#10/12-- Damascus, Brass & Zircote Kris Style Dagger

Collector Knife 10/12 will be in-stock February 8 at 10AM Pacific

This blade is a departure from utilitarianism. I started the Collector Knife series as a place to work through ideas that are more form than function. With this blade I wanted to push that concept even further. This naturally lead me to the Javanese Kris style daggers, which serve as inspiration for this blade. While too much to get into here, the history of the Kris style of dagger is quite fascinating and well worth reading into. 

Designs typically start in my mind, and are then put into CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings. From there I can easily play with form and proportion, iterating quickly. In university I struggled with sketchbook requirements because before my formal education, I used to go straight from a design in my mind to making the thing, skipping the iterative sketching phase almost entirely. This taught me how to work through the various problems that arise when what was created in the mind doesn’t line up with what can be created in reality. CAD gives me a place where I could iterate externally as fast as I was able to internally and leaves me with a set of interactive drawings. I do about 90% of my design work in CAD, and the last 10% is discovered through process of making. This latitude also makes room for those happy accidents that inevitably happen while making something novel. However, when I set out to take this design from mind to CAD I was struggling to replicate the blade form I had envisioned. I took to my sketchbook and from three different detail sketches I created a rough draft of the design. Just the broad strokes, no scale or details, only lines and flow. I then took my sketch into CAD and started to build a three dimensional model on top of the hand drawn lines. You may notice that a focal point of this blade - the Nordquist N floating in damascus rings - is missing from the original sketch. The damascus rings were added while iterating in CAD but the N, machined from brass and friction fit into an acrylic disk held captive between the rings, was not imagined until the blade was nearly complete and I was beginning to fit up the handle. Problem solving along the way is integral to my process, and one of the most enjoyable parts.

The sheath of this dagger is made from solid zircote, lined with soft leather and has a thicker hide inset on its face. The only embellishment is the brass name plate and parts of blade tactfully revealed by the sheath. Unsheathing the dagger reveals these features, fully exposing the contrast between the angular forms of the sheath and handle with the flowing lines of the brass and damascus. The blade is constructed from three pieces— two separate damascus blades bound by 18 rivets machined into the brass plate that flows through the blade and into the bifurcated tip. The assembled blade is secured to the guard by six rivets machined into the guard. Two damascus rings and 6 brass rivets surrounding a floating brass N mark the transition from blade to handle. 

This blade pushed both my creative and technical skills— forcing me to change up my process to achieve the results I wanted. I’m very proud of the results. As always, thanks for following along. 

Jesse

Specifications:
1.2842 & 1.2767 Carbon Damascus Steel 
60 HRC
300mm (12") Blade Length
100mm (4") Wide at Hilt