Wavy dagger method?

P

Paul Sherman

Joined
Jul 12, 2016
Messages
16
Hello-

I started making display/art type blades to trade folks with a few months ago, I attached some examples.

I've always loved keris type blades, and I've made one wavy dagger.
After I beveled the blade I stuck it in the forge and put in the waves. I found that it was hard to keep the blade straight during that process; it took lots of tweaking to get the edge mostly back in line.

My question is, for really tight keris waves/luk, how would you approach it? Heat and put in waves first, then bevel the blade (tons of file work) or is there a technique for making the waves in the first place that minimizes blade warpage?

Thanks-
Paul





 
I forge in the curves and bevels and clean up up by tilting to one side and using a 2" contact wheel on the grinder for each bevel. Trying to forge anything after bevels have been ground is always more work in my experience. if you are careful with your hammer you could be able to forge everything in to the point where file work shouldnt be all that time consuming, just forge down to final shape as close as possible.
 
Paul, you mention these are "display/art" type blades - I'd tend to think of those as "collector" type blades. What type of steel & HT are you using? Those look good, and the bottom dagger really appeals to me. good work.

Ken H>
 
I forge the curves roughly in the flat or round bar, then forge the basic bevels. I grind the rest in on a 2-3" wheel. In a monosteel, you could just grind it all from a flat bar, but with damascus, you have to forge in the curves.
 
Thanks for all your input.


Ken H>, I've used 1084 but with no heat treat, recently I just switched to 303 stainless. I need to get some oil and get up to speed on HT "real" blades.
 
Paul, as nice looking as your blades are, and since you've got good steel already, you really NEED to be HT'ing to make a "real" knife. Those look too good just to be an art decorator piece. As I said, I REALLY Like that dagger.

BTW, did you build those bikes I see in photobucket? Nice rides.

Ken H>
 
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