Raindrops and elk

[D.Ellis]

Finally got this one finished. I hurt my hand on Friday working on a friends garage door    so was not able to get anything accomplished for a few days. Still be a little while before I can swing a forging hammer, but can do the finish work without too much pain.
 
Here're the specs.
9 inch overall length......4.5" cutting edge. 112 layers of 1084 and 15n20 raindrop pattern, my first try at this pattern.
Elk antler handle and heat colored and textured copper bolster.
All comments and critique welcome.
Darcy  

 
 

 

 

[Bobby Urban]

Darcy that turned out nice.  Much better and consistent pattern to your rain drops than I have ever obtained.  Can you briefly describe how you did them?  Pound, Drill? And at what stage in the forging process.  

I really like that one.

Bob

[Sockrsblur]

Nice blade Darcy! I like the elk antler and copper, goes nice together.

[Alexander13]

Beautiful knife Darcy, the Damascus is great and I really like the copper with the antler!
Joel

[Lin Rhea]

How do I ask this Darcy?

I'd like to see the rear end of the knife.    :rolleyes:   Being careful not to say butt. Darcy is sensitive about that.    

[just_a_hunter]

It's ugly. Nobody will like it. Ever. Send it to me and I'll take care of this burden for you....

Todd

[tomsm44]

Don't send it to Todd, cause I like it.       You've posted several of these slim guardless blades around this size recently and I've gotta say that they're doing it for me.  How did you finish the copper on this one?

Matt

[tomsm44]

Never mind about the finish.  I didn't read carefully enough the first time around.

Matt

[Track]

You did a real nice job on that raindrop pattern Darcy, came out great. Like the whole knife, everything goes together really well.

[Kevin Evans]

I agree if that's the first time, it looks good.
Nice job.
Kevin

[tippit]

Darcy,
You are doing some really great stuff!

[Doug Campbell]

      I'd kinda like to see the back end of that thing too Darcy.

[D.Ellis]

Thanks guys.
Bob, I forged the blade to profile, including the point and distal taper, but thicker than normal. Then I took a sharpie marker and drew a matching grid on both sides of the blade......and then colored the grid like a checkers board, but with the "black" squares on one side directly over a "white" square on the other. Then drilled a shallow(about 1/3 through the pre form) divot in all the black squares on each side. Then I forged it flat at almost welding heat.
I took a nice shot of this knife's "posterior   :eek:   " but can't get photobucket to work right now. Will update this when it starts working again.
Darcy  

[D.Ellis]

Here's the requested butt photo(didn't want to say butt pic   :eek: )
Copper washer, mild steel nut, textured, and then the flat on the end is polished.
Notice how solid this piece of antler is. The 1/4" hole for the pommel nut pretty much removed all the pith.
Darcy    
   

[FerretWYO]

I like that a lot.

[tomsm44]

That's a nice looking hind end right there.    

Matt

[Ray Hammond]

Lord forgive Matt for going there...and be the pygmies down in Africa....

Nice NOIFE Mr. Ellis

[Doug Campbell]

Thanks buddy, don't see much elk antler that solid.

[skilonbw]

Really like all aspects of that knife including the posterior  that you created there.

[D.Ellis]

Originally posted by Doug Campbell:
Thanks buddy, don't see much elk antler that solid.

Doug, this is not too unusual for northern elk. Even within the province of BC there seems to be a difference in density between the elk antler down south and the antlers grown further north. May be just the genetic pool in the northern herd and have nothing to do with latitude though.

Thanks guys.
Darcy