Finished! (more or less!)
Well, a few more days have passed, and I've spent a good number of hours fleshing out this knife. I spent a few hours cleaning up the handle installation (it was a bit unsymmetrical) and guard, more time polishing the blade (just to 400 grit, but removed enough metal to loose most of the forge and file marks).... Put the guard and butt in the oven at 500 till they blued, and then oiled'em for a pleasing darkened look. This "bluing" won't last, but it'll show wear quickly, helping aleviate the "new" look a bit.... By the time it's gone, so will the "new" be...
Knife itself finished, I turned to the sheath. I had a piece of relatively clean grained and reasonably sound ironwood left, light wood from near the burl that made the handle.... About 6"x4"x1.5".... Glued that to a piece of 2x6 so I could rip it cleanly on my tablesaw, to make a nice clean glue joint.... Cut the blanks for the scabbard on the bandsaw, and carefully hobbed them out with a drum sander on the dremel. If you go carefully doing this, I've had great success making tight friction fit scabbards from about any type of wood. A SLIGHTLY loose fit can be tightened with a drop of crazy glue to provide a thou of extra sheath if needed. I joined the halves with carpenter's glue. This has proven reasonably waterresistant for my purposes in this use. Wooden sheaths aren't for bushwhacking...
Desert ironwood burnt and powdered by a dremel drum sander, by the way, smells like a cross between fresh horse dung and burnt peas.
The boogers are finally clearing.
The sheath blank complete, I chucked a drum sander into the drill press. More horse dung and burnt peas until the shape was pleasing to me. Meant to have the sheath match the guard, but I messed up and it's a touch narrower. Good'enuf.
More sanding, all the way to 1500g.
Now that I have a sheath, time to put 8.5" of razor edge on the blade. The thin grind made this take mere minutes. Just used the jap waterstone and the strop, and both edges shave reasonably. I placed a relatively obtuse edge on the blade, since it's a dagger, not a utility knife. Still..... It's somewhat scary, and the point is the finest I own.
To finish things up, I cut, sewed, riveted and died a leather frog to tie the whole works together. A drill-press turned dowel and a rivet make the clasp button. I think it looks pretty sharp!
The finished dagger in sheath and frog:
Front:
Back:
Sheathed dagger out of leather frog:
Unsheathed dagger:
Back:
This was the first knife I've made with any metal furniture. Fitting a guard is challenging (this one is sloppier than I wish). Making the handle symetrical is challenging. Making the seams tight is well neigh impossible. I've gained a new respect for the more professional makers here.... My hat's off to you guys.
BTW, when the blade and furniture were forged, I had the help of an old friend of mine. He's not a terribly handy type, but he does a fine job of turning the blower and documenting the smithing work in photos. If any would like, I'll post a "how it was made" photo post once I get those photos back.... Lemme know.
J
