Thankyou Dale for an amazing effort

[lt632ret]

As some of you may know I have imposed a self exile on myself regarding this forum. ( I have given my word not to post so that one of the members will continue to post without fear or trepedation of torment by my possibly asking questions which cannot be answered like where he received information that he posts as fact ). However I must make this posting since it regards a previous commitment. Dale ( orvet ) has been working on a project which is such a matter of honor and ability that I must give it and him the just credit they deserve. Quite a while back while we were discussing something or another we kind of came up at the same time with a proposal. No we did not propose to each other. But rather came up with the idea of Dale doing a special set of knives from some oddball blanks ( from the Schrade closing ) which I had been wondering what to do with, we came up with a mutualy agreeable trade ( although ) at this point I certainly got the better of it. I really did not expect anything quite as amazing as this set of beautiful knives. Each is around 13" long. From what I understand the blades were raw he had them tempered picked out the wood and just about started from scratch. What resulted were these three absolutly beautiful renditions of the cutlers craft. Dale will expound on the mechanical aspects of these works of art. To me these three knives are more than steel, brass and wood. They are examples of the dedication and pride one one individual to his word and craft. These knives will as long as the fates allow be special to me not only in my collection but in my heart as well . Thankyou Dale WELL DONE. PS this is the only posting I plan to make on this subject. So if it offends anyone please just do as you said you would and ignor it. I have no desire ( especially after being the first offended) to make anyone a martyr. Good luck to all. LT

 

[muskrat man]

Well, I'm not sure what all this self exile stuff is about, must have missed that in my off time, I miss your posts, and was wondering where you went, but anyway. That is some beautiful work dale, very nice work!
Ratman Out

 

[glennbad]

I knew we had some real caraftsmen here. Between you, Dale, MM, Paul, and others, we have the makings of our own knife shop.

An outstanding effort!

Glenn

 

[orvet]

Sorry I couldn't post last night, I was busy midwifing puppies. We have 5 cute little Lhasa Apso puppies!

I will try and post a few pics from time to time to show those of you who are interested the process of turning the blanks into knives.

Here are the blanks before starting, except I had polished the one on the right.


I don't know through what process these blanks were made, they almost look like they were cast.
It may be possible that these are an experiment in MIM (Metal Injection Molding) or some other process.
There were pits in them beyond mere rust pits, such as this one.


I had to re-profile that tip because of that flaw at the tip. There was a lot of sanding involved in finishing the knives.
Here are 2 shots of one knife, one before sanding & one after sanding.



There was a lot of file work in making two of the brass guards. The guard on the Bowie was sand cast, which I buffed to a dull finish more in keeping with
the antique feel I got from that great pattern. The sand cast had pits in it also (a hazard inherit to that process) which precluded a high polish finish.
Here is a guard in the process of being made.


I found it very interesting that Schrade never made fighting knives, except on government contract, two of these are fighting knife patterns.
Maybe they did experiment with them???

Well, that is all I have time to post right now. I will post more on a day or so. As I recall it took me two month to finish these three blades.
I don't do it full time and had a lot of company (grandsons spending a week each and helping them make their first knife & taking them fishing)
plus I had some health issues. It took some time, but I think they turned out good.

I would like to say "thank you" to LT for allowing me the opportunity to work on these
fine old Schrades plus his most generous remunerations. He was
very generous in his trade with me. Some other day I will show some of the fine blanks (and other things) he sent me in exchange for the
work on these three knives.

Dale

 

[w5rwu]

LT Thank you for this post . This a great a part of schrade history and without this post, we on BF could not of seen this . Orvet very well done , bravo
I really hope there more knives like this to be show!
w5rwu

 

[w5rwu]

!
W5rwu

 

[relodr36]

Dale,
Excellent work !!!!
LT,
Please come home !!!
Ron