{"id":1954,"date":"2013-04-11T20:04:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2013-04-12T19:20:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T19:20:25","slug":"blacksmith-caterpillar-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1954","title":{"rendered":"Blacksmith Caterpillar Knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s another strange idea I came up with. \u00a0This little knife is based upon a class of knives called “Blacksmith Knives” or sometimes “Viking Woman’s Knives.” \u00a0These come down to us through antiquity, and were generally just simple (and inexpensive) utility knives roughly forged out by the local blacksmith. \u00a0There is some debate about the validity of the “Viking Woman’s Knives” name, although I recently saw a treatise with images of similar knives found in pre-Viking graves. \u00a0It’s written in a Nordic language, so I can’t vouch firsthand what it says, and is an image rather than text, so I can’t attempt an Internet translation. \u00a0Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>My little version here is hand forged and filed from 1080 carbon steel, and is 3.5 inches long in total (slightly less than 9 cm). \u00a0Above, I engraved my pattern of a caterpillar eating it’s way through the steel and have begun to saw out the waste areas with a jeweler’s saw. \u00a0This is pretty hard steel, even in a normalize state, and is a bit thicker than 1\/8 of an inch (3.5 mm).<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Continuing on with the sawing, I’ve removed a little half-moon shaped piece of metal at the front end of the caterpillar.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Continuing down the back. \u00a0I’ve used at least three blades at this point. \u00a0It is very difficult to hold the knife steady during sawing, since there are really no flat areas on the bottom side. \u00a0I learned something here – since this is all on the top and easily accessed later, next time I won’t bother to follow the little hills and valleys. \u00a0I’ll just cut a smooth curve across the hilltops ignoring the valleys. \u00a0It would be far easier to just engrave and carve them in later, and would make the sawing a lot easier.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Above, I’ve finished all the sawing and am ready to begin carving and sculpting. \u00a0All told, I used more than a dozen 5\/0 and 2\/0 jeweler’s saw blades. \u00a0Whew!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another strange idea I came up with. \u00a0This little knife is based upon a class of knives called “Blacksmith Knives” or sometimes “Viking Woman’s Knives.” \u00a0These come down to us through antiquity, and were generally just simple (and inexpensive) … 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":[23,5],"tags":[9,3,7,17,16,4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-vw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3046,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3046","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":0},"title":"Dragonsbane Poniard – Part 7 – The Stand","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been dreading this part, but since I'm not terribly enthused today about carving steel, I'll make stands for the knives I'm going to present at the upcoming 1st Annual Seattle International Knife Show. \u00a0I've decided a Norse-style dragon head would look good, so I've cobbled together a plan, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Dragonsbane_Poniard_43.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1044,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1044","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":1},"title":"Engraved Spyderco Cricket “Surprise” Knife","date":"January 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I started a new engraved knife - Mary Alice won't let the wicked rest\u2026 This one is a Spyderco Cricket knife with a skulls and ribbons design. \u00a0These little Spyderco stainless steel knives are a dream to engrave, and are very well made, with nice smooth actions. Above is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Spyderco_Cricket_Skulls_Knife_14.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3877,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=3877","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":2},"title":"Engraving a Serge Panchenko Bean Knife “Dogfish”","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new engraving project on one of Serge Panchenko's sweet little Bean folding knives (sergeknives.com). This Bean knife scale is in bronze, and is a dream to cut. Just a bit under three inches long. Adding in the 24 karat gold inlays in the undulating bull kelp fronds. L\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Serge_Dogfish_Bean_Knife_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1973,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1973","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":3},"title":"Blacksmith Caterpillar Knife – Part 3","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that I've removed the knife from it's holding medium, I notice the caterpillar has a bad case of the \"squares.\" \u00a0I need to round it's top edges over a little more. There, that's better. \u00a0Now for the other side. And, above, is the other side completely carved, rounded and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Blacksmith_Caterpillar_Knife_9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4120,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=4120","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":4},"title":"Tom included in The World of Art Knives, Vol III by Dr David Darom","date":"December 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Those who\u2019ve been around the knife world for very long will recognize the many art knife books by Dr David Darom. I have a number of them myself, and have found lots of inspiration in them. Imagine my pleasant surprise when he asked me to participate in his latest, The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Darom_Sterling_Book.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1966,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=1966","url_meta":{"origin":1954,"position":5},"title":"Blacksmith Caterpillar Knife – Part 2","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Above is the caterpillar after initial carving with small carbide burrs. \u00a0 And here, I've used small punches to smooth over all the hills and valleys of the caterpillar's side. \u00a0I've also done a preliminary darkening of the steel just to get an idea of how it will look when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Blacksmith_Caterpillar_Knife_6.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954"}],"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=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1964,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/1964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}