{"id":208,"date":"2011-12-31T19:13:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T19:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=208"},"modified":"2012-01-15T20:27:27","modified_gmt":"2012-01-15T20:27:27","slug":"knapped-bronze-dagger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=208","title":{"rendered":"“Knapped” Bronze Dagger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wanting to play around with forging some bronze, I researched how to make it on the Web. \u00a0I decided (mistakenly, as it turns out) to make a high-tin alloy called “bell metal.” \u00a0This is 20% tin and 80% copper, and was used to make bells (hence the name!). \u00a0Regular bronze is more like 8% tin, and supposedly cold-forges well.<\/p>\n

Well, melting the metal and casting the ingot went just fine. \u00a0But, it turns out bell metal is really hard, and doesn’t forge. \u00a0So, forging was out, stock removal was in…on to Plan B.<\/p>\n

Rather than let this pretty metal go to waste, I decided to make one of my “knapped” blades.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a>Here’s the finished blade, ground with a sanding drum in my Foredom\u00a0flex shaft grinder, and patinated.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a>Since the blade went well, I played with it for several weeks wondering what to do with it, and decided it needed a snakewood handle. \u00a0Snakewood is a VERY expensive wood from Central America. \u00a0Despite its wild grain look, it is actually very straight grained and splits easily, so is a challenge to work. \u00a0Above is the finished handle, with rawhide wrap and fossil ivory signature reserve.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/a>And, the other side. \u00a0The whole knife is slightly over 5 inches long.<\/p>\n

This knife will be available at BladeGallery.com in the near future.
\nClick here to see Tom’s available knives page at BladeGallery<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wanting to play around with forging some bronze, I researched how to make it on the Web. \u00a0I decided (mistakenly, as it turns out) to make a high-tin alloy called “bell metal.” \u00a0This is 20% tin and 80% copper, and … 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":[18],"tags":[20,19,8,17,21,4,22],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6qLAy-3m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5506,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=5506","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":0},"title":"Hummingbird Skull Reliquary","date":"May 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new reliquary project. This is the first of several elements, a 1075 carbon steel blade in my signature \"knapped steel\" style. Using a small drum sander, I'm carving in the flake scars that would be left from knapping stone blades... 1075 carbon steel blade, one of several elements\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/TomSterling_Hummingbird_Skull_Reliquary_15.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2852,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2852","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":1},"title":"Helheim Dagger in Knapped Steel – Part 2","date":"March 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Now were ready to begin the \"knapping\" process. \u00a0I'm gong to be using a small drum sander in my Foredom\u2122 flexible shaft grinder to create \"flakes\" in the steel similar to the flakes removed from stone to create a stone blade. Above, I've carefully ground away the \"flats\" I so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"Helheim_Dagger_14","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Helheim_Dagger_14.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5587,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=5587","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":2},"title":"Knapped Push Dagger Tutorial","date":"May 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Time to start another knife project. I think this will be a small push dagger , in knapped steel style with my nasty \u201cripper edge. Grinding my signature \"knapped steel\" flake scars into 3\/16 inch thick 1084 steel Kup Doxycycline bez recepty , followed by differential hardening and tempering. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carving"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/TomSterling_Knapped_Push_Dagger_Tutorial_2-300x268.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2825,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2825","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":3},"title":"Helheim Dagger in Knapped Steel – Part 1","date":"March 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the start of the \"Helheim Dagger.\" \u00a0Done in 1075 carbon steel I decided to do this one in my signature \"knapped steel\" style, so it resembles a stone knife. Helheim (\" the house of Hel\") is one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology, and is ruled by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Helheim_Dagger_2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2983,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2983","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":4},"title":"Helheim Dagger in Knapped Steel – Part 8","date":"March 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the finished knife. \u00a0I still need to make a box or stand for it (probably box?). Above is Hel , and her dead eye (moose antler). And, of course, here's Odin. Thanks for looking!","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Helheim_Dagger_56.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2965,"url":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/?p=2965","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":5},"title":"Helheim Dagger in Knapped Steel – Part 7","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm finishing up the engraving on the Hel side of the dagger. \u00a0Above, I've removed the background, using what I call a \"scribble\" texture for the cloth of her robe, and I've used a tiny four-sided point to stipple the non-cloth areas (see around her dead eye, and between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engraved Knife"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Helheim_Dagger_54.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208"}],"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=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sterlingsculptures.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}