Welded Cable Dagger

Last updated 02/04/2002

Click thumbnails to view full sized image.

This dagger is being made for a fund raising raffle to be held at the Festival of The Rose event, taking place 02/02/02 at Cal-Tech. Below are photos from the first day of work.

First, cut a piece of 3/4" steel cable.

Then take the cable bundle apart and wrap a strand of thin nickel sheet around every other skein in the cable. Reassemble the cable and wire the ends together

.  Forge weld the cable into a solid billet. (also shown with another welded cable billet, done at the same time)

Grind the surface flaws off (these can be quite deep in welded cable), before additional forging is done.

Draw the bar out, forge the basic profile (not as well done as I'd like) and pack the edges.

Start grinding.

End of Day One.

Day Two, my goal is to complete the blade.

Lengthen the tang by welding on a piece of 1/4" rod.

Harden and temper the blade. Note my high tech tempering oven.

Finish grind and polish the blade.

Etch, and then clean the blade. It's now ready for fittings. (Overall I'm pleased with the blade. The grind lines aren't perfect, but that will come with more practice. This is my fourth knife ever, and only my second as an adult)

Days three, four and five I was only able to work a couple of hours in the evening.

Day Three

These nights were dedicated to the fit and finish of the knife. First, I roughed out the guard and pommel from brass. Then I shaped the handle on the lathe and ground down flats in the handle with the bench grinder. Shown is every thing in the ruff fit stage.

Day four

On night four I soldered the guard in place and started polishing the brass. Gordon came over to the shop and hand sanded and oiled the handle. Now everything is ready for assembly and final clean-up.

Day five

This last night is devoted to a Dremel tool and epoxy. With final assembly and clean up done, the total time spent on this project comes in at about 11 hours.

For More Information Contact the Author via e-mail.