- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
Classic engraving on a super knife!
John
John
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
March of Dimes fundraiser 2011 WIP
- Thread starter John M Cohea
- Start date
I got the engraving of the bolster and sheath finial done. It will be shipped to Paul Long tomorrow. Then to Coop for the photograph. It is almost done. Hope you like it.
Joe
www.masonengraving.com
Joe
www.masonengraving.com
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 2, 1999
- Messages
- 9,910
Absolutely gorgeous engraving Joe. It really adds to an already beautiful knife.
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2001
- Messages
- 12,348
Man, this looks good! I'm loving the engraving, Joe. Your work, like everyone who endears themselves to quality, has gotten even better. Witness ^^^^
I'm looking forward to wrapping up the ingredients to savor.
Coop
I'm looking forward to wrapping up the ingredients to savor.
Coop
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 2,655
Really fantastic work Joe! The engraving ties in so well with the pattern of Dave's steel that it really makes for a visually pleasing combination!
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 2,655
I hear ya Dave!Even though I've never done it in the past MOD raffles, I'm giving serious thought to doing just that myself
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
I think it's time I show some work on the stand, it seems like John is getting nervous with me, he's called like six times , of course I'm just kidding. Our thought was that I would put something mosaic on the stand to dress it up a little but I couldn't think of anything mosaic to tie in with the knife. I decided to make a nice name placard with some brackets so you could read it from the same angle that you admired the knife from.
I made two of these angle blocks with gimlet wood. That's powdered bronze behind the block. I thought it would be cool to fill all the voids in the wood with gold colored veins.
I mixed up some casting resin with bronze and filled in the cracks, I just kept putting it in as it hardened.
I'm going to use mammoth ivory for the placard itself, here I'm using a height guage to find the center of my piece and mark out quarters of it. I am going to scrim the margin of the piece and need to know how big a quarter is.
I waited for Joe to get done with his engraving; I was truly inspired by it and wanted to model my scrim after it to provide a connection between the knife and the stand. I asked Joe if he would mind if I emulated his engraving in my scrim, he liked the idea and sent enlarged photos that helped a lot. I settled on a design and drew it in a space one quarter the size I needed to fill, I folded the paper and impressed the mirror image of the design onto the second quarter, repeated the process two more times and had the basic design I wanted. These are really old school methods, I'm sure someone with CAD could have done it quicker. These are the ways I know and I can get by pretty good this way.
Here we are with the fourth side ready to go over with a pencil.
The pattern is taped onto the ivory with graphite paper behind it. Normally pencil or graphite will not stick to polished ivory, I use a normal pencil eraser to erase over the whole area I want my image to stick to. The eraser roughs up the surface just enough for the pencil to stick but not cause problems with ink sticking in it. Next I went over the whole image with a ballpoint pen to transfer the image to the ivory.
Here's the image on the ivory. You can see I had to shift the image a little off-center in order to make it fit because of the missing corners, That will not be a problem. The center lines have done their job.
In order to keep the graphite from smudging as I scrim, I gave it a light coat of matte finish clear varnish.
I etched in all of the outlines, cleaned off the varnish and began the in-shading, inking as I go. The scribe I'm using is just a drill bit in a pin vise. It's sharpened to an acute eight sided point. This kind of point allows me a little more control than a round one, a tip I got from an accomplished scrimshander friend of mine.
Here we are with the scrimshaw just about done, just a little work on line weight, and some clean-up to do.
Sawing it out on the bandsaw, trying to leave the line.
I am thinning the edge from the back all the way around on the 2 X 72, I want the main body of it to be thick to resist warping but I don't want it to look clunky.
I used needle files and 400 grit sand paper wrapped around the needle files to clean up all of the saw marks.
Here's the placard ready for engraving the names, I was going to do that with my CNC mill and an engraving program but at this point, I really don't want to screw this up, and I could do that. I am off to the jewelers.
, of course I'm just kidding. Our thought was that I would put something mosaic on the stand to dress it up a little but I couldn't think of anything mosaic to tie in with the knife. I decided to make a nice name placard with some brackets so you could read it from the same angle that you admired the knife from.
I made two of these angle blocks with gimlet wood. That's powdered bronze behind the block. I thought it would be cool to fill all the voids in the wood with gold colored veins.
I mixed up some casting resin with bronze and filled in the cracks, I just kept putting it in as it hardened.
I'm going to use mammoth ivory for the placard itself, here I'm using a height guage to find the center of my piece and mark out quarters of it. I am going to scrim the margin of the piece and need to know how big a quarter is.
I waited for Joe to get done with his engraving; I was truly inspired by it and wanted to model my scrim after it to provide a connection between the knife and the stand. I asked Joe if he would mind if I emulated his engraving in my scrim, he liked the idea and sent enlarged photos that helped a lot. I settled on a design and drew it in a space one quarter the size I needed to fill, I folded the paper and impressed the mirror image of the design onto the second quarter, repeated the process two more times and had the basic design I wanted. These are really old school methods, I'm sure someone with CAD could have done it quicker. These are the ways I know and I can get by pretty good this way.
Here we are with the fourth side ready to go over with a pencil.
The pattern is taped onto the ivory with graphite paper behind it. Normally pencil or graphite will not stick to polished ivory, I use a normal pencil eraser to erase over the whole area I want my image to stick to. The eraser roughs up the surface just enough for the pencil to stick but not cause problems with ink sticking in it. Next I went over the whole image with a ballpoint pen to transfer the image to the ivory.
Here's the image on the ivory. You can see I had to shift the image a little off-center in order to make it fit because of the missing corners, That will not be a problem. The center lines have done their job.
In order to keep the graphite from smudging as I scrim, I gave it a light coat of matte finish clear varnish.
I etched in all of the outlines, cleaned off the varnish and began the in-shading, inking as I go. The scribe I'm using is just a drill bit in a pin vise. It's sharpened to an acute eight sided point. This kind of point allows me a little more control than a round one, a tip I got from an accomplished scrimshander friend of mine.
Here we are with the scrimshaw just about done, just a little work on line weight, and some clean-up to do.
Sawing it out on the bandsaw, trying to leave the line.
I am thinning the edge from the back all the way around on the 2 X 72, I want the main body of it to be thick to resist warping but I don't want it to look clunky.
I used needle files and 400 grit sand paper wrapped around the needle files to clean up all of the saw marks.
Here's the placard ready for engraving the names, I was going to do that with my CNC mill and an engraving program but at this point, I really don't want to screw this up, and I could do that. I am off to the jewelers.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
- Messages
- 289
I think it's time I show some work on the stand, it seems like John is getting nervous with me, he's called like six times
Mark, I know what you mean! John called me before I even got the automated thread update.
This is looking great. Coordinating the scrollwork is a fine idea. Going to be a heck of a nice display stand!
David
- Joined
- Dec 2, 1999
- Messages
- 9,910
I like the "old school" approach Mark. It looks classic.
Anxiously awaiting the gold filled wood block. Hurry.
Anxiously awaiting the gold filled wood block. Hurry.
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- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 2,655
Mark and David, you guys crack me upMark, you are really thinking utside the box on this project
and it most certainly displays your signature style:thumbup::thumbup:
Mark, you are really thinking utside the box on this projectand it most certainly displays your signature style:thumbup::thumbup:
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 2,655
Getting closer everyone!Here's the knife all decked out in it's new Paul long suit.Thanks Paul!!
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
I shipped the stand stuff to John this morning. I am sorry I wasn't able to get pictures, I was in a rush to get it packaged before the mailman got here. I hope it's up to everyones expectations and does the knife justice. I am pleased to be a part of this project. Thanks to everyone, Mark