Dwarven utility/bushcraft Knife (viking seax/WETA inspired) - pic heavy
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:28 pm
This has been my biggest dwarven kit project in a while. The story began when I watched a video by Eric C introducing a competition by the YouTube channel Tyrell Knifeworks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLc0gpMPHT0&t=19s), and I thought why not enter? but I haven't got the equipment to make a blade so I asked if I could get one made by someone else, and apparently that was fine if I said I had done that. So then I started designing and it quickly became more complicated than I had originally planned, as these things do 
This is the blade blank as I received it:
It was beautifully made by Guy Stainthorp (https://www.ukcustomknives.co.uk/) who was very kind to do this for me because he doesn't normally do blade blanks, and is 5mm thick 01 tool steel with a forge blackened finish. I did make some small changes to it to make it look more fantasy and less like a historic knife blade, and I had intended to polish the bevels but I didn't get time
I did take a lot of progress photo's along the way, but it was rushed so I didn't get chance to post stuff as I went along, so here's a rough outline of some of the steps:
^initially I cut the brass from bar stock, then made the slots by drilling holes and filing
^I milled the corners off at 45 degrees, but the sideways swept angles on the pommel and guard were hand finished using a file because I decided that would actually be quicker than building a jig to machine them
^Then I did engraving and file-work, and polished all the brass
^Because everything was so precisely done in metal and I didn't want to use any spacers for risk of making the construction look to modern, the only way I could get the wood to meet up properly was by machining it square in a milling machine, unconventional I know (and difficult to keep sawdust out of the cutting oil tank) but it worked, then I filed it down as close to the finished design as I dared, and seated the pin that was required to be incorporated into the design for the competition. The pin doesn't go all the way through the tang, just through the wood on both sides
^Then finally time for glue, I put it all together in the clamp (thankfully with the engraving design the right way around)
and after filing the wood down to the proper profile, and peening the end it's finally finished:
I made this with the idea in mind that this would be a gift to Iodo (a haphazard young explorer) from her Great grandfarther, who had made her several knives before, so the message in the runes is deliberately a little silly, I'm sure there is at-least one person here who can translate them
All I need to do now is make a sheath
------
[EDIT] I didn't win the competition, but I didn't expect to even come close, but here's the link to the video showing the winning blades if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAzCt3EzYY
and Tyrell put a slideshow of all the viewer entries on they're facebook, mine is at 1:07 and Eric C's is at 0:50
https://www.facebook.com/denis.tyrell/v ... 2651119526
This is the blade blank as I received it:
It was beautifully made by Guy Stainthorp (https://www.ukcustomknives.co.uk/) who was very kind to do this for me because he doesn't normally do blade blanks, and is 5mm thick 01 tool steel with a forge blackened finish. I did make some small changes to it to make it look more fantasy and less like a historic knife blade, and I had intended to polish the bevels but I didn't get time
I did take a lot of progress photo's along the way, but it was rushed so I didn't get chance to post stuff as I went along, so here's a rough outline of some of the steps:
^initially I cut the brass from bar stock, then made the slots by drilling holes and filing
^I milled the corners off at 45 degrees, but the sideways swept angles on the pommel and guard were hand finished using a file because I decided that would actually be quicker than building a jig to machine them
^Then I did engraving and file-work, and polished all the brass
^Because everything was so precisely done in metal and I didn't want to use any spacers for risk of making the construction look to modern, the only way I could get the wood to meet up properly was by machining it square in a milling machine, unconventional I know (and difficult to keep sawdust out of the cutting oil tank) but it worked, then I filed it down as close to the finished design as I dared, and seated the pin that was required to be incorporated into the design for the competition. The pin doesn't go all the way through the tang, just through the wood on both sides
^Then finally time for glue, I put it all together in the clamp (thankfully with the engraving design the right way around)
and after filing the wood down to the proper profile, and peening the end it's finally finished:
I made this with the idea in mind that this would be a gift to Iodo (a haphazard young explorer) from her Great grandfarther, who had made her several knives before, so the message in the runes is deliberately a little silly, I'm sure there is at-least one person here who can translate them
All I need to do now is make a sheath
------
[EDIT] I didn't win the competition, but I didn't expect to even come close, but here's the link to the video showing the winning blades if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAzCt3EzYY
and Tyrell put a slideshow of all the viewer entries on they're facebook, mine is at 1:07 and Eric C's is at 0:50
https://www.facebook.com/denis.tyrell/v ... 2651119526
