The Tail (or Tale) of the Chupacabra. Now with pro photos

[Mark Knapp]

OK, I finally have a blade I am pretty happy with. Gary House, Jerry Fisk and Bill Burke all had some helpful advice. It all boils down to having the blade ninety percent to shape, forging in a pattern and then finishing the knife as apposed to trying to put the pattern in a billet and then forging the knife. So I forged some damascus to the shape of my blade and then forged some scales into it. This is kind of a test for blades to come.

Here is the as-forged blade. I had traced the outline of the blade I wanted onto the anvil.

I made a punch to forge a scaly pattern into the steel.

Here's the blade with the scales punched into it.

Beginning to rough grind the blade.

This is the blade at heat treat, I want to leave just a little of the forge marks in the finished blade.

I did a quick machine finish on the blade and etched it to see how it looks. I have enough blade thickness that I could remove the forge marks, but I think I like them, I will have to give it some thought.

The scale pattern in this one is subtle but subtlety in the blade may be the right thing for such a busy handle. I now have a technique that I think I can explore a great deal on the knives to come.

Tomorrow, I will hand sand the blade and give it a proper finish to make to ready, along with a guard, for assembly.

 

[gthouse]

Mark, the blade is just fine, leave it as forged. It shows what you are trying to achieve. This is turning out to be a technical piece. I hope it is appreciated. Keep up the good work and get some rest. It will help with the hallucinations. Believe me, I know from past experience.
Gary

 

[Kevin Jones]

Good thread Mark, looking forward to following it to it's completion.

 

[Lorien]

I think that forged in pattern from the die needs a few hundred more layers.
I'm not a fan of the punched in marks personally

 

[Mark Knapp]

Thanks Gary and Kevin, it's been a lot of fun.

Lorien, The first one I did had about 250 layers, then I did one with 500 layers, here it is

It's OK, but not what I am looking for for these knives. The finished blade has about 75 layers, its not exactly what I am going for but it is the closest I've gotten yet. I am out of time for this knife, my customer is anxious for it to be done. On the next one, I will triple the layers, completely cover the blade with smaller scales and try some with the forge marks showing and then some with the marks completely cleaned up. This has been a learning experience the whole way, that's what makes it interesting for me. It is hard for me to just do the things I already know how to do.

 

[Phil Dwyer]

Great quest Mark! Hear ya about only being able to gt so far with the time parameters of this commission though. You'll get it by-n-by.

I'm surprised you aren't approaching the pattern weld a bit more like you do the wood layup for the handle. You know, something like cutting and re-stacking tiles of the "end grains" of your billets to create the scale look.

 

[Mark Knapp]

Great quest Mark! Hear ya about only being able to gt so far with the time parameters of this commission though. You'll get it by-n-by.

I'm surprised you aren't approaching the pattern weld a bit more like you do the wood layup for the handle. You know, something like cutting and re-stacking tiles of the "end grains" of your billets to create the scale look.

Hi Phil, Thanks, you know, part of my plans include making a die to form long scale shaped cylinders, and stacking those up like you suggest, I will give that a try too. My real goal though, is to see if it is possible to draw pictures in conventional damascus. It would be neat to be able to do that as well as use pattern welding and powder metal.

 

[Lorien]

I like that highly layered stuff quit a lot!

 

[Mark Knapp]

OK, so now I am starting the guard. I like curved guards, I think that since there is almost no flat or straight lines in nature, and no straight lines on your hand, curves feel better in your hand and I personally think curves have more visual appeal than straight lines.

There are a few ways to center the quill of your milling machine for the slot in your guard. You can layout the slot on the guard and mill it out. You can use a dial indicator on the quill and center it on the guard. This is the slickest way I have found, it's very fast and accurate. Clamp the guard in the vise the way you normally would. Put a large round router bit in the collet of the mill, they call them "box core" bits, I use 1 1/8' diameter. Crank the mill table so the bit falls in between the jaws of the vise, settle it in, while gently moving the cross-slide back and forth till the router bit finds the lowest point between the jaws of the vise. That is the center of your guard. You can get box core bits for about $25.00.

I cut the slot using a 1/8" carbide bit, carbide is stiffer than HHS, you get a lot less tool flex, and key-holing in the slot, straighter sides in the slot too. After the center of the slot is cut out, move over the required amount to each side to make the slot a couple of thousandths narrower than the thickness of the ricasso. I like to file the slots to size as apposed to milling them.

Next, I wanted to add some lacy ivory inlay to each end of the handle assembly, I cut the ends of the handle off about 5/16 from the last inlay.

Using a wavy router bit I cut the wavy pattern into both ends of my handle assembly and the pieces I cut off. These wavy bits are used by solid surface counter top people to make glue joints. I cut the same wavy pattern into some blocks of interior mammoth ivory.

I glued the ivory to the handle assembly.

Cut the ivory off short.

Then cut the same wavy pattern into the ivory. Depending on your spacing and how you offset the cutter, you can get different effects. I'm making little "S" shaped waves so I offset the cutter about .080" and removed ivory till the cutter just touches the material on the other side of the ivory.

Glue the black sycamore back on the ends and the new inlays are done.

Next, assembling the knife.

Thanks for checking in.

 

[Mark Knapp]

I like that highly layered stuff quit a lot!

I like it too, I will use it on other projects.

 

[Mark Knapp]

Fitting the guard to the blade, I'll file the slot till it has a snug slide fit.

