John White Hunter

Will York

Will York

Joined
Jan 21, 2000
Messages
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SEE COOP's PHOTOS IN POST 98

See Work-in-Progress photos by John White starting in post 18 below.

Don’t you just love getting this kind of email? (received from John White 10/7):

“Got caught up on a difficult billet the past couple days, but got your blade rough ground and stress relieved for hardening…I'll be ready for the handle sometime next week, so thought I'd let you check on the sheep horn… I can leave a fair amount of bark on the outside as you requested…”

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APPROVAL GRANTED! :D :thumbup:
 

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That is beautiful sheep horn and a great looking blade so far. I've taken a shine to sheep horn of late though I don't have any knives with it. At shows the few that I'd see with it as handle material feel really good in the hand though they often look a bit beefy; I guess out of necessity for keeping the bark intact. One of these days I'm going to order a knife with sheep horn on it for a user because it feels so good.

Please do post a picture of the knife when it's all finished.
 
A Will York special by John White - shaping up to be a real winner. Nice horn.

Roger
 
Nice simple blade, I like it. Dare I say it looks a tad Marble'sque in a really cool way.
 
Thanks for the support and the nice comments, guys. I'll post to this thread when it's done. There are a few twists and turns in the mix that aren't suggested by the above, but my enthusiasm got the better of me and had to share my excitement. :thumbup:

Edited to say: See work in progress photos by John White starting in post 18 below.
 
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Update received from John today with two pics and the following descriptions in his words:

"I finish sanded the blade and fitted the guard today. Rough shaped the guard, and will sand out ready for JB Weld.

"I took photos of the blade before and after etching. In my opinion, one should not be able to tell a blade is damascus when finish sanded and before etch. That's when you can really tell if the welds are perfect:" (See photo in first post above)

"...The second photo shows the etched Turkish Twist 4-Bar Damascus blade, with matching weld lines, center weld running out the tip, and fair curve lines with no "hammer squiggles":

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I'll post finished photos when done, but was so impressed with the etched blade thought I'd tack these pics on here for anyone who might like to see the blade prior to assembly.

Thanks to all for your interest,

Will
 
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Hey Will,

Just got a chance to read this thread. Thanks for giving me the heads up. You're right, being out of town last week-end, I missed it.

The blade's "curing" from the etch for 24 hours. I'll be putting on the guard and collar, and beginning the handle fitting next.

In the meantime, here's a slightly different version of the etched blade photo. The e-mail compression changes the looks enough to make me want to show an image a bit closer to what it looks like in person.

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I'm hoping we can get a pro photo when this is finished.

John
 
Thanks, John. With your participation here, I think I'll change the thread title to John White Hunter WIP.
 
dang that's sweet. Great profile, and that horn makes me, um...well, you know.
 
I've always been a big fan of John's work and this damascus is a WOW! Looking forward to seeing more.

Gary
 
Will's suggested we make this a full WIP, so here goes.

About a year and a half ago, Will posted up a hunter he'd designed, and had several makers create versions of.
I thought it was a neat design, and said so. Will contacted me and asked if I'd like to try my hand. Sure!

When the time came around, Will sent a full sized profile, and specifications.
I looked at this like the old boatbuilder that I am, as a commission to hew as closely as possible to the designer's intent.

The first step was to make 1/16 inch mild steel patterns of blade, including tang, and handle.

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Into the forge went a 13 layer billet of 1084 and 15n20. Will had asked for a Turkish Twist Damascus blade.

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With the billet welded and drawn out to 1/2 x 1 1/4 x (about) 12 inches, it was cut into thirds, for stacking and 2nd weld.

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Since I want a bold pattern, I'll draw the low count 39 layer billet out to 9/16 x 9/16. and cut into only 4 pieces, for a bold 4-bar.

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And twist to 12 "Threads" per inch, so the stars will stand out strongly, even for old tri-focal wearing geezers like me.

(Edit) When I'm speaking of twisting so many "to the inch" I'm counting the way bolts are denominated, as in "threads to the inch." Starting with a square bar, one 360 degree turn will give 4 threads , so 12 to the inch will be three 360 degree twists per inch.

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More later...

John
 
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Geez that's nice John. Will, that certainly is a fine example. Wow... Turkish twist is prettier than S90V ;) that's for sure.
 
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