A knife of recycled material

[mtgraver]

Hello ,
The dungeon has been about 50 degrees so I had to do something to stay warm, so I decided to make a knife from a piece of Damascus bar I've had for years. I have no idea what the make up of the bar was. I cut a piece out of the bar about 3/4" x 4" x 3/16" thick and stretched the piece into a tapered tang fixed blade 8 1/8" long. Then I decided to salvage some old silver and pour the bolster material, thus the the problem of inclusions arose as I engraved them. A good lesson learned but at the most inopportune time. Last but not least the curly maple scales are from a flintlock I built some years ago.
Please feel free to comment or critique since I'm quite aware of some of the shortfalls in my mind but would be to see if anyone sees something I missed. Enjoy!
Mark

 

[KenB]

Beautiful, Mark. The only error I can see is you forgot to put my initials on it.
Ken Burklow

 

[John B.]

Nice knife and engraving.
Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[richard hall]

All I can say; THATS SHARP !!

 

[Mike Frakes]

Very nice work. I really like the silver bolsters and the engraving.

Mike

 

[monk]

rather elegant, even if made from old stuff you had laying around. very nice.

 

[eastslope]

That is a beauty. Thanks for sharing with all of us, Seth

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Nice work Mark and a great idea to do, using some old material to make a new knife.

arnaud

 

[mtgraver]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate your kindness.
Ken, if you hadn't noticed I left enough room to thread your monogram on the maple scales. I'll finish it when the check is in hand. lol
Fare well,
Mark

 

[silverchip]

I love recycled materials.If you pour the silver and then reduce it with a hammer,it will make it a better consistency for engraving and cut much nicer than as cast material.

 

[mtgraver]

Thanks Silverchip, I had to refine the billet with the hammer. The material cut well until I'd hit an inclusion. A good lesson learned I would say. Got to love using stuff up that others discard, also gives a better sense of accomplishment.
Mark

 

[dbrodhagen]

A very nice piece, thank you for showing it. I'm not sure what you mean by "problems with inclusions"? Thanks, Dave

 

[Paulie]

Thank you for sharing that beautiful knife, Mark ! It must give a good feeling to make such a nicely decorated & usefull object out of metal pieces that 'sailed around' in your workshop for years, giving them a new life :thumbs up:! My sincere congratulations, kind regards, Paulie

 

[mtgraver]

Dave, the inclusions are very small but when engraving and a void open under the tip of the tool, the tool wants to drop into this void. Most of the inclusions were pinhead size and hidden within the engraving but a couple opened in the most obvious of places. I'm pleased with the execution of the work just not the pouring of the silver, which means more experience and proper technique instead of sort cutting the process. Thank you for looking.
Paulie, I'm delighted you like it and yes the idea of using up leftover material is intriguing to me. I think more of the challenge of accomplishment, but then end result may be no different if using off the shelf materials. Nice part is I don't have to wait for delivery or return what didn't work or wasn't quite right. I like to use what happens to be available to me at the moment.
Mark

 

[dbrodhagen]

Thanks Mark for the information. Dave