WaddWatsonEllis Belduque WIP

[Josh Dabney]

Now back to the Peas and Carrots Pards 

Here we are with our spankin new .040 German Silver sheet on the bandsaw ready to cut 2 pieces for the front and back of the throat.


After talking to John the other day I thought maybe I'd better go back and re-read the tuorial by Bruce Evans on making a silver sheath as it had been quite awhile since the last time I read it.  One thing I forgot all about was that the silver can easily be annealed by heating up to red and quenching in water so this is gonna make the sheet much easier to form and not so springy.  I just used my MAPP gas torch to do half of each piece at a time.  Of course this warped my pieces a bit and uglied them up but nothing some light hammering didn't take care of.

[Josh Dabney]

Now here we are with our first piece cut, annealed, and edges de-burred, and clamped in the vise along side the sheath (The knife IS in the sheath to prevent crushing the wood from over-tightening)


This shows how I used a wood board to bend the sheet over its whole length at the same time.  Of course I did hammer on the wood to get the sheet to bend to the shape of the sheath body.


Makin some progress now 



Repeated this process for the second side.

[Josh Dabney]

Now that we've got both sides made an fitted together it's time to try out the high temp (1400 degree melting point) silver brazing rod.  Here we are clamped up with paste flux on both sides of the joint


I used the MAPP gas for this because I needed to reach such a high temp and it worked pretty well starting at the top and getting about an inch of the joint up to temp then chasing the flame towards the bottom with the rod.


I did test fit the throat onto the sheath body and make some minor adjustments to the seam on side #2 before this pic but here's the second side in the vise and brazed


Cleaning things up a bit on a slack belt.  I'm not worried about getting a perfect finish here just making CERTAIN I've got 2 good joints and nothing that won't finish out when the time comes

[Josh Dabney]

Getting started on a new top.  I've got the slot cut and cleaned up with files


Now we're checking both ways to be sure we get the top on square to th sides of the body.



Boy this low temp silver solder (430 degree melting point)  is MUCH easier to control with the adjustable flame on the propane torch  



Now we finish up for the day with the top cut out with the bandsaw and roughly shaped up with a 36 grit belt


Boy, after the tribulations it seemed like this here throat durn near made itself, LOL

-Josh

[Messerist]

Super work!  Your posts on the construction of WWE's knife are a source of constant amazement.  Good luck on your forged blade.  I've been forging knives for over 15 years and it never gets dull...pardon the pun.  Can't wait for your next installment.  Thanks again for sharing .

[WaddWatsonEllis]

OMYGOSH!  This transcends knifemakeing and enters into fine art/jewelry making ... it looks like something a King might have had on his waist in Midievil Days ...

I am beginning to think that I might need an armed guard with when I docent with this on ...

[Josh Dabney]

Thanks fer the comments Pards !

WWE,   

Once the Belduque gets it's final sharpening I think you'll be all set for self defense while performing yer duties as a Docent 

-Josh

[WaddWatsonEllis]

 Looks like I will be taking a knife fighting class ... never been in a fight in my life *S*

[Forty Rod]

I could drive up for a weekend and slap you around a bit.      

[kflach]

Now that's a true Pard!

<grin>

[Messerist]

Any slappin' should be done "before" WWE gits his Belduque

[GunClick Rick]

Damn Josh! Hope i win the lotto soon

[Josh Dabney]

Well Pards,  there's still a bunch of work that needs doin on the silver throat but sometimes ya just wanna break new ground ya know.  So I decided to put the finish work on the throat aside for the time being and git to working on the toe.

When I ordered the .040 sheet for the throat and toe body pieces I went ahead an ordered a piece of .0625 (1/16") sheet also to use for the "fin" (for lack of a better term).  I figure it'll be a bit stouter than the .040 but the 1/8" would certainly be overkill and just adding un-needed weight to the sheath.

Here we've traced the profile of the sheath and an outline giving us plenty of extra meat just because.


Now we cut out the fin and fit it up to the sheath body.

[Josh Dabney]

Moving forward we trace the sheath with about 3/8" extra and cut out 2 pieces of .040 for the toe body panels


Just as we did with the throat pieces we heated to a dull red and quenched in water to anneal the body pieces


Now we're ready to begin forming the sides of the toe.


This time I'm using a piece of an old broom handle as a punch to form the silver.  The smaller surface of the wood allows us to work the silver over the curvature of the sheath.

[Josh Dabney]

We're getting close on this side now


Here you can see how much extra material we have to cut off this body panel


test fitting and fine tuning 


Here we're lining up the fin right where we want it to end up and marking on the body with a pencil where the body panel needs to meet up to the fin.

[Josh Dabney]

Now we begin fitting the body to the fin right on the sheath body.  You can see we still need to take some silver off the edges of the body panel to get a tight fit.  I used the flat platen and an 80 grit belt to SLOWLY grind down the edge of the panel a little at a time and test fitting alot to get down to a tight fit.


Clamped up and ready to braze side #1 to the fin


Here we've got it brazed and can move on to side 2.  


Now we've got the first side all brazed up.  NOT very pretty is it  

[Josh Dabney]

Now we repeated everything we just did with side #2 and begin tuning for a good fit on the sheath and match to side #1



Git everything just where we want it and braze up side 2


Now we begin using a combination of the grinder (to remove blobs)  files (to remove bulky braze) and slack belt grinding and hand sanding to clean things up.

[Josh Dabney]

Started on the other side but still got a ways to go


Thats as far as I got with the toe today but I figured it about time for a quick pic of the whole enchilada with a 12" ruler for size comparison   


Aught to make some good progress with the silver work tomorrow Pards and eventually we'll get to the point where we can finish off the sheath body  to prep for mounting the throat and toe.

-Josh

[Dave Cole]

Looking good brother, can't wait to see it in person when I get over there.Dave

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Forty Rod,

Gee, Thanks *VBS*