Meteorite Knife - Finished!

the groove zipping is favbulous, Adrian
the whole operation is a mind boggling beaut!
Ed

Wowsers! Your craftsmanship is so precise!! It's wonderful to get to see the pix of the process!!!

Adrian if there was not a reflection on the blade I would swear it was glass...Excellent....John

You say that some of us are patient to create things, but you school as all beyond compare.

And........ its definitely worth it.

This is an amazing work of art, yet as seen in the previous post as you hold the blade, its also a mean and physically intimidating piece.

Thank you so much, for allowing us to look over your shoulders while creating such a wonderful item. I for one, will look at knives in a completely different way from now on, knowing all the effort that goes into such a fantastic piece. The sword was fantastic too, but then, I had little appreciation for all that the pictures showed, as I usually look at the finished piece and value what I see. But, I did not have the realization as to just how much effort goes into it. I know I'm rambling here, but I just would like to ensue that you realize how much your posts mean to us/me, as you awaken interest even in someone who usually completely stays away from such things (I have a strong dislike for things have an obvious use as weapons).

Thanks again for posting, looking forward to the end-result.

Thank you everyone!

Kurt, it means a lot to me to know my work raised your interest for this field. Me neither I don't appreciate very much the weapon side of the knives, but I like their look. Besides, I enjoy the challanges which occur during the building of a knife: the order of mounting the pieces, which surfaces have to be finished and which not, etc.

In addition, it also involves some phisical activity, and with this I am answering to Helen:
For polishing stainless steel, I use sand paper from 150 to 2500 grit. The steps were 150, 180, 320, 500, 100, 1500 and 2500.
In between 500 and 1000, I buffed the blade on a felt pad charged with a mix of grease and 600 SiC
After 2500, I polished the blade with some paste for polishing metals (slightly abrasive, white color and smells kinda like vinegar)

After shaping the edge, it took me some ten to twelve hours to polish the blade.

Thanks again,

Adrian

I so agree with Kurt and Helen, I think that blade has a mirror finish. It looks awesome. Thank you for sharing with us.

Tammy

Thank you, friends!

Helen, about your heat polishing question, I doubt this is possible for steel. But who knows, I am not good in heat related processes (as you see, all the joints I make on this knife are cold formed).

So, here's a new update. The bolsters. Not completely done, bust most of them.

Firstly, the roughly cut pieces:


Then, bit by bit, I got them close to their final shape (stuck together two by two, to obtain equal pieces):


In one of the front bolsters, I cut a window which would host a cab from a special stone.


I'm still waiting for the stone, so for the moment this is the stage of the front bolsters:




But meantime I focused on the rear bolsters.

Given the resemblance with a hawk's head, I tried to add more to this look by adding a special rivet as an eye. This rivet consists of a copper tube (5 mm ext. diameter) with a stainless steel rod inserted inside:


So, I riveted the rear bolsters using three rivets. The one is described above and the other two are made from a stainless steel rod (in fact an electrode).

Here are the rivets, right after hammering:

Not very smooth looking...


... but after a bit of grinding...


... and more sanding...

...the two stainless steel rivets became almost invisible. And the "eye" rivet is helping to the hawk head effect, I think.


So the here's the stage of the knife right now:




Thanks for looking,


Adrian

Oh my goodness... are there no limits to your capabilities? Wow!

Incredible. Have you decided on scales yet?