Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Hi all- just had a great day's visit from my friend- a smith of no small skill, Richard. One blade he had hardened and made was brought to me to handle, as he likes making the steel bits a LOT, and as you can see- he's darned good, too! This is a one-of a kind piece, as are all of his made to date. If you look at my original post (hello from the high desert) the knife with the light wood handle on the first page is his blade as well~

This blade is going to be right at 6 1/4" long, 1 5/8" at the widest, and almost exactly 1/8" thick. It is made of L-6 and mild steel for the pattern-welded part, and leaf spring for the edge. The pattern-welded portion is made from 2 bars of random-pattern, and then the edge is applied. In the first picture, you can the the whole beasty, and the other 2 show the patterns in the steel fairly well. It is medium-hard, as it was intended to be a camp knife, and the grind lines were not fully polished out, as well well as the etch being done lightly as neither will survive actual work very well. Not to mention, the extra time would add a rather large amount to the overall cost!

In the next couple of days, this will have a handle made in a sort of Scandinavian/Viking style, with masur birch and birch bark, as well as brass or copper depending on what I have on-hand~ maybe even both. The handles I make tend to be pretty simple in cross-section, but I do like contrasting materials!

When completed, with a matching Viking-style sheath, it will run about $275.

Please do let me know if you are interested, as I'll post it all here first, then to FaceBook, and finally to ETSY (my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/HammerandHand - but it's currently empty~)

I am also willing to take payments within or over a month or 2 if necessary. Watch this thread for the handle pics!

Beautiful work. I know someone on here that may be interested if the money is right, but I'll let that one reveal himself on his own.

As it should be. Heck- tried to do a trade for the blade, but Richard needs some scratch... Our usual deal is I do the temper and grinding, he forges. As you can see- he's perfectly capable of the grinding, hardening and tempering, but he much prefers the hammereing...

Watching

All right- so, I've been able to get into the shop for some time with the blade... and here is the handle, mostly done. It will have a "keel" of sorts (small~) on the pommel, for pull cord or lanyard, should you want it.

Overall it's 11 1/8" (before the keel- which will add about 3/8"), @5" handle, and the blade is right at 1 5/8" wide. The handle is a slightly tapered oval- thinner at the finger than at the hand, but by only a tiny amount.

The materials are brass, copper, masur birch, leather and birch bark, then the reversed order- mind you, the pictures don't do the birch justice. it is amazing stuff, with fire you would not believe in the sunlight! The blade will be cleaned up a bit, as I marked it a couple of times while handling it, and will get re-etched as well- hopefully, it'll bring a bit more color to the finished piece- but I hope not too much, as this is a working knife, not a wall hanger. My smith made it with a fairly soft temper, as it was intended for a camp knife, so chopping and the like. With an edge of 5160 leaf spring, it'll take a fine edge, in any case.

So, here are the pictures- a full view, and then a closer one of each side of the handle. I may get the sheath worked on today as well- a simple viking-style one is the plan, with mayhap a bit of metal on the outside at the suspension points and tip. Might not, as the metal work part is in the shop of freezing finger-y doom...

So- she's done, except for the polish of the edge- which waits until AFTER I make the sheath.

The handle has 5 coats of tung oil based finish, and is still taking it, so more to go there, until it stops absorbing it, and the whole handle has a slight sheen to it. I imagine the bark center will take a while to get to that point!

The pommel has a sort of "keel" to cover the tang, which is peened over- under an arch in the keel. this keel is held on by 2 pins, which are hidden by being the same material as the keel and pommel- brass. These 1/16" pins are at about a 40 degree angle, so a pull straight out won't loosen the keel. The arched hole is also where you will put a lanyard or pull, to ease it out of the sheath. In the picture- you can just see the peened over knife tang under the arch.

The blade has been cleaned up a bit, as I had scratched it while making the handle- and the smith didn't have any finer grits to do the finish work, either. So- while it still shows some light grind lines, the deeper ones have been removed. Finally- the blade has had a nitric acid etch, to bring out the darker color. The etch is still not too deep, as it is a working knife, and the perfect etch won't last, anyhow. You can see how much harder the edge is- the harder the metal, the quicker the etch. Despite the steel in both the pattern-welded bars and the edge being the same, because of the mass of the other iron, the pattern-welded steel is somewhat softer, so it is less dark.

That is very pretty! I'm hoping to get into some pattern-welding this year as I finish up several overdue orders. Nice attention to detail.

Thanks! It's the little things that really make a difference in a knife- or really any hand-crafted item.

I'm working on a forge that will get to welding heat, myself- and a new one for the fella that forged this blade, too. His current one is nothing but a giant heat-mass of concrete...