Here is a knife I did after a little inspiration from a member on another forum. He retained the lovely and impossible to duplicate pitted patina on an old piece of steel and made a very nice little knife out of it. This called for a freestyle grinding session... I happened to also have a very old and nasty looking piece of steel laying around that I had spark tested, and applied a HT to for some tools around the shop and found it to hold a very nice edge.
I added to that a piece of found spalted maple, and some very old copper pipe also sourced from the same defunct facility as the steel. Unfortunately due to shaping and heat application, it was impossible to retain the old patina on the copper so I had to go back and chemically antique it, but all in all I think it turned out quite nice. I also bookmatched the scales and treated them simply and traditionally with finishing wax as the final finish. I kept the grind a rather shallow convex to retain as much of the patina as possible, and the steel was a little shy of 1/8" to begin with so it gives a nice workable edge...
Thanks for looking, this is a little out of my normal thing, so...
Edit: Images removed. See my website if you wish to view this knife.
Very nice work.
God has given me all that I have, how can I not give him all that I have.
Pitt
Pit and Hammer Forgeworks
Walker La
Love the wood on that handle. I have some spalted wood as well and if it turns out as nice as yours I will be really happy. The copper looks like it runs the entire length of the handle and is that copper rivet/button through the blade? Definitely gives it a unique look.
Thank you... I discovered in my prior life of minor league carpentry that the key to spalted woods if they aren't stabilized (this one is not) is locking it down with hardener or shellac. The spalt loves to smear. But, it can be cleaned up with a simple pencil eraser. I just applied finishing wax here to stick with tradition, and it turned out better than I expected. The cell phone pics don't do it justice and the new owner is very very happy. I was pleasantly surprised although I played it off as nothing but skill <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
The copper does run the entire length, and was hard to get good and flat due to its age and wear but finally cooperated. There are hidden pins and I used black construction paper (a trick Burt Foster showed me for light on dark on light effect) between the wood and copper. The front pins are fat copper nails with large heads. I drilled a 5/32" hole, cut and split the nails very short, then heated and hammered them together. Thus expansion peening of sorts the pin. I was unsure of the look, but my wife liked it so I tried it.
I was nervous as heck though as it was freestyle and I had just layed stuff out and was just certain I would pooch (as in 'screw the') the whole project if the holes were off just a smidge or the copper didnt want to expand properly. I preheated the stubs with a mapp torch to get it to cooperate. I then went back and removed the oxidation color from the copper (although it did look cool) prior to adding the patina. (Birchwood casey super blue adds a beautiful black and will stave off the green). Or, if you like green... pee on it. Seriously. I did a copper candle holder for someone and always get a kick because they wanted the green old nasty look and only I know it was because of the special treatment. (I cleaned it afterward of course... ) Read about Andy Warhol copper plates to discover that tidbit...
Thanks for the compliments. Please feel free to tell me what I should do differently, etc. I like doing primitives but know I need some work.
Thanks for the info on the Spalted wood mine is still wrapped up in wax and I have not tried to do anything with it but I am planning on using some minwax hardner and see how that performs for the scales.
I hadn't picked up on the black construction paper but I did go back and look closely at the photo and that is a good trick.
The Copper work really made that knife unique and I don't think you needed a "peetina" as I am sure the new owner was pretty happy as pictured.
I like the primitive style myself and I find yours well executed.
The only suggestion I can think to offer is you might consider for your next primitive knife using copper would be to review a style called "Steampunk ".
It may or may not interest you but it utilizes a lot of the same concepts you put into this knife and has some interesting design possibilities.
Rgds,
ET
Minwax wood hardener does work well, so does Zessner blonde shellac. It penetrates well and doesn't get sticky. Kind of depends on whether you want a new school or old school finish.
I am familiar with steampunk... I did a knife once with some steel mesh under the window cut scales and such. Very mechanical look. It was copper and pewter looking and very steampunky. The photos, however, are with the rest of my prior work in a dead hard drive... (back up your work.. )
