mastersmith to have a look at my knives too. I emailed Steve Culver before I left Alaska and he very graciously offered to meet with me and have a look. Steve is a very accomplished smith, many of you will remember that he was the first smith to make a tubular forged damascus gun barrel since before WWII. I commented to him that he could be the Bill Moran of damascus barrel making. Steve is also a former Judge for the ABS journeyman smith test so his opinion is important to me too.

Steve was quite a bit easier on me than Bill was. Not to discount Bills advise in the least, I'd much rather be better than I need to be, and as good as I can be, than not as good as I should be. Steve gave me a little direction on fit and finish and advise on things to work on.

If I have time before I leave for Atlanta, I'd like to send my knives to Haley and Adam DesRosiers and get their opinions too. Time is getting short though, and they have a lot on their' plates too so that may not happen.

A little more bad news to share, On the way from Boise to Wichita, the gorillas in the baggage handling department at the airport managed to drop my luggage hard enough to cause the tips of two of my knives to embed into the aluminum sides of my hard case and snap off, so now I've got that to fix too. It did teach me a lesson in packaging my knives for travel though and I will be sure to take precautions so that it doesn't happen when I take the knives to Atlanta.

Thanks for watching, more knife finishing and assembly next time.
 
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Congrats on passing the performance test Mark:thumbup:

That's pretty darn nice engraving for a first try:eek: You were using pneumatic tools I assume?

Darcy:)
 
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