Dee

who are you again? 2,439 posts, but i just cant place the name. blade looks spiffy

i have used nitric acid, sulphuric acid and sparex for a pickle and managed to get the same results in all .. with no flux on the piece .. heat your silver to an annealing heat .. hold it at this temp for a few seconds and then let sit for a few seconds .. then quench int your acid pickle. again - i, personally, have found that anything has worked. when doing these preparation steps you need to make sure that you dont get it too hot .. as you will force the underlying metal top the surface if you do .. scrub it clean ... i normally just use a hard toothbrush .. and then repeat it over and over again .. i usually do it about 5 to 10 times .. you want it so that the oxides stop forming readily on the outside layer .. when you see that, then it should be mostly a fine silver layer outside. then .. all you do is heat up the whole piece .. get it evenly heated to just a little past the annealing temp and then use your torch to focus in on points of the silver to make it reticulate .. it will happen fast ... so you have to be careful that you dont burn a hole through the piece. but thats about it really. you can also place things underneath the silver to create an uneven surface so that you get more character to the piece if you want. some people find that using two torches is of benefit .. as you can use one to keep the piece warm .. and the other to focus and reticulate the areas .. i just use a jewellers torch.. umm ... oh and clean up with pumice powder and a toothbrush works well .. make sure that you really scrub hard, cause you will find firescale all over the place. hope this helps. this is just how i found works for me.

wonderful...i love it!

there should be some form of uniform .. like overalls that can have check marks on all the locations .. once you've set them on fire, you add a check mark. "ooer! .. i just need to set my left thigh alight and im all complete!" stay safe peoples.

silver can be very annoying to cast .. especially with vacuum casting. id say that it might be porosity thats your enemy here. centrifugal might be the way to go, considering its a small piece. or else you can look at using a degassing flux .. or adding zinc to the silver alloy .. which will help in vacuum castings. just my thoughts.

fantastic work! love the vibrancy of the piece. try 40 hours on a plane sometime

thats funny .. thats exactly what i was going to say nice job on the blade. very fetching.

what metal is it that you are trying to cast the pieces out of?

nifty little blade i really like the design.

taken from online somewhere: "AUSTRALIAN EBONY (Diospyros ferrea & varieties) It is found in Northern Australia. Rare. True ebony, some jet black black, sometimes with pale or cream streaks, very fine grain. Hard (like mesquite), splits easy and needs care in handling like any ebony. Finishes beautifully with oils or surface finishes. Too fine to accept polymer filling or other stabilizing agents." its hard stuff .. i tried a bit of my stabilizing compounds on it and it indeed didnt do a thing. the trick is that its not all black .. so you have to kind of carve around the white bits. but once you get to the black, it seems to stay black .. thank goodness .. cause it was nerve wracking to carve. it also chips really easily if you get too thin. hope this helps.

umm ... owies. gets better soon. *wealllllly gentle hugs*

its always a hard one to juggle with. being true to what you are pursuing set against the dire need to eat. ive found that instant ramen is a good way to try to tip the scales a little. i know makers who have ended up being production makers .. and hated every last minute of the day because of it. and i have known others who have taken that route and been ecstatic at being able to afford new supplies without having to juggle finances. i think its all comes down to what you would be happy doing and what you want to produce. i could never be a total production maker .. i like the thrill of the challenge when i make my blades .. each are unique and therefore poses new issues i need to meet along the way. doing the same thing over and over again would be hell in the workshop for ME. but then again - instant ramen. try it all .. see what you like. you might find that making several of the same is a good way to learn and a good way to sell. or you might find that can have a mini-production line of 3 or 4 going at the same time as something unique ontop. it all comes back to what you want to produce and why you want to produce it. thats what me thinks at least. .....whoop .. ramens done. ttyl.

a great start to an addictive past time. well done.

