So, I felt like making a dagger!

A good while back I had started a project that I left to linger next to the forge for a few months, staring at me every time I would work out in the shop saying "I'm still here, you know". We had acquired an abnormally long jackhammer bit, so at one point I had flattened and drawn it out in the shape of what I would consider a "leafed" dagger blade. I thought it would be really cool to make a fully functional, semi decorative dagger that could hold a pretty keen edge. The other week, I dug this blade in the making back out again, only to lay it down for another few weeks. Finally, last night, I decided its time to knock this out and get it finished. Part of the reason I have yet to make a lot more progress on this knife is simply because of the roadblock I have seem to crash face first into. I can't decide where I'd like to take this dagger. Half of me would like to polish it up, make it really pretty, and put nice fixtures on it. The other part of me wants to leave it raw, have it look old, like it just came out of a medieval grave from under a London parking lot (see what I did there?).

Whether I know where I am going with this project or not, I started working on the blade, handle, and scabbard last night. Previously I had thinned the tang, forged and split the eye for the cross guard, and formed a slight bevel. However, last night I realized that entirely the blade is still too thick. In response to this problem, I fired up the forge last night to thin the blade a bit.

I had a few different routes I could take for this task. I could thin the blade and move the metal in the shape of my bevel by using a regular cross peen hammer, or I could use a rounding hammer and possibly move the metal with more speed and control. The only thing I don't like about the rounding hammer is when polishing, it can be quite a pain to get the texture from the blows to come out of the metal. I ended up using the rounder to thin the blade. I made quite a bit of progress, too. I then moved to the handle, in which I measured to my desired length, cut down, and then took to the drill press. Once the pilot hole was drilled, I hit it with a bit bigger drill bit, and from there was just work with a rather aggressive round file. Still have some more to do, as I don't quite have my fit I want yet. I would really like to re-do the cross guard out of bronze or brass, mainly because I want to work with materials that I haven't worked with before, but I'd have to order most of those materials in (except for the brass, I could get that here in Evansville). I still have much to finish on the the blade, though. More filing, more shaping. Many hours left, but that's the price you pay for doing all by hand... I'm okay with that, though. 

But really, let's cut to the chase. What I'm most excited about is the scabbard. I saw a technique online that I really liked, and I hope I can produce something that is 10% as effective as this guy did. I started with two cuts of black walnut. I've traced the blade, and now I'm working with relatively dull wood chisels and relief carving tools to carve out the shape of the blade. Then, glue and press, and finally move on to shaping the exterior of the sheath. I'm very, very excited about this. I just need some sharper tools!