Mosaic Damascus Cherry blossom Ivory Bowie

PaulDiStefano

PaulDiStefano

Joined
Nov 14, 2016
Messages
636
Aaaaaaaaannnnd 4 months later I finally finished a knife...
This piece was my first mosaic damascus bowie I have ever made. It has a 13" blade, mammoth ivory handle. Carvings of Cherry blossom tree and flowers with designs that match the guard. I forged out my favorite style guard, a Giant sweeping S guard with a neat pattern on the ends and a carved fuller with texture in the grooves to match the textured background of the carving.The damascus on the guard was made to resemble wood grain.
I will have this piece at bladeshow in August on my table.

Let me know what you guys think!

Thank you for checking out my work.

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It turned out beautifully! I always enjoy seeing what design elements you'll come up with, and this is no exception. I love cherry blossoms.

If you don't mind me asking, I remember the thread you started about this in Shoptalk: what method did you end up using to polish the details in the carving on the ivory?

Thanks for sharing


~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Some older vids of some of the older knives I made)
 
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coldsteelburns said:
It turned out beautifully! I always enjoy seeing what design elements you'll come up with, and this is no exception. I love cherry blossoms.

If you don't mind me asking, I remember the thread you started about this is Shoptalk: what method did you end up using to polish the details in the carving on the ivory?

Thanks for sharing


~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Some older vids of some of the older knives I made)
Click to expand...
Thanks Paul, I actually tried like 8 different things. A few different bristle brushes and compounds and spiral bristles that alrdy have a certain micron to them. I used tubed polishing compounds and like 3 different mini buffing wheels. I ended up not liking the shine it gave to the piece. Which was odd for me because I tend to like the buffed super shiny look, it just looks fancier to me. But I just rescraped the flowers with the gravers to get rid of the shine and went for a more dull shine from how I water proofed the piece. I found someone who gave me a tip to use a solution of white parrafin wax and mineral spirits which you put on the ivory and it absorbs in a few millimeters then you wait 3 hours and wipe of the excess with a cloth and buff with the cloth by hand and it achieves a sort of matte shine. This was my first time using mammoth ivory and boy is it porous. Every time I touched it I felt like I got black soot deep inside the piece that I could not sand out. And this wax mixture solves that while also giving it a slight shine
 
PaulDiStefano said:
T

Thanks Paul, I actually tried like 8 different things. A few different bristle brushes and compounds and spiral bristles that alrdy have a certain micron to them. I used tubed polishing compounds and like 3 different mini buffing wheels. I ended up not liking the shine it gave to the piece. Which was odd for me because I tend to like the buffed super shiny look, it just looks fancier to me. But I just rescraped the flowers with the gravers to get rid of the shine and went for a more dull shine from how I water proofed the piece. I found someone who gave me a tip to use a solution of white parrafin wax and mineral spirits which you put on the ivory and it absorbs in a few millimeters then you wait 3 hours and wipe of the excess with a cloth and buff with the cloth by hand and it achieves a sort of matte shine. This was my first time using mammoth ivory and boy is it porous. Every time I touched it I felt like I got black soot deep inside the piece that I could not sand out. And this wax mixture solves that while also giving it a slight shine
Click to expand...


Thanks for sharing that with me. It sounds like you learned a good bit in the making of this handle. I think the more subdued finish you gave the ivory looks perfect on this.

Once again, beautiful job!

~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Some older vids of some of the older knives I made)
 
Kevin Jones said:
That's quite a Bowie, lot's of effort went into that one.
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Thanks a lot Kevin! Ya haha, this one sure did require a lot of patience and thought. I’ve never worked with mammoth ivory before and then to figure out how to carve it for the first time without using a test piece took some trial and error. ;)
 
coldsteelburns said:
Thanks for sharing that with me. It sounds like you learned a good bit in the making of this handle. I think the more subdued finish you gave the ivory looks perfect on this.

Once again, beautiful job!

~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (Some older vids of some of the older knives I made)
Click to expand...
Ya this one took a lot of trial and error and research. I read more and learned more for and from this project then any so far. Lol It was a huge expensive piece of ivory that so I was trying really hard not to mess it up hahah.
Thanks!
 
Like I said on Instagram, first thought on seeing this one was that it looked like Jean Louis Regel's work. That's darn good company to be in, Paul. Beautiful knife!
 
Jason Fry said:
Like I said on Instagram, first thought on seeing this one was that it looked like Jean Louis Regel's work. That's darn good company to be in, Paul. Beautiful knife!
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Haha thanks Jason, I was very flattered when you said it. That’s a huge compliment to me. He’s an awesome maker
 
Oh my! That’s incredible Paul, really beautiful.
The handle is magnificent alone, but everything together is just incredible.
 
Incredible in every respect.

"Now, to test the overall construction of your work, we will bash it repeatedly into these barrel hoops..." Just kidding, I think we can skip the strength test!
 
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