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Post by shawnbina on Aug 19, 2022 20:26:28 GMT
I am new to the forum and somewhat new to blades and blade construction. I retired two years ago and began seroiusly working on my long time desire to create fantasy themed blades. I am looking for feedback regarding my work creating one of a kind fantasy daggers and figured what better place than with people who share my interests. I have attached a couple photos of one example of my work. If you are interested you can see other examples at my website (Which is a work in progress). Thanks for any feedback as someday I hope to start to sell my creations, but that is a ways off at this point. guildofthegildedhilt.com    |
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Post by Eric Bergeron on Aug 19, 2022 20:50:12 GMT
Looks really amazing, what are the stats of the dagger if you don't mind sharing?
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Post by skelley on Aug 19, 2022 20:56:11 GMT
I got the stats from shawnbina's website.
Devil’s Thorn
Specifications:
Blade length- 12 inches
Overall length-18 inches
Grip length- 4 inches
Blade width at widest point- 1.5 inches
Guard width- 4.625 inches
Weight- 17.9 oz.
Balance Point- where blade meets the guard
Gotta say that I like a lot of your stuff. Personal favorites for me are the Werebear’s Claw, the Stag’s Gift and Autumn’s End.
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Post by shawnbina on Aug 19, 2022 22:17:40 GMT
Thanks so much for the kind words and taking the time to look at some of my other work on the website. I appreciate the feedback. I am my harshest critic, and it took me a longtime to build up the courage to post anything.
Blade etching can be very inconsistent so I never know how others will view the work.
Thanks again
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Post by cerberus1426 on Aug 29, 2022 0:35:17 GMT
The blade etching is very impressive man and the guards are beautiful. How did you do it and what blades did you buy to modify since it says a windlass on your site if you don't mind my asking.
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Post by shawnbina on Aug 29, 2022 22:46:28 GMT
Thanks for looking at my work. I do the etching by painting the blade with white spray paint (very important the blade is perfectly clean and free of any oils) I then freehand draw my image onto both sides of the painted blade and scratch off the paint with a fine awl from everywhere I want to bite into the steel. I then use either electro-etching in a solution of iron sulfate, if I plan to etch the entire image at once, or acid etch with Ferric Cloride if I plan to do multiple etches as I slowly scrath off more paint, for a more 3-d look. When I am done etching I remove the remaining paint with Acetone. The guards are all ground on a belt grinder and hand filed and sanded to final shape from blocks of brass or steel. As for the blade blanks I start with, I use a number of differnt ones. The ones I posted on this board were Windlass, Arkansaw Toothpicks.
Thanks again,
Shawn Guildofthegildedhilt.com
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Post by paulmuaddib on Aug 30, 2022 2:03:54 GMT
If you mean the pictures you posted on here being the windlass Arkansas toothpick, then DAMN! I’ve got one on my table right now I bought a few months ago. And it doesn’t look anything like that. Really great work. Just beautiful.
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Post by shawnbina on Aug 31, 2022 14:40:42 GMT
Yes, The Devil's Thorn did start out with a Windlass Arkansaw Toothpick for a blade blank. It was a slow process of lots of stock removal as I did not want to overheat the hardened blade. One unfortunate thing with the Windlass Arkansaw toothpick is that they usually stamp yhe Windlass name right in the face of the blade, this needs to be ground out prior to any etching.
Thanks for looking and thanks for the nice compliment
Shawn Guildofthegildedhilt.com
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Things have changed!