My first attempt at twisted w's

[D.Ellis]

Finally finished this one today. Fairly low layer count, but my  first attempt at twisted w's.
All done with hand held hammers.
Blade is 5 5/8" from tip to bolster. Overall length is 9 7/8 inch.
Bolster is nickel silver........handle is stabilized birch burl.
Comments and critique welcome as always.
Darcy      

   

 

[tomsm44]

That's a sexy knife.  Can't find anything I don't like about it.  I love the engraving and antique finish on the bolster.  I've never done any Damascus but it looks great to me.  The pattern is attractive and it looks pretty consistent from one side to the other and over the full length of the blade.  Not bad for one of them old timey Armstrong power hammers.  1084 & 15N20?

Matt

[kbaknife]

That's spectacular.
All by hand - from the beginning?

[Lin Rhea]

Very nice knife Darcy. I like your style if you don't mind my saying.    

[D.Ellis]

Originally posted by kbaknife:
That's spectacular.
All by hand - from the beginning?

Thanks Karl. Yup, from the beginning, well, I didn't smelt it myself    :D   But yes, I started with 1084 and 15n20 barstock and cut,stacked, tacked and welded it all up. I forged an initial stack of 10 layers, doubled it to 20 and then squared it up, squished it corner to corner, then flattened it that direction........and folded it 3 times, for 8 layers of w's. 5 welds total.
I was going to do a couple more folds, but goofed one fold and ended up losing about 1/3 of the billet after I cut off the flaw. I was afraid I'd loose too much volume if I did a couple more folds, so I decided to finish it as it was.......forged it into a round bar, twisted it and forged it flat. I forged the preform to profile without shaping the bevels much, forged the tang, and ground the bevels in to cut thru as many layers as I could. Turned out OK I think........

Matt, twist patterns are nice for getting both sides to match up........even hard for me to goof up   :D  

Thanks Lin, very much appreciated.
Darcy    

[just_a_hunter]

What a beautiful piece...

Todd

[gudspelr]

That right there is just awesome. I really like the blade shape as well as the rest of the design. Can I ask for how you made the NS bolster look all antiqued like that?  Flows very well with the forge finished flats, and makes for a nice transition to the handle. And the fact you hammered that bugger out by hand means you're likely beat most at arm wrestling    .

Jeremy

[Doug Campbell]

Another winner Darcey, I love the stuff your doing, your attention to those little details, very nice buddy.

[Danny Rowan]

Very Nice Darcy, I gotta get you to make me one like that or you could sell me that one.  

[KSCATTRAPR]

I like everything about that one, great knife sir.

[D.Ellis]

Originally posted by gudspelr:
That right there is just awesome. I really like the blade shape as well as the rest of the design. Can I ask for how you made the NS bolster look all antiqued like that?  Flows very well with the forge finished flats, and makes for a nice transition to the handle. And the fact you hammered that bugger out by hand means you're likely beat most at arm wrestling       .

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy.
Pretty simple to do, just used a dremel with a carbide burr and   very carefully roughed up and carved out the areas I wanted textured. Then polished, darkened with cold blue and polished again to leave some of the dark behind. If I wanted a more crisp and sharp border around the texture, I'd cut it with an engraving chisel first, but wasn't looking for that on this one.

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments.

Darcy    

[Antlerhog]

Absolutely a beautiful piece of work. You should be proud of your work.

Jay

[4est trekker]

That's fantastic in all respects!  Way to go!    

[gudspelr]

Thanks for the info on how you do that.

Jeremy

[2Tim215]

Lovely! Came out stunning.

[FerretWYO]

Very cool Always enjoy your work.

[Fallguy]

Darcy that is one beautiful knife. If I had that talent I would stick with the hand hammers. It just ands a little more WOW factor.  

[D.Ellis]

Originally posted by Fallguy:
Darcy that is one beautiful knife. If I had that talent I would stick with the hand hammers. It just ands a little more WOW factor.      

I don't know about "wow", but it adds a fair bit more "OW!"   :D

Got the sheath done today.
 




Thanks again fellas. Means a lot.
Darcy  

[Izzy]

Only critique from me is that it ain't mine. Your a master of your craft.

[Bladepeek]

Now that's a really interesting twist (or fold, rather) on the opening lips of that sheath. Nice touch I haven't seen before. Nice, clean texture on the sheath too.

A really beautiful package that fits together well. Somebody is going to be very proud to own that knife!