A little morning forging

Pure copper. Originally from a strap of armature stamping plate. I shaped it entirely cold, as it would have been if I was flopping the rough ingot out of a stone or clay mold.



The handle wrap is pine bark. I'm not sure how well it will stand up to being held and manipulated (it's working very well for my slate dagger's sheath). I'll probably wrap a palm swell onto this once this layer dries out (a day probably).



The thickness is just over 1/16th inch (I photographed it here slightly off of parallel with the blade so that it shows up!) When I started out, the pure copper stock was very wimpy, and was bent easily. Through my persistent and even hammering, the metal has been hardened to a surprising degree, and the blade is quite springy.



The edge is sharpened primarily by hammering it between two curved surfaces, basically smashing it to a flat razor edge between them. And I'm very bad at it since this my first attempt. Then I lightly "steeled" (actually, rocked) the edge to straighten it out a little. Despite its irregularity, it is quite sharp! It aggressively slices grasses and meat, and can be persuaded to slice into wood though I don't dare put too much force into it because a.) the edge is so thin and b.) it's doubled-edged. :P Working wood with it is actually interesting because it slices readily but doesn't bite deep, so it's most effective to slash up a curl and then cut it off from the other direction. Certainly a HUGE improvement though over a stone blade!

Hopefully I will be able to refine the point some more. I think at this point that will involve grinding metal off, as it's already so thin I can't effectively redistribute the metal any more.

Overall, this is not meant to be a direct replica of a historic knife. I have only seen one exmample of a "full tang" copper knife and it was so elaborately and finely made that it was clearly not your average slicer. Most copper age knives instead fit into a slot in a solid wood handle, and are riveted in place. However, though I didn't follow a specific historic pattern, there's no reason this knife couldn't have been made 7,000 years ago. The only difference is that I spent a lot more precious copper on the tool than they would have. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Very very cool - I love those primitive knife designs.

Pretty cool stuff you got going there, hanks for sharing yor project and pics. Very cool, i would hate to cut myself in that with it gnarly sharpened rough edge

That looks cool as hell. It definately look like something that would've been made by a cave dweller. Nice job.

that is serious.

get some obsidian!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow I hate posting while I'm doing several other things.....I just looked at it ....wow. Nice grammar.

You know I like that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

That's pretty cool! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Great job Momaw! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Very nice!

Thats awesome.

That is slick. Thanks for sharing.

That's a pretty cool creation, Momaw. It has some very appealing lines. Thanks for the write-up and photos!

That is very cool! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Well, I decided the knife kind of sucked the way it was. The handle wrap didn't fit that well, it wasn't comfortable to hold, the end of it was ugly and still had traces of the cold chisel, the edge was irregular...

So!



I took off the handle wrap (I still think it's completely amazing how this pine stuff behaves... when it's dry it's wood, when it's wet it's rubber!) and worked on the blade. I ground the heck out of it on my aggressive abrasion boulder, just to get the edge down to smooth. Which left really ugly burrs because copper doesn't really CUT so well, you just end up pushing it around. I then re-hammered the edge, this time with smaller tools and much more meticulously, to thin and harden it. Finally I sharpened the knife on a stone. It isn't really any sharper, but it looks a heck of a lot better, and it's a little easier to use because when you pull it through a slice you don't hit "bumps". The point got a lot more useful too.

Then I turned my attention to the pommel and handle.



First I smashed the pommel with my hammerstone aggressively, both to thin it out and to get rid of the modern tool marks. Then I shaped the tang to have indents at the front and back. The first time around, when I wrapped the cord it left uncomfortable bulges at the ends of the handle because of the knots. I hoped giving some place for that bulk to go would make it more comfortable to hold.

The pommel was too hard to work further, so I built a small fire and annealed it before using a flake of stone (and a stick as a guide) to saw the decorative notches in it. It's a small embellishment but I think it goes a long way!

Then I wrapped the handle with a strip of wet leather, and then the pine cord. I don't really have any logical basis for doing it this way instead of the other way. I just like the way the pine cord looks and feels. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> You can just catch a glimpse in the picture of a sliver of wood I shoved under the wraps on the side facing the camera, since the other side of the wrap had the length of cord underneath it. Between the leather, the under-cord and sliver of wood, the handle has a much more rounded shape and is comfortable to hold. Still not up to modern ergonomic standards, but we're dealing with 6000 BCE technology here.

I started work on a sheath, but the dye is drying and I don't want to mess with it right now... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for reading my thread and putting up with my odd projects, all.

Looks great to me! Keep up the good work! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />