Magruder / RyanW Collaboration

RyanW

RyanW

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A few months ago I came in contact with Jason Magruder. After a few conversations we discussed doing collaboration
Each of us would design and grind only the blade portion, leaving the handle a blank canvas for the other maker to finish.

I started drawing and soon found it very difficult to draw a knife with no handle. I finally landed on a design akin to the popular Buck hunting knives that my grandfather was so fond of. As a newer maker I was nervous about ruining a piece of steel that Jason put money and time into. He put my nerves at ease stating “No big deal, lets just make it a fun project”.

The Original sketch up: (Sketchy is right)
BelDesign.jpg


The Blades: (Top Two were sent to Jason, Bottom I kept to play with)
BelstainTrio2.jpg

BelstainTrio1.jpg



I figured there may be a few forumites that may be interested in progress reports, and the possibility of my crashing and burning is always a possibility. I will try to update this thread occasionally as interest is shown. I have already received Jason’s blade and am working on it as we speak… hopefully Jason will chime in and I will add that side of it.

Please bear with me in this, I am no expert and am not telling anyone how to do something, this is just how I am doing this!
 
I came for the pictures, but I'm staying for the possibility of you crashing and burning...............:) just kidding and you know that.

You won't crash and burn. You'll make something really nice with it, I'm sure.

I think the middle blade has the nicest lines to it.
 
Awesome project. Great concept.
I'm looking forward to following your excellent thread, Ryan:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
I'm really looking forward to this as well. Should be a great knife, having seen what either of you are capable of on your own!

I like the second one the most as well...
 
It turned out to be a lot harder to design a blade without a handle than I thought it would be. I wanted to do something that would allow both of us to put our own style into our respective halves, yet still be a little different than what either of us normally make. I was looking for a challenge for both myself and Ryan. Ultimately I settled on a mediterranean dirk style blade. Even though I've never actually made a mediterranean dirk, it's a style that has had a big influence on my knives.


Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the blade I sent to Ryan but I do have my original sketch.

IMAG0571.jpg



So far this has been a really fun project and I am excited to see where it goes.
 
Thanks for all the comments, I am glad there are a few people interested!
and John crash and burn is ALWAYS a possibility, that is why this is still fun! When this stuff gets too easy, I will move on to Knitting... haha

I have had Jason's blade for a little while (Since Thanksgiving actually) and have been doing a bit of work on it when time permits. When I got the Dirk I was a bit overwhelmed at the possibilities as I researched some of the Mediterranean dirks already created. I put the blade down on a large piece of graph paper traced the blade profile and started working on handle options. It was pretty obvious that I was going to have to make it a Hidden / Stick tang to do it justice. I am not 100% confident in my stick tang abilities because I have not done too many of them in the past. I think Jason knew this, and wanted to get me out of my element.

I did not take any photos when Jason's blade arrived, but it was pretty much like his drawing showed. Here is a copy of my final two sketches. The blade in the photo is after I rough profiled the stick tang.
WeBelDesign.jpg

DirkStart.jpg


The plunge also put me at a bit of a loss on how to deal with the curved Ricasso, my initial thought was to push the guard to hang over and match up with the curve.
PlungeSpine.jpg


I liked both designs equally. I decided to stick to an "Iron" theme, the handle would be Ironwood and Wrought Iron. I had a few nice pieces of ironwood laying around and Mike Turner sent me a beautiful bar of his 1850 Wrought Iron to play with (Thanks Mike!).
WroughIronBar.jpg

WIEnd.jpg

This stuff has a lot of slag in it, the plan was to forge down a piece for the guard/bolster Etch it to make it look aged (After all it is 160+ years old). I am new to forging and need the practice.

that is all for now... I am going to let you guess which design I ended up going with!
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Awesome stuff guys!
Click to expand...

Thanks Daniel

I had some concerns about a few things. the most difficult for me was how to deal with the Wrought Iron guard transitioning into the half circle ricasso. I forged down the Wrought Iron and fitted it to the Tang, I also did some preliminary filing of the twist pattern to see how things were going to fit together physically and visually. After a quick etch to get the W.I. close to finished colors and texture.
WIGuard.jpg


I also roughed out the Iron Wood. Here they are together
WBParts.jpg

WBfinger.jpg

WeeksBelstainCollab.jpg


I am not liking the light spot on the lower right side of the Ironwood, my initial thought was to use a Ivory spacer to balance that out, Greg "Tryppyr" was generous enough to offer up a nice piece of Ivory as spacer material.
WeBelPlunge1.jpg


After talking with John Doyle I think the light spot and Ivory is not working (Sorry Greg, I will definitely use the ivory down the road) with the flow of this knife. I am planning on trimming down the handle where the light spot is, IMO this does two things it will visually reduce the "Weight" of the handle and eliminate the need to throw an Ivory spacer in there to compensate for the light spot in the Ironwood... Win, Win I think!

Now the plan is to use German Silver spacers on both sides of the Guard, I think this will make the Grey W.I. really stand out and make a nice transition. It will also open up some options on how to deal with the guard to ricasso issue.
webelconst.jpg


Would love to hear your thoughts and input! and thanks for the comments thus far
 
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wow. I love that ironwood. I also love the concept. It sounds like an interesting concept for a kith.....
 
Dang Ryan, that is looking really good!! I love the wrought iron twist, very well done. This is a really great idea to push you out of your comfort zone and have fun at the same time. Maybe one day when I become a real knife maker we could do some colaboratin'.;):thumbup:
 
Awesome projects; talk about forcing yourself outside the box! Can't wait to see how they turn out.
 
Thanks Geek, Jared, David and Jonny It definitely has put me off balance and testing my abilities. Jason is a sneaky bugger!

Jared I have seen your work! I would be more than happy to do one with you, the shipping would be much cheaper and quicker that is for sure.
 
I think this is a very unique and cool idea Ryan and Jason, subscribed :D.

Glad you like the WI Ryan and your doing a nice job on the twist and really like how you re-thought your concept and have the twist extending into the handle.
 
I think it'll turn out great. It looks as though you're planning to machine or otherwise file tenons to fit the pieces together? Seems to me that alignment pins might be less of a hassle. Just wondering if I interpreted your drawing right.
 
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