parsha

beautiful...i thot that was an antler on the handle till i read the post.

no suggestions fellow bladesmiths?

Point accepted Doug. But after looking at the finished blade i felt there was something wrong with its appearence at the handle-blade transition ..cant explain it but feels like something is missing there, something dosent look right . does anybody else feel the same or is it ok just the way it is? any inputs appreciated.

Finally got some time to work on this. Could not get any photos after re-tempering as in my hurry to finish this i immediately started polishing and then realised i had not clicked any photos of the temper colors. but i managed to get a shiny purple on the spine and a light straw on the edge. Handle is made from hardened leather slabs covered by flat cotton cord soaked in epoxy. Double wrapped the cord over itself near the blade-handle transition just because i love my fingers The last two wraps of the cord go through a hole at the end of the tang to stop the cord from slipping over the end of the tang. Final polishing and sharpening is not done yet. I want to take a poll on this. i was thinking of filing a small choil or should i keep it as it is ? something like this

Totally agree with Dave. As you scroll down the page its one beautiful blade followed by another.Excellent work Ito. I particularly loved the damask pattern on the tanto blade you call "M" .I think it is real close to antique wootz

Nice knife Peto.i love the simplistic and rustic looks of your knives.not too much furniture but they still look beautiful and hard users. definitely not to be kept in a showcase

Hmm..i am not sure if i can get hold of a kitchen oven for tempering. I am done with the re-hardening or shall i say hardening today. Will do the tempering tomorrow. Found a nice piece of scrap steel lying around about 2x1x5 inches.seeems to be mild steel. I am planning to put the blade edge down in an aluminium tub with around 5mm width of the edge under water and then heat the scrap steel to orange and hold it on the spine with tongs.i have got it all planned in my head , just hope it works out that way Tempering the tang is relatively easier as i will simply wrap the blade in a wet cloth and slowly heat the tang till it turns dull grey

Thanks for your inputs George and Morgan. I was afraid i had overtempered the tip looking at the colors and wanted a second opinion.Now i have a second opinion and third confirmation I will do the hardening and tempering again This time i will use the method suggested by you Morgan instead of trying to temper directly on coals. Cheers!!

Hello , Been working on a small utility knife made from a old rusty double cut file. I was inspired to make the blade profile similar to a small broken back seax by looking at all the beautiful work here. The tip of the knife is forged to shape and then finished with files rest of the blade is stock removal.The pictures were taken after two quenching cycles in water followed by tempering on coals. Dimensions- blade 4.5 inches Handle(full tang) 4 inches thickness 6 mm at the spine thinking of doing a simple cordwrap over leather scale handle

Beautiful and rustic knife Peto. when i first looked at it i thought it was an integral bolster.nice carving on the antler.the butt cap also looks very unique ...to sum it up nice job

Exceptionally Beautiful piece of work Gerhard!!

Whoa!! beautiful .plain and simple yet elegant. does the steel fold equally on both sides of the handle? or only on one side?

Sam, Most of the examples i have seen of this type of hilt are hollow handles and filled with pitch or some sort of resin. Such hilts are available in local flea markets in India, and i think they are typically cast from bronze or brass.

Nice blade Sam it reminds me of a Indian sword called "Sosun Pata". It has a very similar blade shape. Another example of a typical Sosun Pata hilt with beautiful Koftgari work

Wow !!! The finish on the blade is top notch . the raised spine and blade geometry compliment very nicely. amazing package overall.

Beautiful knife Dave. The blade profile is really unique and overall flow of the knife is great.I specially like your style of carving the blade with nice flowing curves near the ricasso and spine. Cool work

Thanks a lot for these process pictures Gerhard. I hope i manage to achieve such perfection someday.

Beautiful knife Gerhard !! no extra furniture but still looks fabulous:) Like Kevin said i would love to see a WIP thread of how you make these knives.Awesome work.

Nice knife Wade. The leather on the end gives it a cool look..kind of a Apache warrior's knife. One suggestion though about the blade profile, and i couldnt help myself so i did some shoddy mspaint editing to your knife sorry bout that i feel the blade profile would look better this way. i think a more pointy blade will look even better with the handle shape , just a suggestion

Beautiful work Manuel..simply awesome . I love the consistency of the pattern on the blade. i must say you have nailed the handle perfectly on your second attempt.I think the handle on the first one deviates a little from what i have seen on a traditional Kard,it looks more like a khyber knife. But this one is perfect 100%

Thanks Morgan.I had actually thought about making it a clip point but then i would have had to grind out at least two holes from the inlay on the spine.Right now the balance point of the knife is just before the guard so being blade heavy its better for chopping work. I thought if i made it a clip point i would end up taking out a lot of material from the tip and screwing the balance of the blade so dropped the idea.

Thanks Greg, i did the inlay more for the look than the symbolism. i must admit i have been lazy in making a sheath for this one. Dragon , as for flipping the guard over , i thought about your suggestion and i will make the inner part of the guard curved instead of flat. Ok so i re-worked the blade profile and lost about half an inch from the tip in the process, also gave a little inner curvature to the base of the blade. I definitely like the way it looks now ...Your opinions?

Hi Guys, I had posted my first knife made from a leaf spring here a while back http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=16156&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1 Been using this knife hard since then, but i felt repeatedly that the tip was not good for thrusting. so doing some modification to the blade design, will post some pictures soon

Ok Guys , Here is a rough sketch i made today , let me know what do you feel . is it do-able. comments , suggestions , inputs are really appreciated The red lines are the tang of the blade which will pass through the length of the handle The brown dots are the places where rivets or pins will be fitted

Thanks for the inputs guys.These are simply magnificient examples you got here Richard. Where did you find these in India? so the general idea seems to be that these type of handles are carved from a large block of steel? i feel this will not be possible for my setup nor do i have the capablity to cast such a handle presently.then i am left with two options either riveting or brazing the sections together. i am figuring there will be four parts to the handle. 1. the oval guard at the base of the blade 2. a Y - shaped part at the front 3. the round bead in the center 4. second Y- shaped part at the end all the parts will be brazed together with solder i will get to the drawing board and make a sketch first of all the parts and how they will be fitted, will post it once i am done am i going in the right direction here?