Just one more for la bala

[Walker570]

Had a chunk .... I mean chunk of spring steel from an old truck spring, so old probably an early open cast mining Tonka Toy. Anyway by means of material reduction I finish with a smallbut hefty knife with a 3 inch blade and just 3 inches of handle which is best held with the second and third fingers and then the index finger runs along the spine to control the cutting. As can be seen the portion of the metal in the handle is serious thick but still only about a third of the original. I found a small piece of brass to make the bolster, Dyamond Wood handle  and some fancy pins. There was a pin hole on the underside of the handle which became exposed nut along with the securing pin hole for the bolster I filled with a mixyture of J B and brass filings. Damscus patter etched on again with salt water and car battery charger. Amazingly it is a very usable little knife and I am at present making a sheath for it so I can use it more often in the field.

I did harden about half of the blade, the cutting edge, but left the spine fairly soft. It is razor sharp.  Do not know what the steel was obviously but some good stuff.

The flowers in the pins are made using copper and silver wire.

Finally to give the index finger a bit of purchase I did a little file work along the spine.

[Mice!]

Looks another nice blade Walker, again its the etchings and finish that sets it off for me.

[johnphilip]

Lovely work.

[bigman]

Leaf springs normally 5160 I think? 

Nice little knife buddy 

[Ooops]

That is absolutely terrific. I wish I had your skills

[la bala]

Cracking little blade bud.

[Fatcatsplat]

Quote

 

Exceptionally nice and very useable. With the pins, do you run epoxy through them to keep them all together?

[Walker570]

Those pins are in fact 'off the shelf'. I purchased them in the USA.  I do make some myself. It is a fiddly old game. Take a suitably sized brass tube and insert this as a pin through the handle and glue/epoxy in place  and let set fully.  Then I cut a series of short sections of wire to fit the pattern I wish to see on the pin ends. On that one you can see the builder has used five fairly heavy copper wires for the flower petals and a finer silver wire for the centre. Now mix up sufficient J&B Epoxy to fill all the pins. Make sure your pieces of wire are absolutely straight. Fill the tubes with the epoxy and then insert the wires to form the pattern and make sure the same pattern is on both sides, that is why I say make sure the wires are spot on straight. ...great fun but needs endless patience.  Have the knife blade wrapped in tape and held in a vice to do this as it does help. Then just let the epoxy set fully ...overnight and the following day, sand the protruding bits back carefully to level up with the handle and polish.   The factory made pins are made in long sections so I assume they pressure fill the epoxy. There are some amazing effects.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Walker570