Figured I might introduce myself..

[Jörmungandr]

Good evening gentlemen. Daniel is my name and Jörmungandr is the alias I go by on different crafts forum. I am 22 years old and work as a timber scaler for a pulp factory.

I do bits of this and that, mostly knives and knife related things at the moment. Been using knives for different things ever since I was a child so the step came natural to begin making them when I moved to a town that had a very high class knifemakers guild in it. Been making them for about two years, not producing many, but improving alot .

As you will see, I also do a bit of jewelry and whatever I feel the urge for.

It was one of the guild members that got me first into scrimshaw and then into metal engraving. I am a novice when it comes to metal engraving, but I am learning and trying to hone my skills enough to make what now feels like a quantum leap to beginning to engrave my own blades. And I am certain that this forum will help me along. Already spent a long time reading through the immense amount of information here.

Oh well. Nuff talking. Time for some pictures of a bit of my work. The engravings on the antler is done with the traditional saami technique. But not saami motifs.

Feel free to ask questions if you got any.

 

[GTJC460]

Welcome. Your knives and scrim look great.

 

[Ed Westerly]

Welcome to the forum. You will be sure to learn here, and you may also teach as well!

 

[mrthe]

I have see you before but i don`t remember where....XD welcome!

 

[dimovengraving]

Hello Daniel, hello my friend

I am glad to see your beautiful work here.
Greetings and welcome
Evgeni

 

[mullerforge]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[willy]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chujybear]

what are saami techniques? to do with the tools? , or the angle of attack?

 

[monk]

guess what ? you're the exact kind of person that makes this forum a joy to hang around in. welcome aboard.

 

[Jörmungandr]

Hello Mrthe and Hello Evgeni! Where might I have seen you before?!

And hello everyone else that has greeted me! Thanks alot for the warm welcome. I am very happy to show my humble works to all you masters.

And Chujybear, saami engravings (or some say scandinavian engravings) is not done with engraving points like for metal engraving. It is cut with a small knife. I and many others use a special straight knife for this. Usually the motifs look something like this -> http://www.eklundknives.com/ and http://www.jwnknives.com/jnHel/jnHel.php?spag=1&lan=

Often geometrical patterns and maybe some flowers.

 

[Sam]

Welcome to the Cafe, and thank you for showing us your very nicely done work. It's so precise and accurate.

 

[Marrinan]

Beautiful Work! I have a question about the technique you use. In woodworking the use of the small straight bladed knife is referred to as chip carving. The work done on the bone, ivory and wood would be scrimshaw though most I see uses pointillism using needle type tools to pick dots or scribe lines. Scrimshaw is often referred to as the only truly American art ( I dought that claim). Now the question on the wonderful work you provided through the links. How is this method accomplished on the beautiful Damascus blade in the second link or was in done with conventional gravers? Welcome to the Café'! look forward to your input and comrodery. Fred

 

[Jörmungandr]

Thanks Sam and Fred. I am very happy that you liked it and very happy for the warm welcome from everyone . Accuracy in antler engravings is like in metal engravings. Hard to get sometimes but very attractive.

But Fred, I am not sure I understand the first part of your message? But in Scandinavia we seperate antler engravings and scrimshaw. When doing scrimshaw we either use needles or scalpels. Cutting thin lines or making small dots. When cutting the lines you only cut the line once, creating a small groove in which the colour lays. But no actual material is removed.

When doing antler engravings, it is a bit more like chip carving, but the technique and knife is a bit different there as well. First cut one side of the V and then flip the piece and cut the other side, if you do it well, you'll get a small chip rising as you cut, very similar to when doing metal engravings.

This way, one can both do very accurate lines, thin or deep and wide. But sometimes one "stabs" the knife into the material, like in chip carving. This is done to create small triangles/rektangles and such. My knife looks like a very small and thin flat screwdriver, very very sharp.

Then when the groove is done. We either put in bark powder (old way) mixed with saliva or oil colours (modern way). Bark can also be mixed into the oil paint to give it more mass. I think either way is fine. Depends on what type of colour and look you are after. In the engravings I have showed, I used oil colour. But on the wine scroll knife and the wolf pendant I used bark as a "base" in the deep groves before I put in the oil paint.

Edit: Sorry Fred, forgot your question about the blade. The blade is made with the technique mosaic damascus. Are you familiar with it? So it is forged and then etched, not engraved.

 

[AndrosCreations]

Welcome friend... good to see you here...

 

[Marrinan]

Jörmungandr,
Thanks for the reply. I am familiar with pattern Damascus and have seen amazing hidden pictures exposed by the stock removal. Remarkable work in design and execution on many of the knives in the two links you provided. are the patterns presented here http://www.jwnknives.com/jnBlad/jnBlad.php?lan= cut or Damascus pattern exposure? If cut are gravers used? Thanks Fred

 

[Jörmungandr]

Hey there Andros! Always happy to see more of you

Fred, those blades are a mix of normal patterned damascus and something called mosaic damascus. Mosaic damascus is a technique that is in the principle the same, different qualities of steel or nickel that forms patterns. It's just that the steel (or nickel) is either cut or placed in such a way that it forms distinct things. Like bears, reindeers, stars, devils and whatever you may like. And they are stacked in for example a square pipe, with powder metal to fill out the blank space. And then weld shut and forged into smaller rectangle. And then you can cut this up, reforge or forge into knife blades or whatever.

Jonny Walker Nilsson has a close collaboration with Mathias Styrefors. Mathias being the primary blacksmith of the two.

They sell blades and rektangular cut offs of these mosaic damascus. So one can for example have a bear blade and bear on the bolster. Before etching the cut offs are so smooth that you can barely see what it is, so it is only when etched the pattern is really revealed.

http://www.connyknives.com/ <--- Conny Persson is by some considered the best mosaic blacksmith in Sweden and Mathias is considered the best by some.

I have seen some pictures of the process somewhere... Want me to try and dig it up?

Note: Pär-Olof does not do his own blades (yet), this is very normal in Sweden. He uses blades from different blacksmiths.

 

[Marrinan]

Jörmungandr, I am familiar with the pattern Damascus process. There a some youtube videos of it and I saw it demonstrated at a hammer in. My question was really about the large central pattern (dinosaur) on the knives at the link I put in. If they are pattern Damascus is there a hollow or hump at the more or less rectangular areas with the dinosaurs or are they engraved on a single exposed layer of the steel -Fred

 

[Douglas]

Welcome, you do very nice work.

 

[Jörmungandr]

Fred, I am deeply sorry that my explanation was not adequate enough to convey what I was trying to say.

The large rectangular pattern is pattern damascus. It is forged in a pipe like I explained above. The pattern is revealed by etching, just like normal pattern welded metal.

And sorry for my late response. Been spending the week in the workshop.

//DQ