thanks everyone! glad you liked it. ill post up a better pic once the photographer gets a hold of it and does their magic. Kevin~ the handle of the scythe is fabricated. so, the head of the scythe (guard) was cast and then an ingot of silver was forged to the shape and dimensions i wanted .. i then reticulated the silver to give it the wood type look .. and then i soldered on the other silver and gold accents before using liver of sulphur to antique the lot .. and then went through and selectively took off the highlights with fine abrasives and a burnisher. now .. in case you dont know what reticulation is .. its where you prep the silver so that you end up with fine silver on the outside of the piece you are working on (through heating and pickling in acid) and then you slowly and carefully heat up the piece so that the sterling thats inside the piece melts, but the fine silver (having a higher melting temp) on the outside does not melt ... so you get this kind of crinkling effect. so it right and you can make shapes and patterns in the piece .. i tried my best for a wood effect. hope that explains it. thanks again guys.

it depends on what im sending. but personally if its a normal sized knife, then all i do is wrap the blade in bubble wrap .. making sure that the end that covers the tip is bunched up and the wrap is taped thick on that end .. and then i tape the bubble wrap monstrosity to the bottom of the shipping box i am sending it in. that way, the side to side knocks and bumps that happen wont cause the knife to move side to side .. add some packing peanuts and viola .. the only way its coming through is the whole package being destroyed. if its too much of a worry, then i go with making a bed of close cell foam for the blade to sit into. the trick is to make the knife immobile and having a shell that wont just collapse. imho that is.

Greetings and hello once more. well .. here is my last contribution for a little while. slightly delayed because i oops on a scratch .. but, done in time for Halloween. "Reaper" The blade was forged from 1080 steel and polished to bring out the hamon .. The fittings are sterling silver accented with 10k gold. The eyes are two gorgeous blue spinels ive been holding onto for a whie. The handle material is Australian ebony. The sheath is leather, with snake skin inlay. The accents were fabricated from sterling silver. The blade stay is magnetized so that the chain wraps around and clicks in place against the opposite piece The reverse side shows my first leather carving of an upside down ankh as well as the silver plaque on the belt loop. it says: "There is a Reaper, whose name is Death.." a quote from the poem 'The Reaper and the Flowers' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow oh and its all hand stitched too. all my work from start to finish. lots of first in this one .. hope you like it .. its one massive blade .. in fact, i think its the biggest blade ive made without going to the sword scale of things. comments more than welcome. thanks very much for taking a look.

Thanks for the lovely comments guys. yes, i made the sheath .. twas my first snake skin inlay project. much fun. here is a close up of the guard/nugget area as i have been asked a couple times for a closer shot. thanks again everyone. really glad you like it.

and yet another blade for today. can anyone stop her! ahem .. anyhow .. this is a simple fighter, forged from w2 .. the wood is corrugata burl .. which i have to say i really loved working with .. and the fittings are bronze. thanks again, D.

Ullllo .. ok .. here is a completed blade from a little while back .. i had posted it up in the design thread .. and its gone through some changes since then .. original thread can be seen here, if you want to see what it looked like before. and now, the end result is: the blade has a core of 1080 and is go-mai (that is, it has 5 layers in the sandwich instead of the usual 3 ) all the fittings are made from bronze and the wood used for the handle is a piece of flame jarrah. thoughts are welcomed. thanks for looking.

im with Dave .. it was the whole explosive part that got me thinking .. and yet i still emailed you and asked you questions about how to set one up .. but when you talked about coating everything in your workshop with rust .. err ... thats where it tipped the balance for me. blow me up and incinerate my body by all means, but dont hurt my widdle tools!! enjoy the mead, its good for the nerves.

Hi there everyone, well, ive got some blades finished up and will be posting them over the course of the days as i have time to photograph them. i posted this one up on my facebook and im told its managed to end up all over the place .. so im going to take that are the customer liking what i managed to produce. but, for those who have not seen .. here tis: 1080 forged blade, 10k gold blade collar, natural 24k gold nuggets for spacer and pommel accent, Red Mallee burl for handle, and antique wrought iron for the fittings. thanks for looking... comments as welcome as ever.

looks like someones a-practicing looks really nice, looking forward to seeing the final, clearer pic.

amazing Buddha, and an awesome picture thanks for sharing

very nice. i think the wood matches wonderfully. but im confused ... exactly what kind of sgian is this?

♪ i think im turning kinda scottish, i think im turning kinda scottish, i really think so .. ♫ looking good