J.D. Smith Photos

jjtjr

jjtjr

Joined
Dec 28, 2001
Messages
1,394
As I mentioned previously in my thread on Moran, earlier this week I went down to Connecticut to Jim Cooper's shop and had some of my older knives photographed. I think Coop did a great job.

Here are some J. D. Smith MS knives:

The first folder was my first forged really handmade custom knife. It was made in early 1990's I visited J.D.'s shop on numerous occasions to see the progress that he was making. It is a linerlock with a 5" blade of 1085-L6 5 bar damascus, mastadon with mokume and filework. It is 11" overall open. J. D. called it "Mastadon Madness" because of all the fun he had with handle. It is still my favorite folder.

SmithJD_16-ww.jpg


This is a 15 1/2" short sword with Ivory, carving and filework. It is 22" overall. I saw the finished blade on Don Fogg's Forum contacted J.D. and got the sword. I think that Coop's photo really shows it off.

SmithJD_15-ww.jpg


The next folder is an older knife and older Coop photo. It is a 4" Damascus linerlock with Brownlip Pearl with mokume & filework.

p3369n1.gif


The last folder is about three years old. It was the first knife that I had Coop shoot. It is a 5 3/8" Damascus linerlock with Goldlip Pearl, Mokume, carving and filework. This knife was selected to be part of an exhibit of J.D.'s work at the National Heritage Museum.

JDSmithPearlfolder.png
 
Jim, as I mentioned on the other forum...great pieces. Especially the sword and that filework is "to die" for.:thumbup::cool:

Marcel
 
Outstanding short sword in every respect.
Very nice folders, especially the first though I have never cared for mokume.
 
Kevin,

There has been a lot of comment on this Forum regarding mokume. I know that it is not for everyone. It is at least as hard to make as damascus. It has been in use for 100's of years. Hugh Bartrug MS used it often. You can see it frequently his work in the Weyer "Knives, Points of Interest" series.

I personally like the way it develops a patina over time.

J.D. Smith introduced mokume to me and is the reason that I love mokume.
 
I really like JD's sheaths as well.
They always seem to complement and complete the package.
 
That is a superb group of knives. I also thought the sword to be exceptionally nice.

Pleasure seeing them and great pictures as always.

Peter
 
I have seen JD's DVD on making damascus, but I am not very familiar with his completed works. These are beautiful. I especially like the short sword. The steel pattern has the segmented yet blended appearance of water droplets in a strobe light. What would this damascus pattern be called?
 
Great work! I think that first piece is my favorite mokume bolstered folder, it really seems to match the scales. Congrats... :thumbup:
 
Nice to see these exceptional pieces given the professional photo treatment they so richly deserve. And thanks for giving us a peek.

Roger
 
Orcrist said:

These are beautiful. I especially like the short sword. The steel pattern has the segmented yet blended appearance of water droplets in a strobe light. What would this damascus pattern be called?
Click to expand...

Orcrist,

I'm not sure if it has a name. This is what JD said about the sword blade on the Don Fogg Forum.

"This is essentially a symetrical pattern generated from radial patterning w/a contrasting cross re- forged corner to corner then opened with a ladder. The depth of the ladder grooves are just above the thickness midline to give this mirrored sine wave effect."

"BTW folks, some of you already know that on occasion I decide to "go native" on a blade. Although the basic layered stock was built with the use of a trip hammer, the actual patterning and assembly of the billet components was done by hand. There were just two guys (Me and another guy)and an anvil with custom made top and bottom tools(in the form of squaring guides) and a sixteen lb. sledge hammer employed to complete this steel's patterning.The finished billet was forged out on the trip hammer before forging it to shape by hand. Blade shaping and finishing was all by hand; just files and stones. Oddly enough, doing things this way does not add so much time to the entire process as to make it an impractical proposition. It adds maybe 5-6 hours to final tally. Besides which, it's just fun to "kick it old school".

Jim Treacy
 
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