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Longbowkid

Joined
Mar 21, 2010
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Not quite there, blade still needs to be heat treated and tempered, then hand rubbed. I will be leaving the flats with a forge finish. The top edge will be sharpened.

The blade is flat ground L6, 3/16" at the plunge with a distal taper to the tip. The handle is white oak burl, with oval black walnut overlays. Copper guard is oval shaped and has been textured throughout.

Hope yall enjoy, will be posting completed pictures shortly.

Thanks for looking,

Brandon

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That looks really nice so far - I like the combination wood handle. Good work.

Roger
 
Brandon, long time no see little Brother! I really like that one! The blade profile and finger guard are sweet!

Steve
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Potomac Forge
 
Thanks for the kind words yall. I really appreciate it.

Steve- It has been a long while hasnt it? Hopefully Ill be around more often.

Brandon
 
Well, I went out in the shop a little while ago with an interest in doing a wire inlay somewhere on the handle, so I had at it.

Since it is my first attempt at this, I went with 1/8" copper wire, doubled it up and twisted it, then "forged" it square with a 6 oz. hammer.

Everything was going well up until this point. I drew my centerline on and started filing and chiseling with some needle files and a tiny chisel I made for fine detail work such as this. What I didnt notice until after nearly finishing is that I had wandered off to one side, maybe 1/16".

So, I come to you with a question. Should I just leave it as is, or should I file it away? It wont affect the handle profile other than maybe slimming it up 1/8" or so. Please, offer your opinions and reasons why it should, or shouldnt stay.


Thanks,

Brandon



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I'm not feelin' that wire inlay in the handle:

1) The handle and guard are predominantly defined by curves - and that solid rectangle of copper is somewhat visually jarring,
2) It's not straight, and it shows, but more importantly...
3) With the textured copper guard and the high contrast combination wood handle, there is already "enough" going on.

Sometimes more is just more, not better. For me, this would be one of those times.

Roger
 
Nice looking piece....But I agree you didnt need the inlay of copper in the handle
 
I also agree with Roger and Dusty. The inlay detracts from what is otherwise a beautiful knife.
 
Thanks yall, I had already decided to grind it out, just wanted to make sure my decision was correct. The fact that it is crooked gets under my skin anyhow.

Brandon
 
I ground out the inlay and then re-sculpted the handle and finished up contouring the belly side. The handle is sanded to 320 grit with a quick coat of poly on it. Now it just needs to be sanded with progressively finer grits and might get a nice buffing after final assembly.


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More updates:

I heated up the blade to a very low red and textured the ricasso in the same manner as the guard. I have one side of the blade taken to 150 grit, with a light buff to help see all the scratches I still have to remove. I plan on getting both sides to atleast 220 grit tonight. My shop hours have been short and very late because of this extreme heat. I have no A/C or fan so I have to wait for the temps to drop down to something somewhat tolerable.

Thanks for looking,

Brandon


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