Forged 52100 Thumb Dagger

This is my version of the OSS thumb dagger.  These little daggers where sewn into shirts, flight jackets, boots, and any other place that was possible. They where a last ditch weapon that was hard to detect but one that could do lots of damage in the right hands.  The first concealed carry weapon.  I make a kydex sheath that can be attached anywhere or hung around your neck. Blade length is 1 3/4 and it is 4 1/8 over all.  They are forged from 52100 bearings and the finish is a quick etch in ferric cloride to take the glare off.

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Ladder Pattern Mokume Gane

This July 18-21 there will be a gathering of the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America (ABANA) in Rapid City South Dakota.  Check out there web site for more details.  It is a very large gathering of craftsmen and women from around the world,  There will be demonstrators from Norway, Canada, Mexico, and Italy along with many from the US.  I have been invited to do some knife related demo’s, three to be exact.  Making Mokume Gane is going to be one of them that I will cover from start to finish.  I will show how to lay up the billett, how to hold everything together, heating and temp control, forging once welded and finally patterning to get all those great colors to come out.  This is a sample piece that I just finished in a ladder pattern.  Mokume is a just like the traditional damascus but it is done with non-ferrous metals.  I will be using copper, brass, and nickel silver.  Also at the demo I will have all the suppliers for the materials that I will be using.  If you have any questions or comments please share them with me.  Thanks

This is the Take-Down fixed blade with the scales and bolster reassembled after etching. The space behind the handle and bolsters where blocked from the etch by using fingernail polish.

This is a shot of the damascus pattern along the edge of the handle, very affective in contrast to the bolsters and handle material.  If you have any questions about constructions please feel free to ask or comment.

This is a take-down knife that I am making for a customer.   The blade is damascus that hasn’t been etched or heat treated yet.  I will post pictures when done.

The bolsters are 416 stainless and will be engraved. They are attached with two 0-80 screws and held in alinement with four 1/16 pins.  The handle is interiour mammoth ivory and will be scrimshawed.  They are attached with two 4-40 button head screws.  Using this method the knife can be completed then taken apart and etched so the damascus pattern shows all the way around.  The pieces can also be sent to various artists to be scrimed or engraved.  I will be posting more photo’s later.

Lightning Strike Bowie

Quite a few hours have gone into the finish sanding, etching, and assembly to get from the final picture in the last post to the finished knife.  This knife will be going to San Antonio for the ABS all forged blade Expo.  I hope to see many of you there.  This Bowie is for sale so if you are interested please let me know.  Any comments are welcome.

 A little about the Bowie

Blade: 7″ mosaic buffalo center with firestorm wrap.  13″ overall length

Guard, Butt cap, and ferrals: Firestorm with filework

Spacers: Gold anodized titanium

Handle: Walrus Ivory

1 1/2" square buffalo mosaicThe tube was welded in the forge with great care not to distort the image inside. The square in this photo is aproximatly 1 1/2" square down from the 4" original size. Tiles where cut and incased in a frame work that was arc welded all the way around so no oxygen could get in. The piece was them dry welded but only hit from the ends to weld the tiles to each other. The incasing frame was then cut away from the tiles. A successful weld and the frame is cut away from the tiles.Center core and wrap pieces

The tiles where ground to the shape that I wanted the bowie to be.  I then forged a w’s twist to 3/8″ that will become the wrap around the buffalo.  The top will represent lightning and the bottom prairie grass.

Ready to weldThe wrap pieces where formed around the shape of the buffalo tiles and everything was surface ground and incased in another frame.Installing cover