What would cause this?

[NickWheeler]

I don't know but the knives are looking great!

The one in question would look really nice with a concave fileworked step around the pommel IMHO

 

[Mungo Park]

Just another guess at this, sis the blade get wrapped in some sort of foil to protect it durring HT. It looks like some foil mark, or HT surface effect, some call much the same thing orange peel. I have had a 01 blade get something like that which needed some deeper sanding than 400.
Cheers Ron.

 

[unky_gumbi]

I don't know if they get wrapped or not, all my knives get HT'd by Rob at Knifemaker.ca and I trust he does whats best. Everything I have sent his way has come back great so I would suspect the steel or myself over the HT first. I am grinding the second one at 220g and the problem is still there and fairly deep, but it does hide well after a certain point with a nice satin finish.

 

[unky_gumbi]

I don't know but the knives are looking great!

The one in question would look really nice with a concave fileworked step around the pommel IMHO

Do you mean sort of a scolloping around the edge of the pommel? I have thought about doing that, but unless I can get the spacing perfect I think I would ruin it. I still may try it though, it may be a couple of weeks before I get around to gluing it up so I have time to think about it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Unky

To space the file work evenly try this:
Take a sharpie marker and draw a line across the pommel cap. Now draw a bisecting line, making a cross. Next, bisect the four quadrants. This will give you an eight fold symmetry.
File a small notch at each line with a square file, and then use a round file to open it up. Go to a half round and make the scallops connect.

For a six fold symmetry with a little extra file work, try this:
Mark the diameter of the pommel with a compass. Walk it around the circumference , making six marks. It should end up where it started, but adjust the marks if needed. Make a mark between the six axis marks. Make a small notch on each of the twelve spots.
Now, every other notch gets filed with a tri-square making a "V", and the alternating six get filed as scallops. This will give you six scallops spaced by six small valleys. Carry the scallops up onto the pommel top a bit, with the valleys filling the space between.