parsha

Thanks a lot for taking a look Sam and GeZell really appreciate your comments. You are right GeZell that is leather on the handle, from the sole of an old shoe. It does feel really solid and secure in the hand. initially i had not attached the leather and it felt a little uncomfortable in the hand, so i glued up the leather on the back with araldite. Thanks again

Hi guys, here is the completed knife.I went for an antiqued finish since this blade looks like it was picked up from a museum I will be polishing it up some more with brasso. I am not sure whether i should call it a "bagh nakh" or claw dagger or "Katar" .....any suggestions? comments and critique are always welcome

Hi All, I have finally finished work on this project. Was really busy with other things so i really had to squeeze out time to finish this . the brass needs to be polished and some more work to be done on the leather ...will be posting pictures soon ... definitely

Hi Jake , Thanks for putting some light on what may have gone wrong here . i guess i need to control my forge temperature better so that i dont have uneven heating. Right now i am using a Lively style wash tub forge with a house vac for air source, and find some good clay which will not fall off in the quench. so i think i will have to let go of a nice hamon this time. as for the handle material , i choose brass firstly because it is a bit tougher(harder) than copper and secondly because a piece of copper would have costed me at least thrice as much as the brass strip i have the brass cut to shape and will be bending it soon Keeping my fingers crossed. hope to complete this one in 3,4 days.

Hi All, now this is turning out to be a very difficult project. The brass strip keeps cracking every time i try to put a tight bend in it. First time i annealed the strip and tried to bend it cold. It bent to a U shape and when i tried to make the U smaller it broke. so in the second attempt i decided to work it hot but still no luck. now i have made some changes to the handle design and hope to complete it this weekend . Wish me luck

Hi Tony , i am using old file steel here and i suppose it is W1 or W2 because it hardens really well after a water quench. Ok , now pardon me cause i am going to ramble a bit here ... i coated the blade with clay again, this time applied a very thin coat of clay near the edges and made a nice pattern in the clay as shown in the picture below when i quenched the blade in water , about 2 seconds later some of the clay fell off..i was thinking oh my god there goes my hamon .. then i proceeded to polish the blade with sandpaper and what do i see , a beautiful line had formed on the blade which almost followed the pattern of the clay i had applied on the blade.. i was sooo happy so now after poilshing and cleaning the blade with a strong detergent , i proceeded to the etching. i immersed the blade in white vinegar and left it there for 4 hours all the while imagining how beautiful the hamon would look after i removed the blade and cleaned it ... i was shocked. no sign of the beautiful hamon line. so i polished the blade again and thot maybe i put it in vinegar for a long time , so this time i warmed up the vinegar and put the blade in for 30 minutes. this is what i got after that now i am wondering why the hamon turned out like this , if u call it a hamon in the first place. do i need to use something stronger to etch the blade? why didnt the clay pattern line show up after etching? questions questions and more questions one good thing is the edges have hardened very well now

facing a setback here ..... checked the hardness with a file it seems the edge has not hardened properly . looking back i remember that the clay was quite thick near the edges maybe that caused this issue . so i will be doing a clay quench again. One question though , what will be the effect on the hamon now .....will i get two hamons ???

You are right George, this blade was inspired from the "bagh nakh" but i decided to have a single large claw instead of 4 or 5 smaller claws usually seen in a bagh nakh Here is a shot of the blade after the clay quench, i made the clay from some fine red clay and wood ash in equal proportion.Quenched the blade in water. This is my first try at a hamon , hope i get at least a visible hamon Now going back to polishing the blade with sandpaper and water stones, and then etching in white vinegar. keeping my fingers crossed

Hey MJD , checked out the jantz supply website but i dont think they ship orders to India I finally managed to get a nice strip of brass 2 feet long x 1 inch wide x 2 mm thick I know some brass dosent bend easily and it will simply snap off if you try to bend it.Tested for bending on my strip and after bending about 45 degrees it snapped . how can i make it workable ? i am going to bend it a lot for the handle , so cant have it breaking . HELP !!

Thank you for the feedback Serge. now the only thing thats stopping me is getting a nice solid strip of brass.. spent the day searching for one but didnt find one

Hi all, I am working on a T-handle push dagger. i made a handle from aluminium bar but didnt quite like it cos it didnt look good with the blade. so i made a rough handle from a cardboard strip. planning to do the final handle with a strip of brass (if i manage to get one ) ..or if that is not available then mild steel. does this look good , or do i need to go for something else . comments ,critique and suggestions are welcome Thinking of winding a leather strap in place of the red electrical tape in the picture.

hi C Daniel , taking your advice and moving this to design and critique

Hi Stefano, could u post some pics .....

Hi All, Working on a claw push dagger with a T -handle, but i seem to have hit a block here I made a handle from aluminium bar but now it dosent seem to look nice with the blade... advice needed about what type of handle i should go with ...... I am going to try my first clay quench on this one and hope to get a good hamon

Thanks Michael , glad u guys like the knife. i would like to do some more work on the handle though,mabybe polish it up a little. any suggestions? This knife was made completely by stock removal using files and sandpaper. Now i will be trying my hand at a small forged blade for a T- handle claw dagger. will keep u posted on the progress.

Hi Guys, I'm a amateur hobbyist knifemaker, joined recently to share some of the work i have done. Some details about the knife I wanted this knife to be small enough to be carried easily,but strong enough to survive hard tasks like batoning.The thick tanto tip should ensure that it dosent break after light prying action (I will be using it a lot to peel coconuts) The file teeth are visible along the spine of the blade and near the guard to show from what the knife was made out of. Blade- 5.4 inches length,1 inch wide,0.235 inches thick. Handle- 4 inches length,Stacked leather(cut up an old leather belt)epoxied together with Araldite. Guard and pommel are made from a bar of hardened aluminium.