Thread: Wootz and damascus knives work in progress

This just arrived in the mail today. I had to cut something and there is a bowl of grapes on my table......



Bruno

Peeling potatoes in style

Kitchen knife I finished today. This is the wootz blade. The handle is a laminate of mammoth tusk ivory, with a core of purpleheart. The bolster is black horn. In the middle of the handle on each side is a 1 carat blue topaz, VVS clarity, 6 mm diameter.

This knife is a prototype for a knife I am making for a good friend who is also one of the best knifemakers I ever met (Mike and Howard know her ) the actual knife will be different, but I wanted to see what the the ivory / horn combination looks like in real life (just fabulous) and how to properly set gemstones in ivory. The latter turned out to be trickier than expected. the knife I am going to make for my friend will be similar in construction, but feature a matched pair of natural clear emeralds of the same size, and will probably use a solid block of ivory instead of a laminate.

In any case I am quite happy with the result. The topaz is clear and in sunlight it has a nice sparkle.

Wow that is amazing! Can I see some more pictures please?

Those are nice blades Bruno.

Thanks.

This one I finished yesterday night (I can either sleep or sand. And I'll be grumpy in the morning either way, so usually I choose to be grumpy and being ahead on a knife project.) This is the first knife that I actually like if I would have made it for my personal use. It has a certain alien look about it. Something sinister / not of this world. This design really feels like 'me'

The steel is a san mai I made using Howard Clark's O2L6 steel, 40 layers on each side, and a core of O2. San mai is challenging to work with because I need to hammer it down from a thick bar, while keeping that core central. This means forging equally on both sides. On the back side it went exactly as planned. On the front side , I must not have flattened it equally because in the middle I ground through the Damascus. Still, the error is small enough that the whole looks nice. I purposely left the tang thick and then forged the stock thinner into the blade area. It was a bit difficult to keep everything symmetrical but it turned out the way I wanted. Easy and slow does the trick. I like this style because it makes for a solid and strong connection into the handle while still making a thin blade.

For the handle I chose a block of hybrid stabilized burl cap with colored resin. I picked this block specifically because it have a curving piece of burl that followed the line I wanted the bottom part of the tang to follow. And the textured blue with the red resin is exactly the color that matches the 'vibe' of the knife. The bolster is a piece of black horn.

All in all I am happy with how this turned out. I am figuring out how to make kitchen knives in a style that I like. You'll be seeing more things like this from me in the future.

Another winner! Was this a specific order or did you just make one to sell with your own design?

Currently my kitchen knives are just made to sell with my own design.

I think it looks sinister because it looks like there is an eye in the handle on the show side. Spooky stuff.

Which is the show side????