John White “Old Glory” D Guard WIP

[Kevin Jones]

As I started a very challenging new career just before Blade Show, 2011 has been my leanest year in acquiring
knives since I initially got the Custom Knife Bug about 10 years ago. So I’m extremely excited about my new
John White Creation.

John White is an extremely talented and dedicated ABS Mastersmith whose work I have followed and admired
since he started. John really hasn’t been making knives all that long, which is very surprising considering the
masterpieces he’s creating. However, perhaps not so surprising if you’ve seen the absolutely beautiful boats he
created in his previous career.

The Knife:

I’ve never had a “D” Guard Bowie so thought it a good choice for my first John White knife. I’m drawn towards modern
renditions of classic designs so wanted an “Americana” themed Bowie and the period “D” Guard Bowie seemed just right.
To carry out this idea, we decided to go with a Damascus blade that would have an “Old Glory” (American Flag) theme and
a classic stag handle. This is a new pattern for John so we are very excited about it. I happened to have a very nice old
amber stag carver squirreled away just waiting for the perfect project. I really looking forward to seeing this project un-fold
and I hope you will enjoy it as well. Let's start off with John's drawings.

John will be piercing the D-bow (a first for him) and Joe Mason will be applying his amazing skills in the form of gold inlay to this piece.



John presented two options for his new "Old Glory" "Stars & Stripes" damascus he created for this Bowie. We chose the six-bar. The blade will be around 12" in length.



I want to thank John for taking the extra time and effort in sharing the creation of this Bowie with us.

All comments and questions are welcomed.

[Jim Treacy]

Kevin,

That looks like a great design.

One of the best things about getting a knife from John is receiving the work in progress photos from John as he does the work on the knife. It really seems to get the juices flowing to see the project completed.

I'm looking forward to seeing more photos.

Jim

[Kevin Jones]

Here's a billet for the "stars" after the first weld, cut and stacked into 4
pieces, and two 13 layer billets tacked together for the first weld for the 13
"stripes." We'll have 13 stripes for Old Glory and the 13 colonies. I believe
we'll be able to count 'em on the blade,( if all goes well.)


A "stripes" billet in the forge just after the kerosene burned off. You can see
the carbon covering the billet, which protects the steel by oxidation-reduction
as it comes up to welding heat.


Welding the first 13 layer "stripes" billet under my little 25 lb hammer.


The billet for the "Stars" is welded a third time, giving 132 layers, and drawn
out to 9/16 x 9/16, cut into two 10 inch lengths, and welded to handles for
twisting.


Each bar is twisted "9 to the inch" or 20-360 degree turns, all at a welding
heat, one right hand, one left hand.


Each bar is then re-squared.


The 13 layer "Stripes" bars are cut to size, 1/2 x 9/16 x 10, and lightly etched
to see the orientation, and to check that we'll be able to see the layers in
the" flag." They are laid in place with the twisted "Stars" bars, in the way they'll
eventually be welded.

[Gary Mulkey]

Kevin,

Not only does John build outstanding pieces but is very good at documenting the progress. Thanks for posting. Looking forward to more.

Gary

[Kevin Jones]

Welded the bars into two half-billets, 3 & 3, two stripes and one star in each:


When cooled, cut half the tip curve in the end of each bar, and saved the
cut-offs to make sacrificial anvils for welding the blade billet:


Heated each half up, forged the tips down straight. Then cleaned the center,
mating edges, lightly etched to check pattern mating, and MIG'd the two bars
together to make an air-tight "box" for forge welding, and tacked the tip
cut-offs in place:


In one continuous operation, forge-welded the billet halves together, knocked
off the tip cut-offs, and forged the billet to profile.


The forged-to-profile blade billet cooling in still air after a 1600 F normalizing cycle.
This cycle resolves most of the residual stresses from the forging, evens out the grain
size, and begins to reduce grain size enlarged by the high heats of welding and subsequent forging
at a welding heat:

[Kevin Jones]

Damascus blade billet in digital oven-1600F
Following the initial normalizing cycle are three more, at descending
temperatures; 1500F,1450F, and 1425F. These cycles will further reduce stress,
and bring the grain size well into the the desired ranges for strength after
hardening.
Finally an hours' soak at 1200F, yields a semi-spheroidal, annealed state ready
for grinding and hardening.


