First Dovetail bolster

[Chris Railey]

Jeykll and Hyde is all finished up so I decided to try a beveled bolster for the first time. This one will not be sold so I may as well experiment.

 

[opaul]

Looks good! I like the name.

 

[Chris Railey]

Man the camera does not lie...That discoloration above the Mr. Hyde mark is not visible to my eye. I had to go back and look for it. Looks like some FC got left on there or something.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

I had to come and look to figure out what "beveled bolster" meant. Most often that's referred at as a "Dovetailed Bolster".

Generally the best angle to use is 30 degrees..... I have a cast iron disc sander in the shop that is locked in at 30 degrees, and it's sole purpose is for dovetailed bolsters.

Be cautious about doing it with natural material for the bolster portion....especially is you sell the knife.... chances of that joint "moving" with two different natural materials is high. It's a whole new skill set to learn/understand....but it's well worth it!

 

[KenH]

Chris - the stitching on that sheath looks like machine made - is it? Good job anyway.

San Mai is fun isn't it?

 

[Chris Railey]

I had to come and look to figure out what "beveled bolster" meant. Most often that's referred at as a "Dovetailed Bolster".

Generally the best angle to use is 30 degrees..... I have a cast iron disc sander in the shop that is locked in at 30 degrees, and it's sole purpose is for dovetailed bolsters.

Be cautious about doing it with natural material for the bolster portion....especially is you sell the knife.... chances of that joint "moving" with two different natural materials is high. It's a whole new skill set to learn/understand....but it's well worth it!

Thanks for the correct term Ed. I knew this knife would never leave my possession so I wanted to try something different. Its only my second attempt at San-Mai so I have a long way to go before I trust it enough to sell. You bring up a good point about the natural materials though I did not think of that. Both pieces are stabilized and were glued to a G-10 liner to make the scale. Would the stabilized material solve the movement problem?
De-Mo told me about the 30 degree angle but I have nothing that will go to 30 degrees so I winged it.

 

[Chris Railey]

Chris - the stitching on that sheath looks like machine made - is it? Good job anyway.

San Mai is fun isn't it?

I am sure the stitches are machined though I did not make the sheath. I can make them, but I do not enjoy the process so that was made by a guy I get sheaths from. I agree that it is better to make your own sheaths but I am concentrating on forging better steel right now so I have little leftover time and funding to improve my leather work at present. I have two suppliers one for regular sheaths and one for nice hand tooled sheaths. I keep trying to talk my son into learning leather work but he is not interested.

 

[Kevin Zito]

Very nice! Great work!

 

[Jason Volkert]

Nice!! You guys have me etching to try some san-mai. I might give it go this weekend when I light the forge up

 

[Chris Railey]

Give it a shot. I did it as an introduction to forge welding because I really need to get to getting good at forge welding but I have to admit I like the San-Mai look. There is no one around here I am aware of who can teach me so I have to read and experiment so to speak. Its got me thinking of trying low layer count damascus in the future.

 

[DanF]

Its got me thinking of trying low layer count damascus in the future.

If you like playing with San Mai, you will love low layer count patterns! I think I posted a pic of my first in the introductions forum. I don't think it is as persnickety as san mai in some ways, but a bit more grunt work with the twisting, for me.

 

[KenH]

Funny ya'll should mention low layer Damascus - I've been thinking about how I can do that. Perhaps weld up a 5 layer, then fold it for 10 layers - would 10 layers be enough to show a pattern? No twisting, just a flat bar folded.