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My newly assembled knife.

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Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
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Location
Texas
My first attempt at a more period correct knife than what I have normally done in the past. I did it from one of the Dexter Russell high carbon knife kits. It was the Green River Butcher blade blank that I reground to a different shape. The curly Maple handle scales came with it. I also replaced the two-part rivets with brass pins. I felt the brass pins do a better job holding the scales in place. I cold blued the blade to give it an older antique finish. The only thing I don’t particularly like is I wish the blade was thicker so it would balance blade down. It is pretty good quality high carbon steel, just wish it was twice as thick.

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Here is a photo of the reshaped Russell knife along with another reshaped Damascus blade I purchased through one of the knife making suppliers. I know Damascus steel dates back before the colonial era but just not sure if much if any of it was used during the fur trade era. My guess would be that it may have started showing up in the mid to late 1800's in the US and that is purely a guess. I do like the weight of the Damascus blade over the Russell blade.

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Here is a photo of the reshaped Russell knife along with another reshaped Damascus blade I purchased through one of the knife making suppliers. I know Damascus steel dates back before the colonial era but just not sure if much if any of it was used during the fur trade era. My guess would be that it may have started showing up in the mid to late 1800's in the US and that is purely a guess. I do like the weight of the Damascus blade over the Russell blade."

Damascus did not show up in America until about 1973. Other than a possible rare unlikely blade brought over from Europe. Around 1973 William F. Moran "re-discovered" how to forge Damascus steel. I say re-discovered with tongue in cheek, because the knowledge and skill to make layered pattern Damascus was never lost, it was just rarely done, and only by a few European smiths. I recall seeing a WW2 Nazi officers dagger done in Damascus years ago, so Bill Moran merely revived it's production. True Damascus, known as Wootz, was a cast steel believed to have originated in India sometime before the fourth century, and much superior to layered Damascus.
 
Anyone that cares about period correctness in your knives , needs to lose the brass pins. You will not find them on knives until possibly late 19th c. Pins were iron/steel. You will find some usage of brass washers with iron pins, brass rivets late 19th c.
 
Anyone that cares about period correctness in your knives , needs to lose the brass pins. You will not find them on knives until possibly late 19th c. Pins were iron/steel. You will find some usage of brass washers with iron pins, brass rivets late 19th c.

LRB, I realize the knives I have done are not specifically period correct though I did not expressly say it in either previous posts. I have made numerous knives over the years and use to do them from scratch (made and hardened my own blades). I no longer do my own blades but I purchase blade blanks from various sources. I have never attempted a period correct knife of the fur trade era. Most of the knives I have done in the past were of my own creation, fixed blade hunting knives and Bowies.

As stated I knew these two knives were not specifically period correct. I was attempting to get as close as I could with the blade blanks I could find online and the material I already had on hand.

I do thank you for your input and information and will take that into consideration if I should attempt to make a knife specifically period correct.

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks and honest critiquing.
 
As stated I knew these two knives were not specifically period correct. I was attempting to get as close as I could with the blade blanks I could find online and the material I already had on hand.

I do thank you for your input and information and will take that into consideration if I should attempt to make a knife specifically period correct.

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks and honest critiquing.

I had a while back, assumed :confused: (yes, mea maxima culpa) that brass pins were the proper choice and that the three pins would be properly spaced out, as they were in modern blades though the original pins were much smaller diameter at the surface of the knife scales than in modern knives, and I don't make my blade banks from scratch.... well fellows like Wick were kind enough to share on this forum what the originals really looked like, and how their copies of said originals appear.

So now on the odd occasion when I make a knife, I use steel pins, and two or three are placed between where the choil and the scales meet, to about the middle of the scales, and I try to make the scales a proper shape as well.

Live and learn, eh? Those two are nice lookin' knives.


LD
 
My first attempt at a more period correct knife than what I have normally done in the past. I did it from one of the Dexter Russell high carbon knife kits. It was the Green River Butcher blade blank that I reground to a different shape. The curly Maple handle scales came with it. I also replaced the two-part rivets with brass pins. I felt the brass pins do a better job holding the scales in place. I cold blued the blade to give it an older antique finish. The only thing I don’t particularly like is I wish the blade was thicker so it would balance blade down. It is pretty good quality high carbon steel, just wish it was twice as thick.

View attachment 9422 View attachment 9423
Great looking knife Shiloh. I've never been a fan of those 2 piece cutler's rivets either. I've used them, but I do not like them! I prefer Iron pins.
God bless:
Two Feathers
 
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