I got a nice Sambar taper at our knife club Christmas exchange, but it was too short. What do you do with short stag? Make a Scagel, of course. Never tried one, figured I might as well try.
This knife is 1080 carbon steel, mill scale on the flats, 600 grit satin finish on the bevels. In true Scagel style, the guard and butt cap are brass, with fiber, leather, and brass spacers. This knife is held together with a threaded rod and nut under the butt plate, and the butt is pinned on with four pins. This is as close to as flawless of a guard fit as I've ever done. OAL is 10" with a 5 1/4 blade. Critical feedback is welcome.
Profile
Tip looking back
I like big butts and I cannot lie
No gaps!
Take a plunge, even
, those pics are too big...
Nevermind... they're 800x600.
It looks nice-appears very well executed. The guard fit looks very good and the finish on the blade is very nice, IMO. I like that grit finish, personally and I like the blade shape. Fit and finish in general appears to be right up there. The only thing at all that I can see (which may well be the pic) has to do with the leather spacers. It almost looks like there is "tear out" or some stray strands along the edge of the spacer, but it's pretty nit picky.
Thanks for sharing the knife.
Jeremy
Jeremy Lindley, Apprentice Smith
That's a pretty knife. I like Scagel style when it don't have antler tines sticking out.
Oh...I got the song reference <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Very nicely done!! A lot of creativity right there.
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
Very nice, Jason!
I've never been a big fan of the Scagel style, but I like this knife very much.
I wasn't going to reply to this post as I thought others more familiar with the Scagel style would have posted. Since no one has and it is posted in the critiques forum I feel I would be doing you a dis-service not to point out a few issues. As I have only seen about a dozen actual Scagels in person ( thanks to Doctor Luice ) but didn't get the opportunity to finger them, I am attaching a link to a picture of an original Scagel. As I haven't seen every Scagel my comments pertain to the few I have seen as they were represented as being typical. I have seen a lot of knives with stacked leather and stag handles with a kris stamp sold as Scagels but they didn't follow the true Scagel style.
http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=38873
Scagels didn't have a ricasso.
Scagels were convex ground and polished or with scratches running vertical from grinding with a round wheel.
Scagels didn't have butt caps, he used stag crowns & tapers.
Due to the way Scagel forged his blades the top of the hidden tang was in line with the spine of the blade causing his handles to be offset above the spine of the blade.
Now, I really like the knife you built, the fit and finish look spot on, the design and flow are pleasing to the eye and the different textures you incorporated really make it stand out, it just looks like it wants to skin something and look good doing it. Just my two cents worth.
Steve Seib
Great knife. That first picture threw me a little--I thought you'd ground in a finger groove.
Question--how did you attach the butt plate?
Steve
Three Steves in a row <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> Is that like a bingo or something?
Steve number one, thanks.
Steve number two, thanks also. I looked up a bunch of Scagel styled knives before this build and from my limited research, you're spot on. There were very few true Scagels with butt caps, and almost never a ricasso or plunge. The flow always looked off to me because of the tang construction you pointed out. The guards usually weren't flat sided like mine either, but rather flared all the way around. I took all those original factors into consideration, and decided I didn't like some of them. I made this knife in a Scagel-ish style, but tried hard to make it flow right, with the smooth curved top line. I was shooting for more ABS style proportions than true Scagel. There's a decent thread on bladeforums that I started called "Show me some Scagels". Between me and the other posters we ended up with about 20 pictures including some originals and at least one by Dr. Lucie. Not sure if cross-posting to other forums is frowned on, but I can add the link later if it's OK.
Steve number three, pins. I put a threaded rod on the end of the tang of the blade. I relieved the stag under the butt cap and put the knife together with a nut so I could have everything tight and assembled for shaping, before I glued it all together. That way I also didn't have to use a cross pin, as the whole knife was mechanically fastened together. The butt cap has four or five pins in it that go about 3/8 into the stag. The pins and butt plate are glued on, and then I peened the pins so you can't see them.
