Robert Burns

Just a small update today. So when planning for this knife I knew I wanted to use shibuchi for the guard and but plate (in the same way I did on the Van Helsing Bowie), but with this one being more refined and complicated I decided to try my hand at lost wax. This is my first time carving wax and it really has been fun beginning to learn the process, definitely something I want to do more of in the future. First I made the rough cuts in the wax and roughly fit the tang. I also cut my wax too short on the back part of the guard, but as I learned that is very easy to fix. First things first is to add back on the piece I cut to short and to thin down the guard a bit. Then I began rounding the junction between the (quilion?) and the center of the guard. Then I carve the first channel: Then I add in the second step to complete the ring. Now I am just laying out some lines for future carving to take place tomorrow.

C Craft, The nickel line is there to separate the edge and back bars to give the knife an overall more bold appearance.

Catalin, Thank you so much for the correction and additional information! As I am making the knife I am learning more about your country's history. My plan is to replicate the Iron Crown of Romania for the top but that holds the knife together.

Thanks guys, I was able to finish the carving today and do the etch. Overall I am pretty pleased with the pattern and look on the blade. Here is the finished carving: And then the etch:

Thanks guys! Joshua I wish it was only a day! But my hope is to have the blade etched tomorrow and ready for the guard which there will be quite a delay on I think. Here are a couple of last photos from today (my wife is away so I can work late into the night ) I wanted to add some metal carving to this blade so that is what I have done. This first side is now all finished to a base 400 grit.

And this post should bring everything up to date. First I forged the tang. My intention is to do this as a take down construction hence why the tang is so long. Now that I have something to hold on to I can cut the billet free from the handle and check the state of the welds. Looks good to me, now to cut the rough lines of the point. (This will allow me to bend the pattern back in line with the flow of the blade.) Now I begin the rough forging: And a quick etch on that corner piece to see some pattern. And finally a normalizing cycle post forging: Then I left the rough forging in a vinegar bath overnight to remove most of the scale. Then surface ground the tang and ricasso to .25" From the sharpie lines on the rough lay out you can see I will be doing my usual beveled ricasso and also another bevel on the spine. To me these are the scariest grinds because if you mess them up you pretty much have to scrap the knife and they can mess up quickly. With the bevel done on the ricasso I can now move on to the spine. Then cleaning things up via hand filing. Finally I roughed in the clip: Then on to the primary bevel: And a quick sneak peak at the pattern near the tip: And here is the blade, as of today, successfully heat treated, and ready for the final polishing and metal carving to be done to the blade.

Now for the other bars I wanted to have them be a more basic pattern so I about twenty layers and three billets of JR evenly placed throughout. This was then welded together, drawn out and cut for re stacking: Then to add some additional interest, I added .30" W2 in between the layers, this was then drawn out to almost 50 inches of 1/2 inch square bar: I gave these bars a Turkish twist configuration so every other bar twists the opposite direction from the previous one. After being re-squared and ground clean on their mating surfaces we can now see how they will be ordered in the billet. Between the edge and back bars I placed a single piece of 15n20. I trimmed a bit off the ends of the Turkish twist bars to make everything even and tack welded it all together. Then it was all forge welded: The next installment of the thread will cover the blade forging. Thanks for looking!

Some of you may know this and others not, but each year I like to do some type of Halloween themed knife, and while it may be early on yet in the year, I wanted to make sure it was done in time for this Halloween. A few years back I did my Van Helsing Bowie which was based around several elements of the Van Helsing legends/ stories. This is what I had come up with: Pretty much from the moment I finished the Van Helsing bowie I wanted to do its brother in the style of Dracula. Each time I attempted this project I found my skills lacking for what I wanted the end result to be, so now three years later I am making myself finish the set. Now due to having other paid work to complete this project will go in fits and starts, but at this point the blade is successfully heat treated and ready to be polished and etched. I started this project over two months ago and only have time to work on it a few hours at a time, but by hell or high water I will have it ready in time for Halloween! Now with all of that being said the name of this bowie (as the title of the thread suggests) is Voivode which was the title of Vlad Dracula a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler. Voivode translates roughly to prince or ruler in the native tongue of that time in the kingdom of Wallachia. The styling I will use on this knife is a blend of the historical Vlad Dracula and the modern myths around the figure. Hopefully everything will come together in such a way that it will embody the character we all know from tales of horror. So without further ado let's get cracking shall we? This whole blade will be forged in a multi-bar construction from 1084 and 15n20. There are two billets that will comprise the edge, one being a jelly roll and the other being crushed W's. First the billet for the jelly roll is welded, drawn down, and rolled up.: It is then welded together, cut, etched (to check the pattern), then drawn down to 1 1/2" x 3/8" flat bar. Next we start on the W's billet: I drew this billet down and re-stacked it six times to achieve a low layers Ws, this was then drawn done to 1" square and twisted: Each of these bars were 4 1/2 inches long and drawn down to 3/4" square. I then cut two pieces of jelly roll billet to a matching length. I then took a piece of the jelly roll billet and cut it in half length wise. Then with the top bar of JR in place it is fully encasing the crushed Ws: After forge welding, this is what the bar looks like. In the future with this type of pattern I think it would be wise to increase the thickness of the outer layers as they ended up getting a bit thin. I then cut this bar in half and welded it to its self: I then cut this in half and forge welded it again to give four bars. And that completes the edge bar.

Can't wait to see this one come together. Good work Mark.

Welcome Mark! Good to see you posting on here! -Robert Burns

These are my top three: A huge learning experience for me from last February is the La Brea Bowie: One of my personal favorites, a damascus san mai bowie with desert ironwood: And another very challenging build with the Musso Bowie:

SOLD!

Well, unfortunately I will have to say goodbye to my favorite hammer of the past few years. I am relocating my shop from Minnesota to Massachusetts and need to sell this hammer. I have owned and used this hammer for two years in a professional shop setting with no issues, it is in great running shape with only a slight wobble in the clutch, it is very well tuned with tons of control. This is one of the early models so it is on the heavier side I believe Sid said it was 105 years old. -Newer 3 hp motor, runs on 220, has brand new cord and plug. -New flat dies and one original set of drawing dies -Includes manual and other LG information if you desire -Hammer weighs 1800 lbs and the base is approximately 400 lbs so total weight is just at or under 2200 lbs -2.5 ft x 3 ft x 6 1/2 ft (without the motor) -Location: Southern Minnesota (Just outside of the Twin Cities) -We have a fork lift in the building to help with loading -For any other specific questions please feel free to DM me. Asking $3500 or best offer. Only serious offers please. Accepted forms of payment: Cash, Check, PayPal, Credit Card

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Happy holidays!

Great job Matt! My big question be be about the stone setting, is it on both sides? What is the bevel made of? What is the stone? etc.