One thing I forgot to show earlier was the 1/16 " steel pattern, made from our drawing, which I can lay against the billet as I forge, to get the profile just right, so I don't have to grind away the pattern later.


With the blade billet forged to profile, heat cycled, and annealed, I'll begin
by grinding the exact profile, using work rests , first on the wheel, then the
platen:


I want to have forged closely enough, using my pattern, so that only a bit less than 1/16, just the decarb, gets ground off.

You'll note that the billet was forged at a constant thickness of 9/16." The
pattern in the "Stars" twists is in the center third, and all that extra
damascus gets ground away! Oh for a EDM machine and a surface grinder:

[Kevin Jones]

With the billet edge ground to exact profile, I can lay it on a granite plate,
and using a height carbide tipped height gage, scribe two parallel lines, 1/4
inch apart, centered on the edge of the blade billet, all the way around:


About 30 minutes, and two 50 grit belts later, here's a 1/4 inch thick blade
blank, ready for rough grinding to shape.

I'm always a bit bemused when I see long arguments on forging vs stock removal. Multi-bar damascus with the pattern in the center takes both forging and stock removal on a massive scale, and if I had a howitzer I'd probably use that, too:


In preparation for rough grinding, the height gage is again useful, to scribe
lines .026" apart on the cutting edge, and guide lines near the tip for
pre-tapering:


After "eyeball" grinding about half the distal taper into the blank, (the rest
will come automatically, due to the profile taper, as I grind the bevels) a
carbide faced shoulder filing clamp from Uncle Al is set where I want the grind lines.
I'll begin by grinding about a 45degree bevel on each side of the blade, down to the two scribed cutting edge lines:

[Kevin Jones]

Grinding the 45 degree angles with a used belt removes the sharp corners from the cutting edge, and saves the grit of the brand- new belt that I'll use now to grind the bevels.

I'll begin grinding the bevels, working with a new 50 grit Norton ceramic belt.
I'll grind side to side, alternately, working the grind upwards toward the
spine.


At about this point, with the grind lines at the ricasso set evenly with the
shoulder-filing clamp, I remove the clamp, and finish the grind free-hand, only because the clamp feels a bit clumsy in my hand, and I think I can tweak things out a bit better without the clamp's weight.

After the 50 grit grind, I go over the blade with a new 120 grit, and another
new 220 grit, and clean the cutting edge and the spine with 220 grit, to remove any stress risers for hardening:


Tomorrow I'll thread the tang, stamp my mark on the ricasso, and it'll be ready to harden.

[Kevin Jones]

John has developed a beautiful new damascus pattern for our Bowie, however he discovered a small defect in the weld near the ricasso and anyone who knows John or has examined his knives knows he strives for perfection. I really appriciate that as a collector.

In John's words:

Hardened and tempered the blade today. I then go back to the grinder bring the flats down a bit, first with the 50 grit, then 120 and 220. This gets rid of any surface de-carb, and thins the edge.

This is the 2nd point where I can really examine the damascus. Sometimes after the strain of hardening, something shows up that couldn't be seen before. There's an area up near the ricasso where the last weld between the triple bars is not as perfect as it could be.

That won't do. I started a new billet today.

These things are part of the game when welding up these large billets, and I
just have to be willing to trash a blade if it doesn't look right to me.

Here's a picture of the hardened blade with the quick etch. You can see what the pattern looks like clearly now.

This is, by the way, the area with the bad weld. You can't see it after the
etch, but I know it's there.

[Steve Culver]

THAT'S a heartbreaker; I don't care who you are………..

For every beautiful blade that you see on a show table, there is a percentage of blades in the scrap heap. Happens to all of us.

Thanks for posting up John's WIP. This is going to be a magnificent piece!

Good luck on the next attempt John!!!