The dagger I've started

[Maelstrom78]

Anyone should be proud to be stabbed by that thing! Looking good!

 

[tryppyr]

The only blood that gets on my knives is usually my own.

The exception was a kitchen knife I made for my mother in law. She nearly lost a finger to it.

 

[tryppyr]

I think I am finally done shaping the guard. Now I just have to sand to finish and bend it into the final form.

If you're wondering how I shape and finish this, most of the shaping is done with needle files, but the "rounding" is done with skinny strips of abrasive. I get these by taking old, worn belts from the grinder and the 4x36 and cutting strips that are 18 inches long and about an eighth of an inch wide. That's also how I will finish sand it.

 

[Drew Riley]

Looks good!

 

[tryppyr]

I'm nearly done with the guard now. I would have considered myself done had I not put a nick in the guard as I was bending it.

 

[Frank Niro]

A new path to try and a good job finding it !That guard is a lovely piece of work !
Frank

 

[tryppyr]

Thanks! I enjoyed the work, too.

 

[tryppyr]

I started seriously working on the handle this week. I decided I wanted to carry the climbing vine theme from the guard through the handle. At the same time I wanted to create finger grooves that make the handle fit naturally in the hand, whether being held in the left hand or the right. So I am carving it now with a vine design going up both sides, with the spreading vines being used to define the finger slots. Needless to say this will take a while.

 

[Hengelo_77]

nice, how do you plan to remove the material?

 

[tryppyr]

The bulk removal between the "vines" was done with the Dremel. The final shaping is being done by "whittling" with needle files.

 

[SBuzek]

Good work, I like the way it's shaping up.

 

[Drew Riley]

Lookin' good!

 

[tryppyr]

Thanks, guys.

One thought keeps coming back to me... Once I get the carving done, I'm thinking of dying the ivory in some way to slightly darken it before I do the final sanding/buffing. The idea is to leave a shadowy color in the deeper recesses to help add definition to the imagery. Any thoughts about what might be a good dye to achieve that effect?

 

[tryppyr]

Today I spent a few hours roughing out the "vines" in the handle. I'll keep at it a bit longer, but now my thoughts are turning to staining the ivory. Thought I'd try coffee first. I want something that will leave a light brown hue behind.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Walrus "tapioca" will not dye well because it is so dense. You can experiment to see with wood dyes, but it won't penetrate far. It may take a long time to get it to change color.

I have dyed mammoth with alcohol based wood dye.

 

[tryppyr]

Thanks, Stacy. I don't really need deep penetration, but it would certainly be nice if the stain didn't just rub off the first time the handle is gripped.

As a test, I dunked a small piece of ivory into a cup of black currant iced tea for about 15 minutes. Not too surprisingly, the tea did stain the ivory. What did surprise me was how durable that stain was. Took a bit of sanding to reset the piece for future tests, and that revealed to me how well the technique might work on the handle. If all else fails, I'll use tea staining.

 

[tryppyr]

Getting close to final assembly. I have finished tea staining the ivory, and I'm satisfied with the color. Just a few more details to address before I put it all together.

 

[SBuzek]

Nice progress

 

[Drew Riley]

Starting to look like a dagger now! Nice work.

 

[MBurks]

That thing is crazy!

I really like the ivory, I've used coffee to "age" plastic and bone before but never tea, it looks great!