Nox Luna
Sol 15* Aquarius, Luna wx 30%v at 14* Aries
Hand-forged steel, brass, ebony, mosaic pins
about 8.5 in. long
Positives:
– It’s a functional knife! Not too thick, not too klunky. Nice weight and shape. Feels good in hand. I think it’s a pretty good for being the first one. This was one of three blades I forged in the first class day. The other two were ugly and not usable. Getting consistently good results and achieving what I set out to make each time will take a lot more practice.
-It sharpened up quickly and has a very fine edge. Time and use will tell if it holds the edge well.
-It was SO MUCH FUN.
Negatives:
-The edge bevels should have been deeper and cleaner. Use correct stance at the belt sander!
-A deeper finger guard notch would have been nice.
– The blade has a slightly thicker area about an inch back from the point. It may actually be a happy accident in that it gives the tip more strength, but it wasn’t intentional.
-The point ended up being quite rounded. Had to reshape the point after T sharpened it. I was pretty grumpy that I overlooked it.
-I didn’t anneal and flatten the brass liners before bonding them to the blade and ebony pieces. One of the visible “wing” projections that extend out on to the blade on each side (I put my maker’s mark on one of them) had a little bit of upward bend, pulled away from the blade. It’s slight, probably half a millimeter if that, but it’s there. I had to fill it in with epoxy to be sure it was all sealed.
– We didn’t put the ebony on another piece of wood when drilling through, and so of course it chipped out in a couple of places on one side. Filled with ebony dust and glue. Not too ugly, sealed and solid.
-I didn’t rotate the mosaic pins so that the axes of their patterns aligned. Even reminded myself to do this beforehand, but forgot. D’oh!