Second dagger WIP

[Mark Knapp]

Members might remember the first dagger WIP I did addressing mosaic handles, I had a lot of fun doing it so I thought I would do it again. I have found that when I have to explain what I am doing it makes things more clear in my own mind what I am doing and why. This is not actually my second dagger, it is my second WIP. I just now decided to do the WIP, that's why I don't have any action shots, I will include some as we go. I am open to any questions, comments and critique.

You may remember this picture from the beginning of the other WIP. I finished the knife to the right, for this WIP I will complete the one on the left. Both of the blades are of my own making, I used 1095 and 15N20. Before the last forging I used a ball end mill in my milling machine to introduce a swirly pattern into the damascus. You can see my sketch for the smaller dagger, I have begun to carve the bronze guard with my dremel tool and carbide burrs. I have been really inspired by all of the outstanding knife makers here, particularly the carvers; David Broadwell, Larry Fuegen and Rodrigo Sfreddo just to name a few. I have carved bone and ivory before but carving the metal fittings is new to me so the going has been pretty slow, my first attempt was on my Rhino Short Sword. In this picture I had transferred the drawing of the guard detail to the bronze with carbon paper and begun carving.

Here's where I am right now, I have polished the guard a little, that is when I can really see where it needs more work. The handle material is stacked kudu horn; I think the colors in there will pop when it is finished. I have begun to rough in the bolster with a ball end mill in the milling machine. The sketches of the bolster on the bottom are some designs I am considering, still not sure.

This is a shot of the face of the guard and the bottom of the bolster. I used my CNC milling machine to make the pocket for a stone inlay and an accent groove around it. I don't find a CNC mill real useful for one-off knife making but it really makes nice ovals for inlay.

Here's a closer shot of the guard, it needs more work and it won't be perfect but I am not that upset about it.

I have finally settled on a design for the butt cap, and drawn it out to scale so I can transfer it to the material. I gotta remember to crop some of these pictures to save room.

Here it is taped on with some carbon paper under it, I have traced over the image to transfer it, I do that on both sides.

Here's the image on the material, it comes out real light with the carbon paper so I went over it with an ultra-sharp marker.

I have used a file and the Dremel to cut in the outline of the image and started roughing in the basic shape.

Starting to add three-dimentionality. I am using mostly files instead of the Dremel to keep it slow, I could mess this up. On my Rhino sword, I had to make several of the fittings over till I was happy with them. If you more experienced guys see me doing something the hard way, or just plane wrong, please let me know. I am here to learn as much as anything.

 

[Steve Nuckels]

I'm very interested in watching this progression! Thanks for the effort and time in advance!

Steve
---------
Potomac Forge

 

[milesofalaska]

Nice knife Mark! Only comment might be I see the work you do with the brass. It would be possible to create that in wax, and have someone cast it for you in brass. Casting can reproduce even fingerprints. It shrinks so there is touch up work to do to the casting. Interested in comments casting compared to metal removal. Hey- I too am sitting out this cold spell. 40 below for a week. Good time to be on the computer huh? Miles

 

[Lorien]

carbon paper! My god man!
the secret is out
I learn SO much here:thumbup:

 

[Mark Knapp]

Nice knife Mark! Only comment might be I see the work you do with the brass. It would be possible to create that in wax, and have someone cast it for you in brass. Casting can reproduce even fingerprints. It shrinks so there is touch up work to do to the casting. Interested in comments casting compared to metal removal. Hey- I too am sitting out this cold spell. 40 below for a week. Good time to be on the computer huh? Miles

Hi Miles Did you send me a Christmas card, I got a mysterious one from Nenana with no signiture.

I did do the rhino head guard on my short sword the way you suggest but I would rather carve the material myself for several reasons. Sole authorship is one. I am a metal worker not a wax worker, it is fun to do. And for a one-off knife carving the fittings seems to fit the project better. Talk to you later.

 

[Mark Knapp]

I have whittled on it quite a bit, almost done.

Starting to polish.

My wife got an action shot. I am polishing with Cratex wheels, they are rubber abrasive wheels that you can shape to match the shape of your material.

The Dremel was getting hot so I went to the handle material. I am narrowing the handle to match the width of the blade.

It's getting close, I left a little for hand sanding. Photo bucket is acting up so I will put some more on in a bit.

 

[Mark Knapp]

I finally broke loose of some other work and got some more done on this knife.

I would like to put some classy thin spacers in this handle, I decided on some bright little, interlocking "S" curves. They will add some bling and provide a connection to the sister knife, it has some spacers with a similar look. I showed you these forming blocks on the first dagger WIP. I am forming some corrugations in some .005" brass shim stock. I'm making two for each spacer, one spacer on each end of the handle material.

I am soldering them together with a 1/16th inch off-set. You can see some 1/16th inch pin stock between the pieces for spacing that will come out.

I arched them slightly to match the curve between the fitting and the handle material. You can get an idea of how it all stacks up.

I wrapped the spacers with black construction paper and glued it on lightly with CA glue. I mixed up some good quality casting resin and tinted it black. I will use a plastic syringe with a very small snorkel tube to inject all of the voids with resin starting at the bottom so that no air bubbles are trapped. The spacer assemblies are glued down on edge to wax paper to make this all easier. I got the casting resin, tint, syringe and snorkel tube at my local paint store.

The spacers are all filled up and left to dry.

