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Osmund knife


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Today I had to make a rivet heading tool, and since I had the forge set up I also started on a new project. A very small blade (about 8cm), but with lots of new challenges. It's intended to be a reproduction of the Osmund knife: https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/29492.html The blade is composed of wrought and a piece of layered W2 for the edge, the last bit of edge billet I had left from the seax forging course at Owen's. I'd already forge welded these together earlier, and today I forged the blade to shape. And since it's a small blade, I could do the forging and have it filed within a few hours. And I also started on the horn hilt. I pre-drilled the hole, then burned in the tang. Works just as well on horn as on wood apparently, but a lot smellier! And it took quite a few more burns. Mostly the horn just melts rather then burns, and a hot goo of molten horn bubbles out of the hole as you burn in the tang. Obviously the hilt will be trimmed down a lot to the final shape. Other fun new challenge with this one will be the inlays and niello. I've already made niello earlier, so that's one step of the process done.

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Jeroen Zuiderwijk

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Yeah that burning horn is a nasty smell.

“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.”

The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing.  

 

Josh

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Got some time today to (re)do the hilt for the Osmund knife. The horn hilt burned in earlier was not usuable, as it had a nasty delamination that went from the back end to halfway into the hilt. Fortunately I had another nice piece of cow horn, just about the right dimensions that I could get a hilt out of it. I burned in the hole again, and shaped it by axe, rasp, file and then finished by sanding. I still need to buff it to make it shiny. The new hilt has a nicer coloring, so I'm quite happy with it. Work is starting again tomorrow, so progress is going to be at snail pace again.

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  • Like 5

Jeroen Zuiderwijk

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/barbarianmetalworking

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Would it be correct to assume you are using cutler's resin to fix the blade in the horn, and there is no special anything done around the horn/blade junction?  Any gaps there will stay visible?  

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6 hours ago, Jerrod Miller said:

Would it be correct to assume you are using cutler's resin to fix the blade in the horn, and there is no special anything done around the horn/blade junction?  Any gaps there will stay visible?  

Yes, but with the gap filled with the cutler's resin. If done well, there is virtually no gap. But since I was still learning to burn into the horn, there's a bit of gap that will be filled. If I'd burned it in a little deeper, and cut off the first part of the hilt, it would have been a very tight fit. 

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Jeroen Zuiderwijk

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/barbarianmetalworking

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