- Joined
- Sep 13, 2001
- Messages
- 816
My latest from the bench. Kind of a Persian influenced Bowie with forged 1075 blade measuring 9 1/2", and 14 1/2" overall. The ferule is damascus with three bold stripes on all sides. The octagon handle is a really nice piece of Maidou burl followed up with a heat blued finial. It is a take down style knife. The spine of the blade has a ridge similar to a Japanese sword called iori-mune. The blade is also distal tapered, and is balances really nice. The knife feels very light, to the point that you don't believe the blade is almost 10" long. I clay heat treated the blade as well, and it has a nice undulating hamon. I don't do as deep an etch on my 1075 blades to reveal the hamon, but leave them a little more subtle. The reason is due to the visible banding that occurs in the grain of the steel above the hamon. If etched too deep, it looks dirty, but with a lighter etch you can see the banding and segregation produced by the multiple thermal cycles. This produces a really fine grain in the steel, releives stress and makes the spine springy in stead of dead soft. It makes a latice of interlocking chevrons about 1/32" big from the hamon to the spine. Kind of cool to look at under magnification.
Let me know what you think, and feel free to e-mail for more details.
P.S. Sorry for the poor quality picture, but it was the only one that showed part of the hamon.
Let me know what you think, and feel free to e-mail for more details.
P.S. Sorry for the poor quality picture, but it was the only one that showed part of the hamon.
I love the octagonal handle and matching bolster. Very slick piece.
