The Broken Lance knife

[rcmodel]

I made this 4” Drop-point in 1983, the blade was ground & tempered from O1 steel.
Hand checkered thumb rest section on the top spine of the blade.
Sheath is a molded force fit with green suede lining.
Scales are old Westinghouse Ivory Micarta.
Guard & pins are German Silver.
Thong liner is 1/4" stainless tubing.

This was my first, and about only, feeble attempt at Scrimshaw.
Mostly done with an Exacto knife blade or a sewing needle in a collet hand chuck.

Scratchings filled in with water based Acrylic paint, then buffed off with a red rouge charged soft cotton buffing wheel at 1,650 RPM.

It's a wonderment to watch the scrimshaw drawing emerge from underneath a hodgepodge of different color paint splotches!!!

Then you think, Damn it Worked!
And I won't have to hand sand the scales two more days to get rid of those scratches and make it a decent looking knife again!



BTW: Just so you know, Scrimshaw isn’t at all hard to do.
It’s drawing really lifelike animal patterns on the scales with a sharp drafting pencil to scrimshaw that is really almost impossible for me to do!!

I never was that good an artist!



Right side scale is a wounded Buffalo with a broken Indian lance in his lungs.


Left side scale is a Coyote with only the skeleton remains and broken stone tip lance.




rc

 

[JShirley]

How does it feel in the hand?

 

[hso]

You did good work.

I'm interested in the grip pins. They look very round, but they're on the curved portion of the micarta. How'd you keep their shape and how'd you keep the micarta from being eroded as you ground the pins down.

 

[rcmodel]

How does it feel in the hand?

Perfect, in my hand at least.
If it didn't, I would have kept shaping it till it did!

How'd you keep their (pin) shape and how'd you keep the micarta from being eroded as you ground the pins down.

After the guard was pinned and silver-soldered to the blade.
The block scales were epoxied in place on the tang and pinned with epoxy in pre-drilled holes.
Then clamped tightly from bow to stern with wood clamps until the next day or longer for the epoxy to cure.
I use a wrap of wax paper to keep the epoxy from gluing the wood clamps in place.

After the epoxy is cured.
The excess pin lengths were sawed off flush with the scales with a fine tooth razor saw.
The oval shape of the handle was done free-hand on a flat belt sander while dipping the handle in water to keep heat on the pin ends from burning the epoxy out of them.

Final shaping of the butt curves was done with a Foredom flex-shaft and fine sanding drums.
Again watching for excess heat.
You gotta do that anyway, or the Ivory Micarta will scorch and discolor if it or a pin or the guard gets too hot.
Plus, it will burn out the epoxy, and that's not good atall.

If you overheat a pin and burn out the epoxy, you have to drive or drill out the pin, drive & glue in another pin, wait another day for the epoxy to cure, and start over shaping it again.
Don't ask me how I know this!

Follow that up with progressively finer grades of black paper and wet block-sanding the belt sander scratches out.

You have to wet block sand to keep the scale lines straight, flat, and pins flush with the scales.
And you have to hand sand the guard and scale curves freehand with your fingers to keep the curves true.

When you get past #600 wet-sanding with no visible belt sander scratches left on guard, pins, or scales, you can proceed to the buffing wheels.

I start with 240 on a stitched cotten wheel to knock off any hand sanding scratches remaining.
Then proceed to either green (for stainless & german silver) or red (for brass) rouge on a soft cotton wheel at low RPM.
It's fine and non-abrasive enough it won't dish out the pins.

It doesn't take that much to bring up the shine after 600 wet sanding, and the pins will not be dished out if you watch what you are doing petty close.

rc

 

[marksg]

Nice work rc. Did you do the sheath too? If you did, what did you use for liner?

 

[rcmodel]

Yes, I did the sheath too.
I did it all, including grinding the blade and tempering it!

Like I said in the 1st. post, the sheath is a molded force fit with green suede lining.

It is 6-7 oz Vegetable tanned tooling leather, lined with green suede, glued in with Formica Contact Cement, before wet molding it to the knife, and hand sewed with nylon thread.

rc

 

[bainter1212]

I LOVE the scrimshaw work, especially because it isn't machine done looking too perfect like a lot of the junk you see nowadays. I also have a weak spot for fixed blades, so I am going to ask the obvious: how much do yoj want for it?

 

[rcmodel]

Sorry, not for sale.

But if it was?
Gosh, I wouldn't know where to start on a price.

My labor was cheaper in 1983?
Labor rates are higher now?

But old art gains value sometimes doesn't it?
But only from well known artists?

On the other hand, it could bring a fortune from a interior decorator to the stars looking for folk art!
Or on Auction Hunters TV looking for whatever they find, and can get someone to over-estimate the value?

Or it could bring a dolla-2-ninety-eight at a garage sale when my kids clean out the house after I die!

You just never know an items worth till you die do you?

rc

 

[Certaindeaf]

A good Viking gets buried with all his good stuff. Well, at least in the olden times.

 

[rcmodel]

Geeez!
They'd probably have to buy three or four plots to bury me with all my even fairly good stuff!

Not bragging, just fact!
I been hording guns and knives too long I guess!

rc

 

[Gordon]

Evry one of your knives seems to have a unique and innovative feature! Damn right they want to know how your pins are nicely rounded on contour surfaces!

 

[Bull Nutria]

Well RC your craftsman ship is truly outstanding. I doubt I COULD SELL SOMETHING THAT I WORKED SO HARD ON AND ENJOYED MAKING SO MUCH. Hell a bunch of us a drooling all over the key board just admiring your knives, scabbards, and guns etc that you have built and hand crafted.

I REALlY LIKE THE MARINE KNIFE STORY! SIR!!

Hell if you tell your kids that when you pass i would like a chance to own one of those knives(if they want to sell anyof those treasures) just to say i had one made by RCModel!!!

Bull

 

[bikerdoc]

Great work.
Thrilling detailed story of your adventures in Scrimshaw.
I envy your work.

As for taking the guns and knives with me, No, I'm going the Urn route and the ashes will be placed in the safe.

 

[hso]

RC,

Do you have any interest in having people come and learn from you?

 

[rcmodel]

HSO
PM sent

rc

 

[Certaindeaf]

Now it's reminding me of the Harry M. Pope story. A must read for those that haven't.

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2009/08/history-harry-pope.html

Akk, that was the wrong one!

Here it is.. "The Secret of the Old Master" by Lucian Cary.

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2010/08/secret-of-old-master.html

 

[Gordon]

My favorite story!

 

[JimStC]

Daggone rc, your posts are incredible. You sir are a wealth of knowledge and skill. I sincerely appreciate you sharing both. I look forward to your posts.
Thank you.

Jim