The guard is fit up to the shoulders on the blade, now I have to shape the shoulders of the blade to the curve of the guard.

With a stiff belt on the grinder, I slide it over so it hangs off of the platen about 3/16" so that I can undercut the shoulders a little and cut a radius in them to fit the guard.

It's time to dig the hole for the tang, I check the alignment of the blade, check the length of the handle and the flow from the blade to the handle. With all that checked out, I mark the outside of the handle for the tang mortise.

I use my calipers to transfer the lines from the side to the top. I use the same technique to scribe the center line of the top.

With the handle material in a square drill press vise, I line up the 3/16" extra long drill bit with one edge of the tang mortise.

Line up the drill bit with the scribed lines and drill the first hole, adjust the handle in the vise to line up the drill bit with the other edge of the tang mortise and drill that hole.

After a couple more holes are drilled on the center line in between the end holes, all the holes are joined by zig zagging back and forth while feeding the bit down into the hole.

Attaching the guard to the handle to grind them to shape together. Some materials just don't bond well together like steel and wood. I have learned that there are some materials that bond well to everything, suede leather is one.

I glue the guard to the handle with leather in between, using the blade for alignment. When everything is straight, shoot the CA glue with accelerator and slide the blade out. You almost can't knock the guard off unless you get it too warm while working it. Next I will pin the guard to the handle and pin the butt end together for extra security.

 

[Mark Knapp]

OK, with pins in the guard and the butt end, it's time to shape the handle.

The handle has been shaped. I rubbed it down with cyano-acrylate glue to fill any holes I might have exposed while I was shaping. Tomorrow, hand sanding to finish, etch the guard and maybe put the whole thing together.

 

[Mark Knapp]

The handle has been finish sanded to 600 grit. Next I will etch the guard.

I masked the wooden parts of the handle with fingernail polish and electrical tape. I also plugged the blade slot with clay.

The guard is etched. I will pick out the clay with a dental pick.

The blade has been epoxied in. I'm giving the handle a hand rubbed oil finish. This is the first of three coats of tung oil finish. It could take more coats depending on how much the wood drinks up.

In between coats, I will work on the sheath.

 

[stezann]

Beautiful work!
May i ask how did you remove the fingernail masking without affecting the underlying cyanoacrilate used to fill the voids?

 

[Mark Knapp]

Beautiful work!
May i ask how did you remove the fingernail masking without affecting the underlying cyanoacrilate used to fill the voids?

Sure you can ask. I was careful not to use too much fingernail polish, I actually only covered one glue joint with polish. Then when removing it, I used minimal acetone on a paper towel and rubbed carefully.

 

[Mark Knapp]

After the first coat of tung oil soaked in for a half hour I wiped off the excess. With the handle essentially dry to the touch, I could work on the sheath.

I made a paper pattern, and traced it to the inside of the leather.

I cut out the pattern, cased (dampened) it, beveled the corners of the upper half and put a decorative stain on the leather.

I stained the inside black.

While the stain dried a little, I traced the welt and cut it out. I like to make the welt so it captures the guard so the knife stays in without snaps or straps.

The belt loop is folded over, glued down with rubber cement and marked for stitching with the stitch marker.

I pre-drilled the holes with a 1/16" drill bit on the drill press and stitched it up with the stitching awl.

I folded over the the sheath to check the match from side to side, then traced the shape on some chupacabra skin for the inset. Chupacabras are scarce so if you have trouble finding some skin you can use python or some other suitably scaly skin. I figure a little beaver tail would be nice too.

Using rubber cement I glued the two insets into place.

I selected a nice African porcupine quill for the border and marked the stitches for the top of the insets. I stitched the quill into place along the top of the inset. Using the stitching awl I pushed a loop of thread through the sheath from the inside, looped the thread around the quill and pulled it tight. I continued the stitch along the top of the inset.

I glued the welt into place and checked to make sure the knife was a good fit before gluing the sides of the sheath together.

I sanded all the layers flush.

Then marked the border for stitches, and drilled the holes.

Starting at the top I stitched the sheath together in the normal fashion. When I got to the inset I looped the thread around the quill in every stitch around the border.

After the stitching was completed, I wrapped the knife in stretch wrap and put it in the sheath to shrink it to fit. I died the border black and set it aside to dry. Tomorrow I will add some gator horn back for a little more embellishment and give the handle another coat of tung oil.

We're seeing light at the end of the tunnel on this one. Thanks for checking in.

 

[keithf]

Thats one hell of a story, I like it Great looking knife! Thanks for taking the time to document the journey.
Cheers Keith

 

[stezann]

Sure you can ask. I was careful not to use too much fingernail polish, I actually only covered one glue joint with polish. Then when removing it, I used minimal acetone on a paper towel and rubbed carefully.

Thank You!!
I think Your knives don't need any maker's mark, as they are already Your own signature!!!

 

[Mark Knapp]

Thats one hell of a story, I like it Great looking knife! Thanks for taking the time to document the journey.
Cheers Keith

Thank You!!
I think Your knives don't need any maker's mark, as they are already Your own signature!!!

Thanks guys.

Here's a picture of the finished knife, it's off to Coop in the morning for some real photos, and then to Italy.

 

[Mark Knapp]

As promised, here are the pictures from Coop. Thanks for the great job, Coop.

Thanks for looking, Mark