{"id":1298,"date":"2012-02-11T00:11:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T00:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2012-02-11T00:18:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T00:18:23","slug":"ants-miseretto-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1298","title":{"rendered":"Ants Miseretto part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, now that I have several sheets of shibuichi in hand, I turned my attention to making a knife. \u00a0First (and this is always the most difficult part!) I had to decide on a design. \u00a0The subject I chose was ants, so I’m going to inlay tiny ants in 24 karat gold in the shibuichi scales. \u00a0Lots more to decide later, but this gives me a target to shoot at, so I had to come up with an appropriate looking knife to go along with what will (hopefully) result in an elegant presentation.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>So, I struggled with the above type designs for several days, but nothing was really grabbing my imagination. \u00a0Starting to panic – I needed to get something going, but nothing was really working for me.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

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\nThen, the idea. I’ve always liked the long, graceful Italian stiletto design, and have made several thin medieval-style\u00a0misericordia in the past (see the image above). \u00a0I haven’t done one of these lately, and they proved to be popular, so, bingo!, an idea that would probably go well with the ants theme.<\/p>\n

Misericordia<\/strong><\/em> were medieval stabbing weapons, supposedly intended to provide “mercy” (misericordia is “pity<\/strong><\/em>” or “mercy<\/strong><\/em>” in Latin) to seriously wounded foes on the battlefield. Typical blades are diamond or triangular in cross section, without sharpened edges. Not intended for cutting, they could slip in between the cracks of armor. \u00a0I’m a little skeptical about the “mercy<\/strong><\/em>” part, but I wasn’t there back in the “bad ole days,” so what do I really know about it? \u00a0Since this knife is intended to be small and elegant, maybe I’ll call this one a “miseretto.” \u00a0Yeah, that’s it…we’ll call it a miseretto.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Of course, it was just an idea. \u00a0Not quite ready for prime time, so it was back to the drawing board (literally!). \u00a0I sketched around for a while and came up with a basic design, then scaled it so I could get both handle scales out of a single sheet of the shibuichi, then played around with scaling the blade and the handle for a pleasing aspect. \u00a0A few of the attempts\u00a0above. \u00a0The one I decided on (with my wife’s “guidance”) is the design on the right.<\/p>\n

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\nBut, still a little uncertain, I decided on a wooden macquette to help with the decision process. \u00a0The wooden blank cutout is on the left, and the design rubber cemented onto a piece of 1080 carbon steel on the right.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above is the wooden mockup carved from a piece of walnut the same thickness as my carbon steel, and the wooden blade shaped with a knife.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>And here, above, with the decorative “scoops” added with a sanding drum. \u00a0Looking pretty good, so on to the steel.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>The steel blank cut out, next to the wooden mockup.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>And, the other side. \u00a0Next, I’ll have to shape the blade. \u00a0I think I’ll upset the blade from the sides to add a little thickness, and maybe\u00a0forge the basic taper into the blade, then start with the angle grinder, followed by files. \u00a0I’m feeling better, now that I’m finally rolling again…
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, now that I have several sheets of shibuichi in hand, I turned my attention to making a knife. \u00a0First (and this is always the most difficult part!) I had to decide on a design. \u00a0The subject I chose was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5,27],"tags":[8,3,7,4,26],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-kW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1647,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1647","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":0},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 15","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Inlaying the 24 karat gold wire - I folded the wire to fit into the rear part of the inlay pocket, then annealed the wire. Above is the entire ant, with three folded wire inlays. All three ants with filled inlay pockets. I've used the ant punches to do the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Ants_Miseretto_61.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1459,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1459","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":1},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 8","date":"February 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally! \u00a0Today I finished the canvas! Above, I took corners off of the shibuichi scales, using my belt grinder. Then, I started draw filing the edges, working them down even with the steel edges of the blade. Here you can see I'm starting to get the shibuichi scales even with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1792,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1792","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":2},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 17","date":"July 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm back to working on the Ants Miseretto after a hiatus. \u00a0I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out what should go on the other side handle scale, and I've finally decided. Above, I've drawn on a knothole and the beginning of some wood texture, being cognizant of where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Ants_Miseretto_80.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1631,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1631","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":3},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 14","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm back in the saddle again! I've installed the dagger in my engraver's vise and used my three \"ant punches\" to lightly punch three ants in the shibuichi handle scale. Here's a closer view, just lightly punched. \u00a0I wouldn't be doing this if the handle scales were steel or titanium,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Ants_Miseretto_52.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1408,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1408","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":4},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 5","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much happening here, but the blade has soaked in vinegar all night to dissolve the scale created during the blade forging and hot rolling during the creation of the original steel bar. And, above, the blade after using a ScotchBrite\u2122 abrasive pad to remove the dark oxide left from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Ants_Miseretto_29.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1472,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1472","url_meta":{"origin":1298,"position":5},"title":"Ants Miseretto part 9 – Risk Reduction","date":"February 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that my \"canvas\" is completed, it's time to turn my efforts to the design phase of the project. \u00a0I've spent an awful lot of time making the knife, and I'm concerned about inlaying the gold ants in the shibuichi. \u00a0I've inlaid one in nickel before, but not shibuichi, so,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Shibuichi_Pendant_16.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}