Diesmal auf English
A good friend asked me to make him an Orbis with a blade that is based on Walter Brend's knives. Since I'm a big fan of mr Brend, I accepted the challenge.
The blade is forged out of a block of O1 toolsteel, has a blade of 11 inches....here are the first pictures:
My mini press
here the steel is stretched to become the blade
Blade is rough forged here, after this stage low temperature forging is next....
The first wing of the guard is folded out here
and the bottom one, it's a bit crude at this stage, but will be refined later on
Blade ready to cool and after that draw the outline
Outline has been drawn on the blade so I can check how much meat is left. In this case I made the blade longer than originaly decided on because I had enough steel left. Also the first big chunks of steel have been removed.
Tapering the blade
The Grip to be, stabilised Russian Walnot burl, present from my good friend Sam Lurquin (Thanks Sam!)
Further grinding on the fine belts
Here all imperfections from grinding are being removed with the DMT stone.
Flat areas are flattened with the DMT diafold. DMT is perfect for flat ereas!
Finishing the grip
Polishing the the hollow ground parts of the blade. The flat areas will get a handrubbed finish of 1000 grit.
And the end result:
11 inch long blade, hollow parts are polished and the flats handrubbed to 1000 grit. This project has been quite a challenge.....as was taking some decent pictures.....
I take my hat of for mr Brend and all others who do these grinds.