My KITH WIP

I saw this in "the BEE" (Antiques and The Arts Weekly) today and was inspired. I need to find some way to incorporate some of the more basic elements of the guard (i.e. the overlap with the handle and blade) into my guard. Something to think about...

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I'm finally ready to send this off to HT and it will be accompanied by the other blade I was making with the angled plunge line. The first time I've sent more than one blade at a time for HT.

- Greg
 
I just made another big commitment to this project. I cut off the piece of ivory that will become the handle. This piece is 4.25 inches long. .75 inch wide (at the narrowest part) and currently weighs 4.7 ounces, though it will lose a significant amount of that weight as I process it. I'll preserve as much of the material as possible, however.

Here's a few looks at the piece I've selected.

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After being debarked, deburred, and flattened at the ends it is now almost exactly 4 inches long and the weight is now at 3.2 ounces.

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Quick update. I've been shaping the ivory and I drilled the center slot for the tang. It's coming along apace. I'm doing most of the shaping using small files so I don't accidentally remove too much.
 
After seeing the guard and the blade together I liked what I saw and wanted to find some way to make the guard work with the blade. The big problem I had was fitting them together with no visible gaps or glue lines. When I look at the picture of the sword in the auction I see the use of overlapping material as the means to make the fitment details invisible.

I considered adding material to the guard to form a sort of bolster and ferrule. But that didn't seem likely to succeed, and would have added more mass to the guard, which did not appeal. So I'm trying a different approach.

The guard itself is made of quarter inch thick 1095, so I figured I had plenty of room to cut a channel for the blade and a channel for the handle. This picture shows the channel I cut for the handle, shown next to the handle as it is today. The idea is that I taper the handle to fit precisely in the depression. The depression will serve to secure the position of the handle and to hide the join line.

I'm still planning to silver solder the guard to the blade, but now the ricasso will drop slightly into a similar depression on the other side, making it more positionally secure as well. I'll flux the tang and the back of the ricasso to encourage the flow of solder to fill the gap.

Anyone see any problems with this approach?

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Today I decided to take all the hard edges off the guard. Here's the result (sanded to 180 grit, and the shaping not entirely refined yet).

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Today I used needle files to complete the shaping of the balls at the ends. I think it looks much "crisper" and more finished now, and I'm ready to let it reat until I can cut the groove for the blade. No pictures yet

I drew in some preliminary cut lines for the grooves I want to cut into the handle. That is going to be slow work at first until I get grooves established that I can work within. And before I start cutting the grooves I want to shape the ends to give the handle more of a barrel shape.
 
After tapering the handle last night, I decided it was time to get the handle fitted to the slot cut for it in the guard. Today, using a screwdriver to substitute for the tang, and a file and some sandpaper, I did get a nice clean join between the two pieces. I'm thrilled! That means I can start carving the handle grooves with confidence... as soon as I have the butt end shaped to fit the jelly bean pommel. :)
 
It is coming along very well indeed, Greg. The attention to detail as you have been going along is really paying off. It has to be done as you go. Frank
 
The carving has begun. It's still in a VERY rough state, but coming along about as expected.

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As with most of the projects I work on, I just can't put this one down for any length of time. I've spent a few hours now with files and sandpaper cleaning up the lines (curves) and eliminating the blemishes caused by the primary carving. Still some places that need a little more attention before I carve in the end bands. This thing already feels pretty sexy in the hand.

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Now the end bands have been cut in. Tonight I'll finish up the handle carving.

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The handle is complete now. Last night I finished cleaning up the shapes, then sanded to 500 grit and did a quick pass on the buffer. I will do some touching up here and there, but it's basically done.

Next I'm turning my attention to the sheath (until the blade comes back from HT). I'm not entirely sure what type of sheath would be most appropriate here, so I'll probably make a couple and see which works best.

I haven't decided whether to make a presentation box (let alone how I would do so), but if time permits I'll try to tackle that too.

- Greg
 
Looking good Greg! I really like what you have done with the handle and guard, your work has been improving steadily.
 
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