Knifemaking
- Rope and Cable Drop Point
A rough/wild/primitive style knife in cable damascus.
Order Details:
- Aprox 4” blade.
Other than that, there were no specific details on this order, basically
I listen to all what the customer had to say about his preferences
and likes and improvised something. Luckily, he liked what I came
up with.
Knife making process
I decided to go with the cable and primitive style.
I wanted the cable to appear as such, with its strands showing, so
I placed steel plates on both sides of the cable before start to hammer
the hot steel. (Picture 1)
This allowed me to get an uniformly forged cable that kept the strands
of the cable asI wanted. (Pictures 2 and 3)
Once I got the blade finished, I showed it to the customer and he
agreed to the final blade shape and length. (Pictures 4 and 5)
Now it was time to make the handle, and as I wanted to make it to
match the blade from the beggining, I grabed a rope from a boat and
a small plastic bag from where I made drum sticks and placed the rope
inside. (Pictures 6 and 7)
Then I poured epoxy resin inside the bag, let the rope soak on it
and once I got rid of the extra resin, I placed the bag on the press.
This way, the rope doesn't get glued with the metal plates. (Pictures
8 and 9)
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
After that, I took it off the press and once it was
dry, I drilled a hole for the tang and I gave it another epoxy layer
with a brush, to make it thicker.
The result is a "rope shaped micarta", very resistent and
ergonomic due to the finger grooves of the pressed rope. (Pictures
10, 11 and 12)
Once I had that dry, I secured the already etched blade inside and
added a copper guard to embelish the knife a bit.
The customer wanted a pouch sheath so I made that, and on top of the
glue, I used a copper string to sew it, matching the guard on the
knife.