Ws Damascus Bowie WIP

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
5,668
Since we're all having fun here this Christmas weekend, I thought I might toss my hat in the ring as well and show some of you what's happening at Andersen Forge.
This past weekend, I had two other knife maker's - one, a collector, by the name of Kevin Evans, from Missouri, who has been making some darn nice knives for over a year and who recently finished his Intro Course in Ol' Washington, and another JS by the name of Brian Thie, who many of you know, and came over from Iowa.
We spent last weekend burning fuel and forging up billets of varying recipes, but all aimed at Ws pattern Damascus.
Yesterday, I forged my billet out and forged the blade you see in this thread.
I will dispense with the sparks and flame, etc. and pick up this thread with the as-forged blade.
The blade you see here was forged in a "dance" with me, my hammers and anvils, my press and my power hammer.
After post-forging steps, the blade was given a sub-critical spherodizing anneal to pool up the carbides to make for easier machining and to make that Damascus "happy".
Some of the scale has popped off in the first photo and shows what lies within that steel! I got excited when I saw that.
wsa-1.jpg


In this photo, I am cleaning off some of that scale and simply beginning to turn that forging into something that looks more like a knife:
wsc-1.jpg


I have learned something in the last 11 years of grinding knives - I have "issues". Now that I am no longer in denial about them, my knives are better! As a frequent marksman and life-long traditional bowhunter with many ribbons to my credit for competition, I have long known that I have a dominant eye, which we all do, as well as a dominant side. It has taken me the last few years to understand how this migrates into my knife grinding - and I DON'T LIKE IT!!
It causes me to constantly grind juuuuuuuuuuuuuust a little bit different from one side of the knife to the other.
So, I CONSTANTLY need to grind a little and check it, grind a little and check it, on and on. This keeps everything in the center.
If I just followed my instincts, my knives would look like bananas!
So, here I am - checking:
wsd-1.jpg


I will toss my blades onto a large magnet to true up the ricassos on my ceramic platen - well, MOSTLY true:
wsf-1.jpg


I repeatedly check dimensions with a micrometer to make sure I stay in the ball park:
wsg-1.jpg
 
Once I have got the scale off and have clean steel all the way around the ricasso, as well as have dimension in an acceptable range, I go to finer grits of belts and switch to holding the blade by hand. I go back and forth, from side to side, constantly checking with the micrometer. I will get to within a few thousandths before I go on.
wsh-1.jpg


This is the blade with the flats fairly well done:
wsi-1.jpg


No I take the blade to a granite lapping plate that has been trued to within .0001" of a inch laterally across the plate. To this I have attached 220 grit paper. I will go through SEVERAL sheets of paper, constantly checking dimensions until that ricasso meets my standards, which is LESS than .001" variable from top to bottom where the guard will sit.
I do NOT back-cut my ricasso face for the guard slot to hide under. Many of my knives are take-down and just simply require this assembly procedure.
wsk-1.jpg


After doing the major grinding, I go to the knife vise and clean things up.
Here I have a piece of Corian with slightly different radii on the corners to clean up the fillet at the ricasso. This gets both the face of the fillet and the blade itself.
wsl-1.jpg


A little bar sanding to remove grind marks, which I will at 220 grit.
wsm-1.jpg


Clean up the choil with a hard rubber block:
wsn-1.jpg


And then clean up the false edge that was established with a belt, and then trued up by draw filing:
wso-1.jpg
 
I go ahead and stamp my name prior to filing my guard shoulders.
As I press in my name, the die raises the steel around the letters. I will sand that down back on the lapping plate and don't want to compromise the guard shoulders by accident - so the name goes first:
wsp-1.jpg


wsq-1.jpg


wsr-1.jpg


Now, square up the guard shoulders the good old fashioned way - with files:
wst-1.jpg
 
Now, here is what I've been waiting for!
I really wanted to see what my efforts have given me, because I just couldn't take it any more!
My billet is the one in the middle and the other two are my friend's billets.
Here's the end of the billet before it was tile-cut and welding into the blade bar:
wsy-1.jpg


And here's what's inside that blade!
I will probably harden it up in the morning and proceed, after I get the next customer knife out which is in the oven on its third temper now.
wsw-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
farl, that's a beautiful blade, and thanks so much for taking the time to post all the pics.
 
Love watching your techniques Karl, especially the use of a micrometer to keep everything even as you go.
 
Another knock-out, Karl........can hardly wait to get the one you have for me! :cool:
 
Here is the handle material I've chosen for the knife. This is what I call "feather walnut".
It was a chunk I cut out of a piece of firewood! I dried it for a year or so and then had it stabilized.
I think it will match up nicely with some hot-blued take-down fittings - watcha think?

wsz-1.jpg
 
+1 on the blued furnishings:D
I like this thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top