Raymond Richard dagger blank WIP

thanks yo'z!
I done drilled a hole just now, which means I can start shaping the handle tomorrow
:D
That cocobolo makes you loco! No kidding, the dust is brutal for a guy.
 
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You shouldn't be breathing the stuff. That is what they make masks/respirators for. Need to think about this kind of stuff if you are going to be working around dust.
 
Harry, I will go down to the hardware store today and get me a respirator before I get working. I've been real fastidious in making sure I keep the dust swept up and have been careful with my file to ensure I don't have dust flying everywhere in massive quantities. But it doesn't take massive quantities, does it? Up to this point I've been using a second cut mill just to square things up before I start the shaping and not much dust yet. But today that big bastard comes out and the dust will be flyin!
 
Dust from some wood is bad stuff to inhale. Cocobolo is particularly bad with some people causing all kinds of problems from headaches to serious allergic reactions. We had a knife with a cocobolo handle on it at a show and a guy said that he could just pick it up and the natural oils from the wood would cause an allergic reaction that was similar to poison ivy. We always used a mask when sanding or working with cocobolo, but have chosen to not use it anymore because of the health problems associated with the dust. It is bad about shrinking as it ages too.
 
Now he tells me:rolleyes::p:D

Anyway, nearing the final leg of this journey;

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Still lots of sanding and reduction to be done here, but so far I'm convinced that this will be pretty close to the final shape;

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Lorien you might need to send me that one when you get finished with it. It might not be legal for you to own up there since I hear they outlawed push daggers and you can push nearly any dagger. :D
 
I'm impressed with your sculpting, that isn't Easy, and you're making it look so.
 
not this one Harry, but ya got me thinking now. There's a little piece of bubinga around somewhere with your name on it;)

Thank you Eli, but truth be told I'm feeling a little exasperated with this knife at the moment. There is still lots of material that I can remove from the handle to kind of make it right, but everything is out of square. Amazingly there are no gaps that I can see yet, but somehow I was able to get nearly everything crooked:confused:. I'll just hog away some more material, but not right now and maybe not for a couple of days.

Ps. I hate working with cocobolo.
 
Lorien your eye is a pretty accurate instrument. Sight down the edge of the blade from the handle and mark the handle edges with a pencil along both sides of where you see the straight lines of the blade. Was that clear as mud??? Then turn the knife around and look at it from the point and do the same thing. You should be able to get a good idea of where the center line of the handle is along both edges by doing this. Mark the center line of both sides of the handle by creating a center line on the face of the blade and with a straight edge extending it up the handle.

Doing this will give you something to reference as you shape your handle. It is easier to do prior to beginning the shaping of the handle but is not all that hard to do afterwards.

Sometimes it is a real benefit to just let the thing rest for a day or so. When you pick it back up all kinds of things you need to do will pop out at you. It is looking really good, don't get discouraged.
 
thank you for the encouragement Harry, it is appreciated. You've been so kind over the years, and your words of encouragement have had a great influence on my passion for making some knives.

When I designed this knife, the handle was to be the same width at the butt as the width of the widest part of the habaki, a 12 degree flare over all or something from center. The piece of wood I used was JUST wide enough, and when I glued it up it went just a bit cockeyed and I lost all the width at the butt from one side. Ironically, the handle is only going to look right if it's perfectly straight, (I reduce the angle from hilt to but from 5 to 0 degrees on one side). Figure that one out:confused: Gotta shorten the handle as well, but I knew that, I was just messin around with that thumb perch atop the butt. Works pretty good I stabbed this thing into a pine wood stool and by golly it was tough to extricate!

I think that knife making is a reductive process. Where to stop?
 
Sometimes you have to back up and punt. Shift your design to work with what you have if you know what I mean.
 
well, I punted:D

Almost done with this project, (hey did I say that already?). Got to put a pin in it, and then make a sheath, but here's where I'm at;



I guess I don't have to put every picture here, as the link will bring you to the album where you can see them all...

shaping the handle really took a lot longer than I thought it would and that had a lot to do with the fact that I do not like this cocobolo dust. It's nasty stuff and it's really inconvenient to wear a dust mask because I'm working on this thing at work. Anyway, it's mostly filed and sanded to where I'm happy with it. So, on to the next thing...
 
:):):)
 
thank you, very much!
 
Great job Lorien. You tackled a huge project and nailed it. I'm super impressed.
 
Great looking dagger...Thanks for bringing us thru the steps with you !
 
Hey Lorien,
I'm really digging that dagger. I've only done a couple so far and that is mostly because it is quite a bit different from a single edged blade. You've done a great job on this piece. I especially like the copper collar coupled with the forged iron. I imagine the team aspect of that piece was fun. Thanks for taking us through this with you.
Mike
 
Hi Lorien, It's a nice looking knife, great job. One thing bugs me though, and this may just be a personal thing. Everything else on the handle is an oval except the butt, it's mostly square with slight radii:D. Please excuse the critique if you weren't looking for one. Sometimes we don't see things like that when we're too close to the project, that said, it's your knife, you get to build it however you want. Nice knife, thanks for showing it, are you making a sheath for it?
 
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