Viking wire inlay

Step 24 Finished

Here is the finished inlay polished to 1000 grit and a shot of the reverse side of the blade.

Thanks for looking.

You can see pictures of the finished knife on my website

FIERCE FRIEND SEAX GALLERY PAGE
http://www.seekyee.com/Bladesmithing/past%20work/fiercefriend/fiercefriend.htm

BEN POTTER, BLADESMITH

http://www.seekyee.com/Bladesmithing/index/index.htm

Comments

[SixTwelve]

I just can't get over the braid effect from the twists. So obvious, once thought of. But I doubt I would have thought of it in, say, 1000 years. Another surprise is that trinity knot. I was predicting it would be ungainly at best, and, more likely, dorky. I guess that 15 years honed your vision a little bit. Very pretty. Thanks for this window into the process!

[arnivore]

This is very beautiful. Nice work.

[firemt]

OK now that you show how to make them were can one buy your awsome work?

[fighterpilot1]

Check his website on the link above.

[thalass]

This is a great article. Making my own seax is on the list of things I want to do eventually, and this would make it even better. But that's a "one day" thing. Probably after I retire in 2045 or something. hah!

[Turnpike7a]

good article, but very evasive for beginners, you mention nothing about treating the metal prior to your work. you make it seem like you use a hunk of metal off the shelf, you cannot just take a piece of steel and start carving on it with a set of files without softening it to work with

[ben potter]

I heat treated this blade using the clayed method (like a japanese sword).If you look closly at the pictures you can see the hamon (hardened area). as long as you are useing mild steel you don't need to worry about the heat treatment before inlaying, but for high carbon steel you need to know what you are doing. I will try to post future instructables that explain the hardening and more on the tools. it has taken me 15+ years to learn bladesmithing so it is hard to reduce it to a tutorial.

[Turnpike7a]

i don't doubt explaining in detail is difficult, I on the other hand prefer to use old carbon steel files as a source of metal. so i understand the difficulties of taking out the temper then reapplying it at the end. i didn't want a novice to get frustrated trying your instructable w/o having all the information about softening the metal thats all. still beautiful work

[alanator]

Yeah but whoever said this instructable was for beginners? He obviously meant this for someone who has a working knowledge with knife making

[tgrundle]

Yes thank you. This picture shows the detail much better. Thats some great work.