Trade sgian dubh WIP

[Drac]

Here the next step before heat treat - filework on the rear of the hilt -



Jim

[artificer]

Man, I LOVE WIPs! The file work looks great, can't wait to see the whole piece start to form up.

[Oldhiker]

looking really good...

[Drac]

Next steps for the plain steel. The damascus hardens at different temp.

Packed up for hardening step of heat treat -


The plates I use for quenching. A technique used on air hardening steels -


The blades at 2000F. Even with the flash you can see the blades glowing through steel foil -


After quenching -


Ready for tempering -


Next will be the tempering, cleaning up of the heat treat scale and than begins the assembly. These two will be brown ash burl and kuri.

Jim

[Downunder Kilt]

What a fantastic thread Drac. Great pics and very informative. For us non artisans it's great to see step by steps such as this, as it allows us to appreciate the things that we wear/use and never give a thought as to how it was made. Can't wait for the next installment

[Eleazar]

These are looking awesome!

I love your work. Thanks for the pics.

[Drac]

Knives made it through tempering.

Here is the handle material.

The first is Kuri. A 50K old wood I had stabilized. Trust me, pictures don't do it justice. If you want to know more about it check out http://www.ancientwood.com/



The other is brown dyed black ash burl -



Tomorrow moving on to the cleaning and assembly.

Jim

[CMcG]

I'm drooling at the wood alone... I can only imagine how awesome it will be attached to a knife!

[Drac]

Well, got into a rhythm and could pull away long enough to take pics of the steps. I will post the steps as I finish the other sgian.

Here is the kuri one. I normally don't take blades to this level of finish since it is so easy to mess up but the wood seemed to demand it. Still needs to be sharpened but it is for the most part finished.

Outside -


The rest are smaller images.

Legside -


Spine -


End of tang -


Jim

[Downunder Kilt]

Superb Drac, also another thing about it, it is unique. Congratulations to you and the lucky new owner.