As some of you may already know, I'm a prolific wombling, hoarding, recycling cheapskate with a passion for old and knackered stuff to clean up or re-make into other junk (and a man who fears the blood drinking badger overlord..)..
Well amongst my other latest makings I decided to make use of an old machete I had laying around. It had previously been cut/reshaped to look like a badger slaying sword of the ages.. but wasn't getting that much use
(badgers here are too tough to tell the truth..).
So with my re-do it mind at work I squinted a little, took a pen to it.. and.. came up with a design I liked the look of! I quite fancy the western trade knife and tools look so went with that.
I took pictures of it all over time, so sorry if I missed a few out I didn't have my camera at the ready for a few bits.
Here is the blade after I broke off the handle and cut out my new design. I made sure to keep it all cool in all of the cutting, tooling process too.
As you can see it was previous a cleaver sword thingy.. but the steel is good, good enough to make me recycle it into something 'useable'! Also, those two pieces of seasoned plumb were to be the handles! And I used some brass sheet from the gift it on thread for liners
I didn't get round to pictures of the handling process but I simple drilled the holes and bolted them together when sandfing to get them even at the top and the right fit.
I then glued all the brass and wood together and to the knife tang with nut and bolts (the nut and bolts also are my pins!) and left it to dry before the final shaping which I done with a rasp and a flap disc on me angle grinder.
Here it is just after most of the handle shapeing..and some low grit blade polishing.
and here it is with a light coat of oil before I gave it a dark patina so it has an aged look, perfect for the trade style I was aiming at. I do a mix od vinegar and mustard, mixed lumpy for my patinas, as it gives a blotched and almost forged look to the blade.
and some shots of the patina effect I was going for, with about 30 minutes apart.
After a little wipe down and check if it was dark enough..
Nice, but I wanted it darker and older looking, so I gave it a splash of vinegar and cooked some chilli for the family
And when I finally got back to it, it had turned really grey and mucky looking! just how I like it.
Now the blade was looking right for me, I wanted to darken that handle as the grain in the plumb is a bit mild for my liking. I don't have any fancy wood dyes or oils so I gave it the candle treatment! just a light heating all over the wood to collect carbon and work the previous oil coat into the wood.
All it needed then was a light sand to remove a bit of black and a good hand rub with some raw linseed oil - and some brass rivets fitted in the lanyard hole (don't have any brass tube! hehe) and a bit of leather cord to top it off!
All done.. ish. Need to make a sheath still but I'll find some bits to stick together for that later on this week!
Hope you like it, took me a few hours and was lots of fun getting filthy and making loads of noise!
Thanks for taking your time to check it out too
Well amongst my other latest makings I decided to make use of an old machete I had laying around. It had previously been cut/reshaped to look like a badger slaying sword of the ages.. but wasn't getting that much use
(badgers here are too tough to tell the truth..). So with my re-do it mind at work I squinted a little, took a pen to it.. and.. came up with a design I liked the look of! I quite fancy the western trade knife and tools look so went with that.
I took pictures of it all over time, so sorry if I missed a few out I didn't have my camera at the ready for a few bits.
Here is the blade after I broke off the handle and cut out my new design. I made sure to keep it all cool in all of the cutting, tooling process too.
As you can see it was previous a cleaver sword thingy.. but the steel is good, good enough to make me recycle it into something 'useable'! Also, those two pieces of seasoned plumb were to be the handles! And I used some brass sheet from the gift it on thread for liners
I didn't get round to pictures of the handling process but I simple drilled the holes and bolted them together when sandfing to get them even at the top and the right fit.
I then glued all the brass and wood together and to the knife tang with nut and bolts (the nut and bolts also are my pins!) and left it to dry before the final shaping which I done with a rasp and a flap disc on me angle grinder.
Here it is just after most of the handle shapeing..and some low grit blade polishing.
and here it is with a light coat of oil before I gave it a dark patina so it has an aged look, perfect for the trade style I was aiming at. I do a mix od vinegar and mustard, mixed lumpy for my patinas, as it gives a blotched and almost forged look to the blade.
and some shots of the patina effect I was going for, with about 30 minutes apart.
After a little wipe down and check if it was dark enough..
Nice, but I wanted it darker and older looking, so I gave it a splash of vinegar and cooked some chilli for the family
And when I finally got back to it, it had turned really grey and mucky looking! just how I like it.
Now the blade was looking right for me, I wanted to darken that handle as the grain in the plumb is a bit mild for my liking. I don't have any fancy wood dyes or oils so I gave it the candle treatment! just a light heating all over the wood to collect carbon and work the previous oil coat into the wood.
All it needed then was a light sand to remove a bit of black and a good hand rub with some raw linseed oil - and some brass rivets fitted in the lanyard hole (don't have any brass tube! hehe) and a bit of leather cord to top it off!
All done.. ish. Need to make a sheath still but I'll find some bits to stick together for that later on this week!
Hope you like it, took me a few hours and was lots of fun getting filthy and making loads of noise!
Thanks for taking your time to check it out too
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