I want to dress up the bolster a little more; I thought I would put some balls around the oval inlay instead of the groove I was originally going to have there. I made a cutter to form the half-spears. It works by plunging straight down on the work. I started at the two axis and spaced the bumps equally between them. I figured out a while ago that I could hold irregularly shaped objects in my milling machine by sandwiching them between two moistened pieces of leather. The leather sets up rock solid when it is squished in the vise, certainly firm enough for light cuts in brass or bronze. The leather can be super glued to the vise jaws to insure a super strong grip if needed. It is easily popped out later. In this case the glue was not necessary.

I worked my way all the way around, eye-balling it.

I then used a 1/16th inch end mill to whittle away the little bits of material left between the bumps.

I slotted the guard for the tang of the knife; first I milled a flat section on the face of the guard for the ricasso to sit flat against and then went through with the slot. The tang is .130" thick at the ricasso, a 1/8th inch end mill cuts it perfectly and leaves enough to file the slot for a snug fit.

This is where I will leave it for tonight; I am feeling pretty good about it so far. Tomorrow I can fasten the spacers to the handle, sand them flush and start the final assembly. Please let me know what you think, good or bad.

 

[milesofalaska]

Nice looking finished product Mark! I love to carve wax and cast. I forget it’s not everyone else’s love! I think this is what makes all us knife makers turn out a product that is unique to us- we all have our ways we skin the cat. Nice to follow the process of how you turn this out. Thanks for sharing. Miles

 

[Mark Knapp]

OK, I'm starting the final fit-up

First I want to square the base of the ricasso where it meets with the guard; here I'm checking its quareness with the square on the guard. I'm lining up the blade of the square with the centerline of the dagger. Then I check to make sure the guard is centered on the tang with the calipers.

I have glued the spacers to the handle material, I'm using the oscillating spindle sander to flush them up to the handle and put just a little "waist" into the handle on both ends. The handle is pretty well roughed in.

I don't want the butt end to be too heavy; I have marked the bolster where the handle meets it. Using a 1/4" end mill I am removing excess weight from the bolster, staying 1/8 inch in from my mark.

I have removed quite a bit of weight from the bolster, the knife balances pretty good now. The handle is sanded to 600 grit. I will sand it to 1500, then put on a rubbed oil finish. Here's how it's shaping up. Tomorrow I will cut the stone for the bolster and the sheath inlays. Blue will go really good with the yellow of the fittings so I am using lapis lazuli.

 

[Mark Knapp]

Nice looking finished product Mark! I love to carve wax and cast. I forget it’s not everyone else’s love! I think this is what makes all us knife makers turn out a product that is unique to us- we all have our ways we skin the cat. Nice to follow the process of how you turn this out. Thanks for sharing. Miles

Thanks Miles, It is certainly a personal choice thing, when I had my rhino sword guard casted I enjoyed the process and the results were excellent. I am sure I will do it that way again but it was a little time consuming and expensive. Thanks again, talk to you again soon, Mark

 

[gthouse]

WOW Mark. I am really enjoying this WIP. Can't wait to see that handle polished up.
Gary

 

[Mark Knapp]

WOW Mark. I am really enjoying this WIP. Can't wait to see that handle polished up.
Gary

Thanks Gary, doing the polishing today.

 

[Mark Knapp]

It's time to cut some lapis, I Googled the stuff to see what makes it so blue; I wanted to be extra careful with it if it had any cobalt in it. It looks like all the normal precautions will be good enough.

So here's the rough piece I'm starting with. I got it at the Tucson gem and mineral show a few years ago, that place will make your head spin. I went through a 55 gallon drum of pieces like this and got the deepest blue I could get. The Afghan guy (this stuff is from Afghanistan) watched me go through it all, when I had made my choice I asked him how much. 300 bucks, I don't know if it was $300.00 to everyone or just the guy that would spend an hour in the 80 degree heat going through the drum. Doesn't matter, that was the piece I wanted.

I'm starting to slab it out using my shop smith with a diamond blade on it. Man this stuff is blue, and it turns everything else blue. I keep it cool with a spray bottle so it doesn't break.

I got a bunch of nice slices; I have wet them to get an idea of how they will look when finished, then picked a good one for the bolster.

I marked it for the inlay and cut the rough shape out on a smaller stone saw.

Using a diamond lapidary wheel I carefully grind the cabochon to fit the oval cut-out in the bolster. When it fits I use the same wheel to dome the exposed portion of the cabochon. My 2 X 72 free belt was used to finish sand the stone all the way to 2400 grit.

The Dremel was used with a carbide burr to relieve the back of the stone to accept the nut holding the whole knife together. Then, put a nice patina on the fittings, I brushed them with linseed oil and cooked it on with the propane torch.

While I allowed the bronze to cool, I hand sanded the handle to 1500 grit and gave it the first coat of oil; for this piece I am using Danish oil finish. It's almost time for the final assembly, I will burnish the fittings with four/ought steel wool, put one or two more coats of oil on the handle and put it together. If I get enough votes to show you how I make a sheath, I will continue this thread with the making of the sheath. If you want to see it let me know. I should be able to show the finished knife in a couple of days, the oil needs to dry a day for each coat.

 

[Mark Knapp]

Here are some quick snapshots of the finished dagger with the stone inset and the third coat of oil. The oil is still wet in these shots. I will take some light box pictures after the sheath is finished.

 

[David Sharp]

Not my cup of tea, but I sure did learn a lot. Thank you very much for taking the time and posting this WIP.

 

[drf1]

Here are some quick snapshots of the finished dagger with the stone inset and the third coat of oil. The oil is still wet in these shots. I will take some light box pictures after the sheath is finished.

beautiful!!

 

[Dusty One]

Man that is some outstanding work.....Thanks for taking the time to the steps you went thru. A real Beauty.....