Narwhal Spike - Fluted Ringed Gidgee

[Erin Burke]

This one has been riding me for the last few months, but I think it's finally been beaten into submission. I'm calling it a Narwhal Spike. I borrowed the "Narwhal" part from Adam DesRosiers' Narwhal Fighter, as it was an inspirational piece for me. Given the point on this blade, the "Spike" part seems self-evident.

I'd like to give a big shout-out to Steve Culver for his Quillon Dagger WIP... page 7 was especially helpful with it's detail of the twisted wire work. :thumbup:


Some Stats:
Length: 15-3/8"
Blade: 9-1/16", 0.175" thick at the habaki with a zero-ground clip (sharp)
Weight: 242g/8.52oz (0.53lbs)
Steel: 1095
Fittings: 416 Stainless Steel
Handle: Ringed Gidgee with Stainless Wire
Sheath: Because I had to

Here's a short video... with a little PNW rain sprinkling the blade.

[youtube]zvaVW5-x2-Q[/youtube]

Thanks for looking.
Erin

 

[Lorien]

Erin- love it! So quirky and interesting...

 

[winterbear]

I like it a lot! Even the sheath. Chris

 

[Murray White]

Very nice Erin. creative and very artistic. Love to see new things well executed. The handle certainly epitomizes the name.

 

[SBranson]

Wild vision. So unique. Flutes, and wire inlay on a curved handle?..you must be mad to try that..

 

[Wulf]

My thoughts as well. A curved, fluted, wire-inlayed handle is bold, ambitious, maybe a little crazy, and no doubt challenging both technically and aesthetically but you pulled it off and it looks fantastic! Bravo!

 

[Bob Ohlemann]

Your creativity is off the charts man! Very, very cool.

Bob

 

[Matthew Gregory]

What a fantastic concept, and perfectly executed!!! You continue to raise the bar, man. WOW!!!!

 

[Dawkind]

Love the lines!!!

 

[Don Nguyen]

That handle is off the hook!

 

[daizee]

That is terrifying and beautiful!

 

[Slau104]

The blade looks mean and dangerous. The whole knife is artistic and beautiful. How comfortable is the handle, which is absolutely 'crazy'!!!

 

[Kevin Jones]

Nicely done, elegant and artistic.

 

[Salem Straub]

Skills! Great work, Erin!

 

[Reede]

Kind of a Hill Pearce sort of feel to it. Really, really neat.

 

[Justin Presson]

Nice work Erin! That handle is awesome!

 

[Jason Fry]

Kind of a Hill Pearce sort of feel to it. Really, really neat.

I was thinking the same thing. Excellent work!

 

[Burl Source]

Very Cool and Unusual!
Beautiful work as always.

 

[Steve Nuckels]

Great looking knife

I like the short videos, it shows the size, lines and details still images can't. I appreciated the knife even more after watching.

Very nice work!

Steve
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Member, W.F. Moran Jr. Foundation
ABS Apprentice

 

[Erin Burke]

Thanks again guys. For as much time as I spent building this knife, it feels like I spent 5X that amount of time figuring out HOW to build it. The finished product looks fairly simple -- and might be simple for some makers -- but made for a lot of ruminating/planning on my end... new (to me) construction methods, materials, orders-of-operation being required.

I’m happy with the final product, but needless to say, I’m stoked to have it finished and excited to move on to other projects.

I like it a lot! Even the sheath. Chris

You’ll notice that the lighting is a bit more subdued in that area of the photo.

Funny story about the sheath. The top section is meant to mirror the twisted look of the handle… but I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a stamp combination that looked like twisted wire. Sometimes my brain makes things more complicated than they need to be. In a lightbulb moment, I ended up using a segment of the actual wire as a leather stamp.

Wild vision. So unique. Flutes, and wire inlay on a curved handle?..you must be mad to try that..

My thoughts as well. A curved, fluted, wire-inlayed handle is bold, ambitious, maybe a little crazy, and no doubt challenging both technically and aesthetically…

I’ve had this idea for a while, but seeing Adam’s Narwhal Fighter gave me confidence that it could be done. I’m absolutely not the first to come up with this idea.

Laying out the flutes was tricky… I’m fairly sure that those cool fluting jigs would choke on a handle like this. Eventually I came up with a process involving multiple paper rings, a grid pattern, and thin strips of blue painters tape for pin-striping.

How comfortable is the handle, which is absolutely 'crazy'!!!

I would not choose this type of handle if I were chopping through underbrush all day. But I wouldn’t choose this type of blade for that purpose either. That being said, the handle is quite comfortable. To the best of my ability, I tried accounting for {right-handed} comfort when choosing the twist rate and direction of the flutes. The spacer and front section of the handle also have a flat area at the spine which is helpful for indexing.

Kind of a Hill Pearce sort of feel to it. Really, really neat.

I was thinking the same thing. Excellent work!

Thanks to you guys, I just spent the last half-hour digging through Hill Pearce images. Fortunately, Coop had gathered a number of photos in one place. Cool stuff. :thumbup:

I like the short videos, it shows the size, lines and details still images can't.

+1
I find this is particularly important on sale threads. The last thing I want is for a buyer to be surprised by something that they couldn’t see in the photos.


Thanks again.

Erin