Second forged knife 1st stone handle.....plus process pics.

[AndradeArtWorks]

Greetings All,
Well this one was way more work than I had anticipated. Tons of fun, a bit of frustration, and lots learned about how I would do it next time.
As for the stone handle......well, I did not have any nice wood, and I did have plenty of stone...so that is how that decision was made.
I wanted to try an enclosed tang knife, then it turned to a full through-tang due to the stone handle.
Here are the images of my process, that at many times felt really raggamuffin with the limited tooling I have. Mostly all hand work..........and then there are the visitors to the studio, with unsolicited advise like, "that would be easier with a mill, or a lathe" and others like that. I just say, "yeah, easier, but not as much fun!".
Doing this work from scratch and by hand is challenging, but also rewarding. There is still lots for me to learn, and techniques to refine; which is what makes this all so much fun.

This one is 11&1/8" OAL, and the blade is, to the front edge of the integral-bolster 5&3/8" forged 5160 3/4" round bar. The handle is an extruded serpentine lava called peridotite, and the fixtures are laminated forging-bronze and coin silver.
Here we go with some images of the process, I hope you enjoy them.

Don Carlos


I forged some bolster out of special forging-bronze that did not work out that well, but it was great trying this, and I think that for other types of guards/bolsters it will be fun to work on more of this. Below is the 'jig' I made to forge the first bolsters over.



The forged bolster got too thin at the edges, and were not feeling like they would work out, so I laminated a silver eagle to some of the bronze and proceeded from there.



Below are the bolsters just about ready to fit with the handle and all. You can see the tang at the top of the image ready for silver-soldering.



And the finished knife. I was thinking of texturing the bolsters, but decided to polish them. I think once the knife gets some use, the fixtures and blade will patina very nicely.

[ragnik]

Wow that is just really nice. Great work

Ross

[hammerdownnow]

Love it!.... and the progression pics are great. Thank you.

[C.M. Arrington]

Nice work, good looking pics.

[Bob Ouellette]

Thats sweet. I like that stone handle. Nice work!

[Ron Hicks]

Nice Knife
Whats the Rock you made the Handle from?
I did not see any pics. of you working the handle how did you do it? Grind out?
Great Job
Ron

That came out really nice Don. Great job! Keep 'em coming!

[Blaine Whitney]

Great knife. Your stone work is beautiful. I crack enough blades....I wouldn't even attempt stone

[toddhill]

Stunning work, Don. Thanks for showing it. Glad you're a knife maker now. You're a good one! Todd

[Alan L]

Wow!

That's about the coolest thing I've seen in a while. I like progress pics, and the blade shape is very nice.

[Adlai Stein]

That is absolutely gorgeous. Knocked my sox clean off.

[B.Finnigan]

Very cool knife! I have seen jade used as a handle but I have not ever seen any other type of rock used. What did you use to grind the stone? The last time I monkeyed with stone was some novaculite. I was making some sharpening stones from a large slab and I cracked more then I got.

[Ice Tigre]

Wow.... Great!
almost looks like snowflake obsidian...... now that I think about it, being volcanic it could be close actualy.

I've got a piece planned with tiger eye handle pieces, when I get the diamond band saw set up.....


B.Finnigan; you need to look at jay fishers' work.....
http://www.jayfisher.com/ http://www.jayfisher.com/gemstone_knife_handles.htm

Gary

[AndradeArtWorks]

Thanks for all the great comments and encouragement.
Peridotite is a stone that I have carved a few sculptures out of, and seemed about the most appropriate stone I had for a knife handle. Sorry about no process pics, the handle actually came togeter really quickly after the drilling. The handle was ground using diamond grinding equipment that I use for sculpture, nothing too complex as this stone has a hardness much like granite, and is way easier to work than jade.
Later, after I got the knife almost ready to assemble, I knocked a very thin piece of the stone I cut off the handle, and it fell to the ground, bounced off the cement, and landed again without breaking.......so I figured I this was the right piece for the job.
Thanks for the link to Jay fisher. His work is truly amazing, and the variety of stones he is using is sort of overwhealming to me.
I imagine there will be more stone handles in my future, but for now I would like to get my handls on some nice rosewoodwood, perhaps some from Brazil, if I am lucky.

Don Carlos