Friday, May 30, 2014

A Bunch of Knives

A Bunch of Knives

Good Afternoon Everyone, I had a couple of spare hours so I thought I would catch up and finish off a few knives. For most of them, the backdrop is my lovely, clean, blacksmithing apron.

AR69
Large Tanto, W2 steel with hamon, 17" overall, 10" blade, Canarywood handle with carved titanium guard, brass Raaen Star in the pommel, and copper and brass pins.


 AR70
Simple blade knife. CPM154 stainless steel, 10 3/4" overall, 4 1/4" blade, Cholla filled with black epoxy handle, brass guard with brass Raaen Star in center.  I will probably add a brass pommel, and repost a new picture.


AR71
Kindjal, 1084 high carbon steel, 20" overall, 14" blade, Tineo handle, Brass guard, Brass Loveless bolt, and copper and brass pins.










AR72
Paring Knife, 1095 high carbon steel, 8 1/4" overall 3 5/8" blade, Oak handle with stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR73
Mini-Kindjal, 1084 high carbon steel, 10 1/2" Overall, 5 3/8" Blade, White Linen Micarta Handle, Brass Guard with black spacer , Brass Raaen star pins and powdered turquoise accents


AR74
Small knife, CPM 154 stainless steel, 8 1/4" overall, 3 1/2" blade, Redheart handle with Stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR75
Drop Point Knife, W2 Steel, 10 3/8" Overall, 4 1/4" Blade, Wrought Iron Guard, Teak Handle with Stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR76
Paring Knife, 1095 high carbon steel, 8" overall 3 1/8" blade, Rosewood handle, Stainless steel Loveless bolts.










I also modified a Kershaw Antelope Hunter II that I found broken on the road. I need to clean up the blade before posting that.

And put together my first multi-blade folding knife kit.  I put the blades in all wrong.  Better luck next time. I'll get it up eventually too.

Some of them have been mostly done for some time, just needing their numbers and hallmarks, but it still felt like progress to "finish" them all.

Hopefully I will have a progress update on my Salt Cedar Bow soon, I just got in the fiberglass for backing it, and the epoxy should be in early next week.



Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Recycling


A while back, one of my colleagues gave me the fin off of a 2.75 rocket .  The look something like this:


He works for the Pueblo managing projects that clean up old Department of Defense bombing sites, and other waste and debris – the Native American Lands Environmental Mitigation Program.  The Pueblo of Laguna has a few that were used in world war two with ship targets and big bullseyes and that sort of thing.  Most of the debris is inert (like the fin), but some is explosive and needs special handling.
Anyway, I promised I would make him a letter opener out of it.  After a year or two, and after some thought, and after making some other letter openers, I decided to cut it in two and to make two openers.  Then my Dremel tool burned out.  Eventually I bought a new one and finished the openers.  Nothing too fancy – one is ebony, the other is Bocote. The aluminum is pretty shiny, not quite as drab as 50 years-worth of oxidation makes things, but I’m sure it will calm down after a while.



I’ve also, again finally, started working on a folding knife project.  Some time ago I bought a number of knife kits.  I like the Bighorn, and have made two of them, but decided I should try something else and picked up the “rancher” a little three bladed slip joint folder.  If you are familiar with Case knives, you’ve probably seen something like this.

Once upon a time I intended the kit for an employee of mine, but didn’t get around to it before he left.  Now I am thinking about making it for another one, hopefully it doesn’t take me that long.  One problem that I have, is that I have no idea what the wood is that I’ve chosen for the handle.  It could be desert ironwood, but I’m really not sure.  Whatever it is, it polishes up very nicely and has good shimmer (chatoyance is you prefer).   We’ll see how it turns out.


I wish they would make kits with higher quality blades though – not that I have had problems with mine, but something a little more exotic would be nice.