Thread: Wootz and damascus knives work in progress

First things first: I bought another 7 of those yellow and red camels second hand for a bargain. My brother's going to hide them at my mom's place where she can go and find them tomorrow on account of the easter bunny being out of chocolate

Now then the kitchen knife. I am very happy with how it turned out. The handle is supersmooth and the seams are so smooth you can't feel them. The handle was shaped to just fit in the hand naturally and sanded up to 1000 grit. When I was finished sanding, I just didn't want to let go, it is so nice. The camel bone is awesome. I'll have to find a good substitute.

The steel is from Tim's billet of 1095 and 15N20. Because I had to draw it out with a peen hammer from 1/2" stock, the pattern became nice and whirly.





The wootz knife is not finished yet. Waiting for the ivory to come in. I did however finish a little kitchen knife in the meantime. This is a leftover from a 5 layer billet. When I have little scraps left that are not big enough for a razor, I try to turn it into one of these things. I don't know how useful they are but they are fun to play with and give me an opportunity to improve my skill at making bolsters and handles.

Fantastic work! The green liner looks terrific, and the pattern in the Damascus is awesome
Regarding subs for camel, have you ever worked in sea cow bone? The next knife I order will have that material as the covers.

No i haven't, thanks for the tip. I will look into that.

Both knives are on their way to their future owner.
As for the camel saga: here is the legion.

Those are gorgeous Bruno! And kudos for the kid respect.

Out of curiosity - what did you use to etch the steel? The layers really pop!

First several rounds of etching and sanding in ferric chloride until the layers are revealed in 3D.
Then polishing by hand up to 1500 grit I think to make everything shiny.
Then dunked in very strong instant coffee for several hours. That really makes the black layers pop out.

Bruno, how do you plan to finish the wootz? I have an early Al Pendray integral hunter and it doesn't have some of the manipulated patterns of some of his later blades, but you can see it very clearly and it has what i I would describe as an almost dark mirror polish,

Repeated cycles of sanding and etching in Ferric Chloride, going finer in grit as things progress.
For now I am more or less figuring it out 'on the go' in terms of how long to etch and when to progress to the next grit.

This is the wootz knife after etching and sanding.
This is going to be fit with a handle that I am basically going to use as a proof of concept for setting gemstones in ivory.

Originally Posted by Bruno

This is the wootz knife after etching and sanding.
This is going to be fit with a handle that I am basically going to use as a proof of concept for setting gemstones in ivory.

Please keep us posted on your works!

~Richard