Built a double edged knife......

I found an old badly rusted doubled edged knife on the bottom of a box of stuff a friend gave me a couple of weeks ago. It appeared to have been wet for years as well rodents had chewed the handle almost off.

Having read a few recent posts about HC double edge knives of the 18th century my mind went in to gear. So this afternoon after a few hours of draw filing and crocus cloth and 000/0000 steel wool the rust started to come off.

After a bit it started to look like a forged knife where I stopped. I built a handle from some antler I had put it all together and this is what came out.

Blade is 11/16"x6" and over all length is 10 3/16".



Now that it is together I think that I could have tapered the top and bottom of the handle to closer match the width of the blade. I still have to get some brass pins to put in to complete the handle.

Now I am also thinking of some sort of silver or brass cap for the end of the handle.

If possible, it would look much better if the antler were tapered as you said. For 18th c., iron pins would be better than brass, and iron for a butt cap also.

If you were to mount the blade towards the back of the antler you could have followed the curve on the underside and removed the excess material, which would have given the knife a smoother transition. I know my photoshop skills are 1st grade but something like this:

Yes. That's more like it could/should be. Excess material could still be removed by careful filing near, but not to the guard until the last step. By staying just a tad shy of touching the guard, a crescent shaped plate would be created on top and bottom, which could then be carefully filed down. This would take time and care. Assuming the antler is epoxied in place, some epoxies will soften and loosen if the knife were boiled for a while. However, if that failed, the results could be worse. I don't know. The one time I witnessed such a proceedure, it worked.

Yep. That PS version looks much better. Original looks like something I might have built. :wink:

Wick Ellerbe said:

Yes. That's more like it could/should be.

Click to expand...

Historically, was it more common for a "dagger" to have a straight handle?

Straight grips on daggers were most popular on the commercially made ones, which were by far the most commonly available.
On locally made products you will find a fair distribution of different styles of handles including curved ones. While commercially made and supplied knives were by far the most common, locally made and/or custom knives became more common in the 19th Century.

Thanks for the shopped pic. That does look a lot better.

I went thru my box of antlers and did not have any straight bases. I also cut a nice straight tine but the base looked better on the blade. As well the curved base fits my hand very well.

Now I am trying to think how one can break the epoxy loose. Heat the blade up? I heated a piece of the remaining epoxy with a flame and it became all soft and crumbly. Not sure if I can get enough heat down the handle. I going to boil the left over epoxy and see what the results are.

I think I can safely sand down the handle and then use a small blade to clean it up close to the guard.

MC One Shot said:

Now I am trying to think how one can break the epoxy loose.

Click to expand...

Most epoxy will soften at a temperature of 350 degrees




William Alexander

I tried boiling some of the remaining epoxy to see what happens but it did nothing at all to break it down or to make it come apart all.

It may be best to just file it down. The only other way I can think of is to put it in hot vege oil at maybe 300° or 350°. I have never heated antler that high, so I can't say what it may do to it. Perhaps someone else here can advise on that.

My kitchen oven works for me, no oil.

But antler I have no idea at that temperature, smelly?

William Alexander

MC One Shot said:

.

Click to expand...

It looks fine; If it was mine I might make the next one different and not redo it

If I was going to redo it, I would not take it apart. I would shape it together

William Alexander

Got the blade out of the horn handle. Placed the blade in a vise with alum pads a couple of inches from the bolster. After heating the blade with a small torch for a while the handle was not budging. The epoxy at the bolster started to bubble and melt. I had to heat the horn with a heat gun at the same time to finally get the handle off.

Glad you got it out. Looking forward to final results.