Gary Mulkey

Thanks, Garry.

First dry fit-up: I've yet to do some final hand sanding & polishing but it's getting close. I think that I'll save that for doing in front of the public tomorrow.

It's ready for a butt cap & pommel nut. I'm thinking that I may go with 416 for the butt cap rather than damascus. This one is pretty "busy" already.

Progressing with the hilt: I tapered the front of the ironwood block first and then checkered the front half ( the front spacer is of the same damascus as the center pattern of the blade): I profiled the ironwood block with the band saw and did a rough contour of the back half of it on the 2x72. The pommel wrap was forged from the same damascus as the handle spacer: I'll do the remainder of the handle shaping on the ironwood by hand tomorrow in my public shop. While the pommel wrap is annealing in the oven, I'll etch the front handle spacer.

Here's the blade & guard ready for the handle: It will get a front handle spacer of one of the blade damascus patterns. I have a nice piece of ironwood burl ordered for the handle which will get some blade steel for a pommel cover to match the handle spacer.

It's starting to look more like a knife: The more I look at this pattern, the more I see a pair of dinosaurs getting ready to attack each other.

I got in a little late night forging after work today:

The most impressive thing that I found in the area was the drive across The Smokey Mountain National Park between there and Cherokee. I did it on two wheels and loved it.

I have learned that there are two secrets to welding up pieces like this. 1--keep all the joints on a 45 degree angle 2--make the pieces fit tightly inside of the cannister.

Ken, You didn't say but it appears that you have some small pieces of Campo meteorite. It so, you will find that it welds fairly easily (at least to steel) but is very hot short. I've not tried it in a cannister or to weld pieces to themselves but the cannister may help with the hot short tendency. If you do this I would recommend that you place only the meteorite pieces in the cannister by themselves and try to weld them into a solid mass. You can then try welding it to some high carbon steel. Just keep in mind that meteorite has no carbon so by itself won't harden. Either use it away from the cutting edge or you must add it to enough hyper eutectoid steel so that through carbon migration it will give you at least .7% C in your final billet for hardening. Good luck. Keep us in the loop.

Welded....Here's my first look at the pattern: It appears that I got 100% welds throughout on this one. I think that I'll take a break before forging it into a blade and do a little more designing. I'm pretty sure that I want a Bowie out of this one but am not sure if I want to do it modern or traditional.

I got the tiles annealed and some cut into triangles as well as getting a canoe cut out & welded. While I'm waiting for the White Out to dry (very important) I'll take a break. I'll try to get this welded either later today or tomorrow. I wasn't satisfied with this canoe and shortened it by 1/4" so that the tiles inside were a tighter fit (no pic). [If they are a close fit inside the canoe it increases the odds of a good weld.]

This afternoon's work: Four of these squares will get cut into triangles and all will be placed into a canoe for welding.

Thanks. I'll be combining it with the second pattern today in a 4-way.

Here's what yesterday's efforts yielded me. Once I weld the two halves together I will probably square this one the bias before adding it to my other design in a 4-way. It's purely by chance and not predetermined but I believe that the pattern has taken on a bit of a Navajo or Southwestern look to it.