firestorm damascus bird and trout

[EdStreet]

this is a bird and trout knife,
7 1/8 OAL, 3 1/2 blade, 3/4 wide, 1/8 thick
185 layers of 1084 and 15N20
scales stabilized crab apple
nickel silver bolsters and pins





some detail on the blade.




had some slight issues with the bolster pins and may have to make some changes on that.

Ed

[Dwane Oliver]

Looks good , I like that damascus. Thats the pits about the pins showing up.

Dwane

[EdStreet]

that's the only fault I had so far and I am tempted to take a hammer to it and see if that will work it out. it's somewhat minor as I put them in with epoxy and a hammer.

Ed

[JediOkie]

Beautiful knife. On the bolster, are the pins the same % nickel as the actual bolster? I've heard that will show big time. Awesome knife though. I've never even thought about using crab apple, that is some purdy wood. I like it a lot.

[EdStreet]

yes the bolster and pin stock both came from jantz. pins are 1/8" and the bolster is the barstock.

Crabapple is super sweet to work with when stabilized, sanding it reminds me of silk. I have 3 blocks I had stabilized by WSSI and several small slabs, also 2 more blocks to sent out soon.

Some other wood to look at is regular apple, dogwood, mimosa and similar.

Ed

[jdm61]

Nice looking knife. That crabapple is good looking wood. Just goes to show you that the list of suitable handle woods is pretty much open ended. I have never made a knife with bolsters like that, but i was wonderting if you or anyone else use "hidden pins" I was thinking about drilling shallow 1/8th holes on the ricasso sides of the bolsters, putting short pins in, JB Welding it and peening the two bolsers to the blade to expand the pins and "lock" the bolsters into place. Anybody doing that? I'm also thinking about how to hide a single handle pin on a hidden tang knife by having it under an ivory, metal or wood escutcheon inlay

[JediOkie]

Originally Posted by jdm61

Nice looking knife. That crabapple is good looking wood. Just goes to show you that the list of suitable handle woods is pretty much open ended. I have never made a knife with bolsters like that, but i was wonderting if you or anyone else use "hidden pins" I was thinking about drilling shallow 1/8th holes on the ricasso sides of the bolsters, putting short pins in, JB Welding it and peening the two bolsers to the blade to expand the pins and "lock" the bolsters into place. Anybody doing that? I'm also thinking about how to hide a single handle pin on a hidden tang knife by having it under an ivory, metal or wood escutcheon inlay

Look at this thread. They have some discussion on it towards the bottom.

[pjelect]

Good looking knife, Ed. Nice shape for an all around user.
Try this trick next time on the bolsters. I picked it up right here on the forums and it works great.
Drill and ream your holes to size for your 1/8 pins then get a #2 tapered reamer and gently ream a taper into the top of the hole, then set the pins as usual.
Pat

[DaveRuhlig]

Beautiful knife! Great choice on the handle material. Here's what I did to fix my problem of the pins showing up on th bolsters.... I started using brass pins on my N/S bolsters. I figured if they were going to show up anyway I might as well make it look like I planned it that way.

[EdStreet]

ok the tapered reamer would work on that, some how I didn't even consider that option. good tip.

I have been using mosaic pins and thats a great way to go on some things.

On the jb weld glue if you look in the archives you will find the thread that never dies, it's a 18 page post on epoxy/glue testings. at the end there's a worksheet on the rankings. for the lowdown jb weld *FAILED* the dishwasher test and did very poorly overall. This is why I use locktite 324 speedbonder on my stuff. There's just something about a 7,000 pound shear strength that I find attractive. Plus 5 minutes to harden is quite good.

Ed