New Knife, Finally!

[dkemppai]

A new knife, finally. Due to a busy schedule this is the first knife and engraving in almost a year!

Bronze guard on stainless, with veneer laminate and red oak handle. Oil finish on the handle.

Engraving is approximatley 1/2 by 1-1/4 inches. Same things on both sides. Did some 1 to 2 mm Text on the guard near the blade which looks really good with the naked eye, but not so good under a microscope! This is the second attempt at engraving, and am happy with it considering the little time spent engraving thus far. It isn't as good as it could be, but I'm learning A LOT.

Without being able to use this place as a reference, I'm sure I would have had a lot more trouble.

Thanks all!
Dan

P.S. Photos by Eric Munch

[gravalance]

Congratulations! Nice job, especially if this is your second try only!!
I like the kind of leaves, uncommon design somehow.
Wish you more time for the next ones in the year to come:-)!
Hanne

[D.DOUGLAS]

Dan, That looks very nice for a second try. Those are some interesting leaf structures. I think they would benefit with a little more shading also. How did that bronze cut? Was it cast?

[dkemppai]

Hi guys!

Hanne, Thanks for the kind words!


D.Douglas,

Interesting that you asked about the bronze. I was just about to post some questions about cutting it! Have you cut bronze before?

This bronze was 'as cast' CDA932 plate. It seemed very inconsistent. I think the "as cast" part left something to be desired in the finished product. Some places cut very well, others were very difficult to cut. Some places the graver would dive in it's own and wouldn't come back up again, and the next time it wouldn't want to start cutting. For some cuts switching from a 15 degree heel to 20 degree heel helped. Sometimes the bronze would push up in front of the cutter in a 'wave'. The whole time was constantly trying to correct for depth of cut. Other metals I've tried were much easier to cut.

I really like the natural patina bronze picks up over time, so will probably have to learn to work with it. Brass gets an ugly black patina when it gets old, but bronze picks up a nice warm brown/gold shades. Even just a few days in air, and it starts to darken significantly.

I agree that more shading would help, however I'm going to stop here before I ruin it. It actually looks OK under normal lighting conditions. The real problem is that it's has too much detail, and not enough negative space to bring the patterns out. Next one will have some more open space, more time spent on the flow, and A LOT more time spent thinking about how the shading will be done. I've learned a lot, and I'm sure the next one will be much better!

Thanks!
Dan

[D.DOUGLAS]

Dan, Welcome to the world of cast metal. I had a feeling you were going to tell me that.Cast Silver can be like that also. Probably would make it difficult to shade also. Yea the more you work with it the more you will understand what you can do with it. Maybe you could do some work in the wax state and put the final touch on with gravers,punches,etc. Or was it machined . Thanks for your reply. I hope you can post some future attempts. I have some bronze pmc clay i have been wanting to dabble with also. Doug

[dkemppai]

Doug,

Good to know I'm not the only one having trouble with the cast metal!

This plate is a drop cut from an as case plate, which has the unfinished (slag) still on the outside of the plate. The plate gets milled and machined down to what I need. (Usually a minimal amount of bronze is removed for the guards, maybe as little as .025 inches).

I did notice that if the graver was too sharp it was much more difficult to control. Mirror polished graver gave the most trouble. Stopping at 1200 or 8000 grit diamond stone made it a lot more workable. Seemed like the rougher finish had more 'drag' which made it easier to control.

What sort of point geometries do you use for the cast silver you've done?

Also, the PMC looks interesting. I wonder how strong it is compared to normal bronze?

Thanks!
Dan

[D.DOUGLAS]

Dan, I use whatever point dictated by the line witdth i am looking for. 70,90,116 universal. I doubt the pmc is as strong as what you are working with but i was thinking of using it for some raised overlays and some jewelry. Ther are also some cast stainles steels i am interested in working with also. Porosity filled metals i try and stay away from but if we could get a castable,engravable stainless steel that would be nice. Doug