# Damascus steel knife assistance



## mmayo (Apr 17, 2015)

A friend asked me to help him make a knife for his father. I've never tried a knife before and of course I said sure.  I presented him with all of the wood that was big enough to make wide knife scales and he selected bocote.  I think I did most of the work but it was a fun project to do with someone else.  I could see that perhaps I was a bit more anal than he was about finishing so we stopped and here's the result. It feels great in my hand. 












I think I need to buy a folder knife kit since it was fun.


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## randyrls (Apr 17, 2015)

WOW! the blade on that is nice!


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## Charlie_W (Apr 17, 2015)

That is really sharp looking!...literally too!:biggrin:


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## BSea (Apr 18, 2015)

Is that a kit knife?  If so, where did you get it?


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## mmayo (Apr 19, 2015)

The "kit" was just the blade. I had the wood and some brass rod and epoxy. We pretty much used most sanding tools in my shop. I'll check with him for his vendor.


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## mmayo (Apr 19, 2015)

The Damascus steel knife blank was purchased from Amazon for about $40.


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## BSea (Apr 19, 2015)

mmayo said:


> The Damascus steel knife blank was purchased from Amazon for about $40.


Thanks!


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## camb (Apr 19, 2015)

I deal  with premium knife supply


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## Donovan (Apr 20, 2015)

I have ordered a lot of blades from Alabama Damascus 

Donovan


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## mmayo (Sep 30, 2015)

*I made another one for a friend*

I purchased the blade from eBay and my friend selected deep red bloodwood. Here are the results.





















I finished with walnut oil using MM pads through the stack.  A little pens plus finished the effort. It feels amazing to me.  It used a Worksharp knife sharpener to make it scarey sharp.


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## D.Oliver (Sep 30, 2015)

mmayo said:


> It feels amazing to me.


 
It looks amazing to me. :biggrin:


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## Skie_M (Sep 30, 2015)

Looks gorgeous ..... Still have plans laying about for building a forge ..... but buying a blade and making the knife would be doable with my current equipment ... I'm going to have to look into this some more!


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## mmayo (Sep 30, 2015)

A drill motor, bit, pins, clamps and the saw you already have are needed at start. I used an oscillating spindle sander, but a belt sander would be great.  I used HF 5 minute epoxy and clamped thoroughly to be sure there were no gaps between the scales and the blade.

Great tactile rewards as you move from 180-400 grit and then migrate to MM and oil. It was a nice change from pens and plugs.


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## liljohn1368 (Sep 30, 2015)

That is really nice mark....


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## mmayo (Dec 13, 2015)

A new knife for my nephew in Minnesota. It is Damascus steel with redwood burl knife scales.


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## JD Combs Sr (Dec 14, 2015)

Some great looking knives Mark.  Just my opinion but if you are going to continue to make knives I would look into marking them with "your" maker's mark.  I have made two, "Beauty" and the "Beast" and one of the first things I saw in my research on how to make a knife was that their value is much greater when they have a maker's mark on them.  Most marks are on the blade but since you are using wooden handles you could start with a simple branding iron type logo applicator.  You might want to visit and/or join some of the online knife forums.  There is a lot of howto info for etching marks and for making and treating blades on the forums.  A couple that I have join are "knifedogs dot com" and "bladeforums dot com".

In any case keep them coming, they look great.


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## mmayo (Dec 14, 2015)

Thanks for your generous advice. The scarey thing is that this has proven to be fun for me and I will have to sell some to pay for my enjoyment. I will take your advice to heart. There is a knife blade vendor that offers such etching or laser engraving as you buy their blanks. 

I include one of these nameplates on all of my tackle boxes





Thanks again for the good advice.


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## Neil (Dec 16, 2015)

If anyone wants Damascus (American made) check out Alabama Damascus, he sells all kinds of knife blades, and  Damascus steel, the owner is Lacy Smith , I have bought a few of his knife blades , beautiful


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