Jonathan,

Hi and welcome to the ABS! I'll give this a shot, but I'm going to try to stick to general guidelines and keep in mind this is just one man's opinion <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//rolleyes.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rolleyes:' /> I like where you are going with the blade design, it's interesting and I happen to like recurves, too. I have found that each knife teaches me something new and refines what I previously learned. First and foremost, I would draw or trace the knife on paper and then do the changes in pencil...much easier to correct on paper and you can try several things until it looks like you want. You can also decide where you want to put the guard, handle, etc. Another one of the best things I've learned is to get a good, clean ricasso area and that will help you refine the knife (start at the ricasso). I recommend refining the ricasso---flats are parallel, top and bottom edges are parallel, and width about 2/3 of the height (golden mean...). Now the tang: you probably want to file in a shoulder on the top and bottom (make sure they're in line-use a file guide), and then taper down from there---maybe drop the tang down some so the handle has a drop to it (you could just taper it from the top?). Then a guard and handle! Could you provide the blades dimensions (thickness of different areas, length, width, height) and maybe a few more pics of different angles (edge)? Hope this helps. By the way, whenever you're in a quandary, you can check the "Techniques" link on the home page. There's a ton of useful info there. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//cool.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' />

Welcome to wonderful and addictive world of Bladesmithing! I wish the first piece of Damascus I tried looked that good.......

Anyway, for what it's worth, here is my advice. I would start as Ed suggested, by drawing the finished knife on paper. Take that blade you have and lay it down on a piece of plain white paper and trace the outline. (then make a couple of photocopies, just in case). Now start designing the guard, spacers, and handle shape/style. Write all of the materials you plan to use as well as any dimensions, right on the drawing. While drawing it out the locations of the ricasso, size of the guard, shape of the handle, etc. will change. You will make a lot of erasures, (don't worry we all do that) That's why you have the photocopies! So you can start all over again when you can't tell the smudges from the lines. When you have the drawing done, post a copy here and get some feedback from the smiths about size, shape, materials etc. Good luck, I would like to see your progress on this project.