Thread: Third blade finished: Serpent

My third blade is finally finished. Due to various other issues this project was on the back burner for a long while, but now I am finally ready. This one was also made from a scrap of damascus from Mike Blue. Only the lower half of the blade has a pattern. This is also visible in one of the curves of the tang. I guess this is not ideal from an aesthetics point of view, but otoh... it does have a certain something.

The theme for this blade was 'serpent'. The idea popped in my head when I designed the tang, and I stuck with it. I wanted the tang to 'flow' like a snake and transition shoulderless into the blade. I have to admit that I am fairly happy with the blade shape. I also spent a lot more time grinding the blade with my improvised bench grinder. As a result, it is thinner near the edge, and the bevel is a lot narrower. This looks better, and more importantly, makes it a lot easier to hone.

I etched it in FeCl3 which gives a nicer finish than when using pure HCl. It is more grey instead of black. You'll also notice that I left tool marks visible on the blade. This was done intentional. My next project will need that 'rustic' look and I wanted to practice. But as someone told me: just because toolmarks should be visible doesn't mean that they don't have to look right

The scales are made from serpentwood which has some nice figuring. It is a hard wood to work. Originally I wanted snakewood, but couldn't get it in the required size. And serpent wood was locally available. It is coated with 3 ultra thin layers of CA. As a result, the coating is smooth and you can still feel the grain of the wood somewhat. I thought about waxing it instead, but the person who has first refusal on this blade lives in a place where humidity is an issue so I decided to go for CA, just to be safe. The spacers are made from purpleheart.

The only thing that was disappointing was that my mark was not etched properly. I just can't seem to get this to etch properly. I guess I'll have to figure out a different way to etch it, or perhaps do something else altogether.