My newest sgian dubh

[Nighthawk]

New sgian from my nifty antler rack:









It still needs a little work, but overall, I'm happy with it. The blade is from Track Of The Wolf. The pommel is a pewter button. I wore it to the Colorado Chocolate Festival this weekend, and it went over really well- I had so many people actually trying to buy it off of me!

[Bugbear]

Did they have chocolate salsa?

[Iainkp]

nicely done, i'm normally not a fan of antler handles but this looks really nice,





Iain

[BoldHighlander]

I really like that!

[Santa Kona]

Very nice indeed.

[Nighthawk]

Did they have chocolate salsa?

As a matter of fact, yes. And it was surprisingly good. It was spread on crackers and mixed with cream cheese. I wouldn't buy any... but it was not too bad.

And there were Oompa Loompas all over the place... I'm a clownophobe as it is... but those things? Man! Creepy! If I had less self control, that sgian may have drawn oompa blood!

nicely done, i'm normally not a fan of antler handles but this looks really nice,
Iain

I'm exactly the opposite! I love antler handles. I love the look of it, the feel of it, and I love working with it. I'm having a Renaissance Scots doublet made for myself, and just finished cutting and drilling the antler buttons for it this evening. It's this style, but made of green wool lined with black wool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ8_I0-pi-M

But as I have often said, if we all liked the same things, life would be boring!

I really like that!

Thank you thank you. I have now made 2 from the rack that I have. I have a friend who took a deer and made a deal with me- I could have the whole rack minus one tine if I would make him a knife from the tine. I am making a knife for a leather worker friend of mine in exchange for a sheath for the dirk I'm making from this rack. And then my son wants a sgian of his own from it... so I am making 4 sgians, one dirk and 6 buttons from this rack. I'm having fun! Now if only my dirk blade would get here... That's my latest jones!

[Spc. Scott]

Nighthawk, how much work did you have to do to get the blade to what it looks like now? I just got two blades from Track of the Wolf and out of the box they look like the aluminum castings that I did in high school. Kinda like they had been poured in foundry sand molds.

I'm guessing it's gonna take a good bit of work to get them cleaned up. I'm thinking I can use the Dremel to sand it if I'm careful about not overheating it.

Enough about my plans...sorry for the semi-threadjack.

That's a good looking sgian man. Well done.

[Nighthawk]

Nighthawk, how much work did you have to do to get the blade to what it looks like now? I just got two blades from Track of the Wolf and out of the box they look like the aluminum castings that I did in high school. Kinda like they had been poured in foundry sand molds.

It had some heavy mold marks. I had to cut off two large rectangles at the base of the blade (on the tang) and at the bottom of the tang. I used a hacksaw and they came off without much problem. The steel is really good quality, though, so I had to take time to let the blade cool down a couple times- and my son thought my metal saw was a wood saw and destroyed a blade... I was hacking away thinking "Wow! This is taking a long time! Is this actually stainless steel?" And then I saw that the middle of the blade was almost flat... Darned kids... So- long story short: Hacksaw worked well to get the mold marks off, and I used a file to smooth it down. It took about 3 hours worth of work to get it cleaned up. It wasn't too tough, and it looks really nice. That's actually how I know it will polish up nice- where I filed it, it all nice and shiny.

Oh, and I think they're wax cast blades, but I can't swear to it.

[Bugbear]

As a matter of fact, yes. And it was surprisingly good. It was spread on crackers and mixed with cream cheese. I wouldn't buy any... but it was not too bad.

And there were Oompa Loompas all over the place... I'm a clownophobe as it is... but those things? Man! Creepy! If I had less self control, that sgian may have drawn oompa blood!

I like dark chocolate with red chili, that's why I asked.

Oompa Loompa, Oompa Loompa, Oompa Loompa, splat!

... life would be boring!

[Nighthawk]

I decided to polish my blade today. I worked on it for an hour with emery compound and a wheel, and it just kept it's pewter appearance, and I nearly ruined my buffer wheel. So if you want a nice mirror polished blade, Track of the Wolf blades seem to not be a good idea. Atlanta Cutlery blades are the way to go for shiny polish. On the other hand... TotW blades are heavy and strong, and so are more utilitarian.