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You Made Me Do It !!!!

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
1,240
Some body help me, I cant stop messing with this knife! :mad:

I think you all were right, and i am just obstinate, but here it is. This is going to be the blade that gets the jade. This is the first one I did and I reground it. I like it, hope you all do, cause i ain't gunna change it again or make another one!:)

Hey, give me a break, I am trying to convince myself that this one is the best. :rolleyes:

Anyway, here it is originally:

f1.jpg


Now here it is after re grind. I still need to hand sand, buff, and etch. Check out here to see the jade pieces. Let me know what you think!

f7.jpg
 
I think it looks good either way. Of more interest to me is the difference before and after an etch. Or rather, after an etch, and then after that etch effect is ground away. I didn't realize how dramatic a difference that was on damascus, as I haven't worked with damascus before.
 
Crazy aint it? You cant really see the pattern until you etch. Once you start getting down to the finer grits, you can start to see the pattern a little. The etch attacks the different metals at a different rate, allowing the pattern to show.

The nice thing about not being able to see the pattern before the etch is it allows you to see any slag inclusions or cold shuts that might be in the steel. If you see um, you have a piece of scrap, or a wall hanger. I dont think any smith worth his salt would knowingly sell a flawed blade.

The bad thing is you dont know what you got until all the work is done.
 
That's it. The weight is way down now and still large enough. Don't take a single grind more off her. Use the Jade (where can I get some??). Very nice, by the way.

Roger
 
Roger - I got the jade off of eBay. I swear, I need to invest in that company, then maybe i could recoup some of my money. My original chunk ws about 2.5 x 4 x 5. It is not real expensive. It cost me $80 with shipping from Alaska. The biggest pain was getting it cut. You need a diamond saw to cut it and a diamond coring bit to put the hole in it.

You can search for Nephrite Jade. Mine is Siberian Nephrite which is supposed to be the most forgiving to work with for rookies like me.

There is a granite place that makes counter tops that cut it for me and only charged me $10. But the coring bit was $59. I used silicon carbide belts and they worked good, I probably went through $20 in belts and then the misc wet dry sand paper and spent about 9 hours shaping it.

Hopefully she will look good when finished. I am still debating on using mokume for the gaurds and pommel. I am afraid it will be too busy if i do. Time will tell, I will make them anyway and if they dont jive with the jade, I will use them with some burl to finish out the other blade I made.
 
Loredo,

That's something. Thanks for the advise. I better hold off on Jade until I get better tooled up.

You should see the Cave Bear tooth I just received from Chuck Leake. Man what a chomper that big guy must have been.

I am new to Ebay but have three really good experiences so far - two DC motor drives and a 10 amp LectroEtch.

I agree. I think I would use material for the guard and pommel that compliments the Jade in price but allow the Jade to remain the center point of attention in handle material. Perhaps a little ivory or rare bone for the pommel and area just behind the guard(??).

Thanks for the info; Roger
 
Loredo,

I just looked at the design you have planned in your previuos post. I don't suppose bone would hold up well. I wonder if ivory would be okay for the pommel? I would really wonder about that. Looks like metal to me. quite a nice looking design though.

Roger
 
Great! It should be much lighter like that, and yet you still have the contrast with the flats. Are you going to heat treat it yourself?

I'm not sure mokume is a good idea, even though I really like it usually. You're going to have a very visual blade and handles, so I would something nice and smooth for the fittings - either a nice, mirror polished bronze (not brass), or stainless steel. 14k gold would work too, of course.... :)

Is it a commission, or is it just experimentation at this stage?
 
Looks way cool, cant' wait to see her finished, looks like she will flow in the hand.
 
This is going to be one cool knife. Can't wait to see the finished project but I'm sure enjoying the steps. I feel for your investment, too. :)

Dave
 
Joss- Yup i did the HT myself. Just a simple one, single quench and single draw since she is going to be relagated to the wall hanger world.

This is not a commision, unfortunately. It is going into a display case that I am putting together for a local restaurant. I will have this knife, my latest persian/turkish twist dagger, a small hunter skinner, and maybe a letter opener in it.

It is a nice restaurant that attracts all the predominant local people, so it will give me some good exposure. Plus the owner loves my work and his wife bought him one of my knives for a xmas present. He is well connected in the community, plus owns his own Engineering Firm in Chicago. So I am trying to make my very best show for these knives. It could open a few doors for me.

I think that is most of the reason why I am being so indecisive. :confused:
 
That's one blade that should be real busy I think..:)
Chuck has some interesting stuff up there.
I got some musk ox horn and some brown mammoth leg bone
very interesting stuff...nice blade dude..:)
 
Originally posted by Laredo7mm
Joss- Yup i did the HT myself. Just a simple one, single quench and single draw since she is going to be relagated to the wall hanger world.
Click to expand...

Cable is a simple carbon steel anyway - there's no need to have multiple quenches. That only applies to more complicated alloys, like 5160 and 52100.
 
Awesome! I think thats what everyone was going for in your original post when they said you should raise the lower grind. Its what I had in mind anyway. Real nice, now get it finished ;)
 
Now that is one really really nice looking blade, i wouldnt change anything on it, but to etch it. Had you thought about clay coating it and getting a temperline on it? :eek: I used to go to Franklin, NC a lot, they have all kinds of stones there and most people therewill cut and drill them to your specs, real cheap. I got a star ruby ring in sterling silver for $13 that was for everything including the star ruby that i picked out :eek: There are a lot of Lapidary shops there, they have lots of Jade, ruby, sapphire, garnet, emerald, obsidian, you name it, they even had uncut diamonds. They call them rock shops up there.
 
Beautiful. It has a much more functional look to it now. Definately use the jade on this one. Man, this is going to be one hell of a nice looking knife.
 
Hey all, someone from over on CKD suggested Bronze cable damascus for the gaurd and pummel material.

I have seen that before on their how to section and it looks pretty neet. Do you all think that would be a match for this knife. Or should I stay with mokume?
 
Graymaker, thanks for the post on the cable dam. That great looking stuff is completely new to me, and the price makes it look very inviting, also. You are ahead of us with a lot of the new materials and we appreciate your sharing.
 
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