my first post my first knife

J

jrscgsr

Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Messages
34
Hello everyone on bladeforums. I've been lurking for a while now and just getting into making my own knives. I'm posting up some pics of my first knife. I made the blank from a piece of elevator cable at a blacksmith course I took in the fall. One question I have is about using copper as my guard material is this going to be to soft to use, also I was just going to epoxy the guard in place because I don't want to take the temper out of the blade and think the clean up of the guard and the blade after is going to be to hard. Will the epoxy be sufficient in holding the guard which is butted up against the back of the spine and choil.

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Welcome to Blade Forums and congratulations on your first blade.
And a nice first blade it is. I have always liked cable damascus.
 
If you have a good mechanical fit, epoxy will be fine. All your doing, after the good fit, is sealing it. I would recommend JB Weld instead, just because the subdued color will look better, even though there should be none of it showing. Good looking blade. Lin
 
I've made a couple of knives where the only thing holding the guard in place is super glue and works great, even with a lousy mechanical fit. You may want to experiment a little first with junk metal to see how your epoxy looks with copper and your damascus.
 
that is some fine lookin cable Damascus.
best I've ever seen actually. Really, it has no repeating pattern in color or shape
 
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thanks for all the great and inspiring comments everyone. Here is a little update on the knife (should have taken in progress pics). I made the guard out of copper, the amboya burl handle, and the pommel out of copper for the knife today. I dry fit everything than epoxyed everything together I think it came out fairly well. Just need to finish the handle out. What is the best method of sealing this wood once i have it shaped and polished?

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WoW! Very nice! That pattern is intriguing! I like the way that is turning out!

Steve
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ABS Apprentice
Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST
 
Wood finishing is 2 schools, polyurethane and oil. I like tung oil as it builds up and you see it grow.

Larry
Tinkerer
 
Thats freakin beautiful bro! Especially for your first blade. Keep at it I think you could make something of yourself in the knife world.
 
Great job so far. That copper is really going to look nice. You may want to tape up that blade before you start working the handle to protect it. Can't wait to see it finished up.
 
Well I put some time into the knife the last few days and finished it all except for tung oiling the amboya wood (I don't have any tung oil yet). I profiled the handle guard and pommel than finished them with finer grit belts until polishing on my buffing wheel. I'm very happy with my first knife and am inspired to make more. The edge was sharpened to 9 micron and is shiny and can shave hair off my arm. Thanks for every ones comments and help.

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Well you did your homework! Excellent first knife by anyone's standards I'm sure! You should be very proud!

Did you soder or epoxy the guard?

Steve
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Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST
 
i epoxyed the guard because I didn't (and still don't) know if i would be able to clean up the guard and blade without ruining the damascus etch.
 
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