Home made knife and sheath

[Josh Dabney]

I'm just getting started making knives and sheaths but I'm about to finish my 5th.
here are a few shots of # 2
Knife- 4" blade of O1 carcbon tool steel, curly maple hande with brass wire inlay, brass bolsters.
Sheath- inlayed with buckskin and tooled on back







All comments welcome
-Josh

[Josh Dabney]

Hear's a little sneak peak of #5 Knife

[Dave Cole]

Pards, Josh works with me alot,and I am helping him with leatherwork.He is finishing up the sheath on the bottom one and should have that one up soon.It will look good.Josh is also very talented with scrimshaw.Dave

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

  Josh that's mighty fine work all around, you have a lot of talent to be able to produce pieces like this, Thanks for the look see.

        Regards

      tEN wOLVES 

[Kid Terico]

Josh, nice work ,I like it. Whats up with all these nice knives and sheaths. I,m still trying to learn how to make holsters. Darned if I,ll try knives also. Keep them comming.  To many good artists on this site like Ned, Dave ect I can order from.KT  

[Marshal Will Wingam]

That's some darn good work, Josh. I really like the way you carried the handle inlay design into the sheath tooling. It's a very good look. I love to see tools and leather match to make a completed set. Do you set the inlaid wire by cutting a line first or just tap them in? Thanks for the pics.

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to more of your work.

[Gun Butcher]

  Beautiful work there Josh, I suspect some muzzleloader influence in you decorating talents.

[GunClick Rick]

How come that one swirl is off center so much???Your comin along ok a little more practice and you'll have it down,let us know when ya get there

[Josh Dabney]

Thanks for the nice words fellas.
Finished another sheath tonight so I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

Marshall Will,   To do the wire inlay tiny chisels are used to cut straight down into the wood.  No wood is removed in the process just creating a thin channel for the wire to go into.  The wire gets sharpened along the bottom edge also as the channel is cut to 3/4 depth. 

Here's a shot of the front of the first sheath in this post




Thanks again yall   -Josh

[Kid Terico]

Very nice work Great layout and color.. You have a good teacher. KT

[Freedom]

Very Fine!!! Thank you for the pictures....humbling to say the least

[ChuckBurrows]

Howdy Josh - as an aficionado both fine leather, knives, and wire inlay - two thumbs up!

Now though one suggestion - where the pieces conjoin I'd taper them so there isn't such an abrupt "edge" I know that's easier said than done - you need to make some tools to match - here's an example of a couple of originals that might give you some ideas.

[GunClick Rick]

SHEEEESH~~~Ok Josh i'll send ya my 92 stock to practice on,don't worry i won't charge ya nothin.. I better send the forearm too huh..

[JD Alan]

Josh, your works falls into the phenomenal category as far as I'm concerned.

I look at your work, Chuck Burrows, and lately Kid Terico and I'm blown away by the quality workmanship and innovative design

Thanks for showing us some examples of your work, its greatly appreciated. JD

[litl rooster]

this place is becoming an Art Gallery.....Nice work

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Thanks for the tips on the wire. I thought it would be something like that. I hadn't guessed the small chisel, though.

That does look nice. It'll be a pleasure to see the next one.

[ChuckBurrows]

The same folks who produce my videos just released one on doing wire inlay work - Allen is one of the best there is -
http://www.centercross.com/cciv/Silver_Wire_Inlays_with_Allen_Eldridge.htm

for tools - old hacksaw blades are widely used - the wire can be bought from several sources including one of my favorites
www.ijsinc.com, best woods to use are maple and walnut: black or any of the European (i.e. Turkish, French, English - are all the same species - reglans regia)

[Josh Dabney]

Thanks again for all the nice comments fellas,

Chuck,  thanks for the info on the centercross video.   Also thanks for the info you gave previously on another forum.  I did in fact make your vinegar and steel wool recipe and used it on this knife.  It had been awhile since I read you recipe when I made mine and I did forget to acetone and burn the wool so I ended up with reddish looking stain but not enough to get the color into the wood.  I did soak it down several times though and dyed over top with dark brown feiblings pro oil dye.  I top finished with Formby's Tung oil finish.   The end resul came out really nice and is a great improvement in chatoyance over the first knife.  Next time I'll be following your suggestions with much more attention to detail.

I have been using a sanding drum in my dremel to taper the ends of the wire but haven't got it down to a science yet.  I have run into issues with getting the wire too thin and having trouble getting the taper to go in without rolling.  I believe my problem is chisels too thin.  I made them from exacto blades and thinned them down even more.  I'm gonna make a new set next time and leave them full thickness.

Quick question,  Which wire type do you use. Half hard or fully annealed ?    This was 99% fine silver half hard that was given to me.

Thanks again,   Josh

[Koyote]

 Well Josh... you have my order! I didn't think I could get just what I wanted even though I didn't know what that was!!
But a phone conversation cleared it all up for me!!
Thanks for all the help in the knife selection!!
PARDS don't forget if Plain ain't your stlye Josh is where you go for the goods!!!
Koyote Ken

[Dr. Bob]

Josh,

That inlay work is PRIMO!!