SDC Handmade Blades

[Der_Echte]

Hipnotic,

LOW balance is Awesum.

I may need to get you to invoice me one day.

 

[SDC]

Hipnotic,

LOW balance is Awesum.

I may need to get you to invoice me one day.

Some people love it, others hate it and prefer a head heavy blade. But I think people are "afraid" of heavy blades because you won't find this kind of balance in a heavy commercial blade. An handle from a manufacturer will weigh about 25g at best, which means that if a blade weighs 95g for example, all the extra weight is in the head, not the handle. But often they hollow the handles which makes matters worst. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to making that solid ebony 45g handle 😃

 

[Der_Echte]

Hmmmm... maybe we ought to spice it up and run a thread of blade design challenge...

... maybe I set some basic outcome specs, like overall weight range (95-115 g), blade thickness, composition, ply materials, balance, ave/overall speed of blade, handle dimensions...

... then let blade makers design and build... and I buy one from each (as long as all you blade makers do not unite and enlist 500 of your blade making cousins to bankrupt me on this promise)

... I would bet some seriously large quantity of cheeze-its that one or ALL of you blade makers would make an ASTOUNDING blade so epic.

I have had my taste of Nate's handle heavy craft, and liked it, I am sure you and others would do well too.

 

[Der_Echte]

Hipnotic,

Your analysis on big brand (and little for that matter) reluctance or outright refusal to make center balanced or balance nearer the handle blades is correct and I for one and half (2-1/2 if you count my growing unborn alien baby known as my big gut) feel similar. Had I ever spoke my mind on this before?

 

[Nate4s]

Remember that wall I was building? This is it, something to evoke to my Civil Engineering background, a Viscaria type composition that has been my personal blade for some time.

In a previous post I explained how there are some things I can tweak during the building process to make a blade harder and faster, or softer and slower, but keeping the same exact composition. This is where the frequency reading comes in handy, Black Tag Viscarias are known for having a softer feel and a lower frequency peak of about 1380 Hz, and this was exactly what I was going for.

Composition: Koto / A-C / Ayous / Kiri / Ayous / A-C / Koto
Weight: 85.7g
Thickness: 5.7mm
Freq.: 1378 Hz
Balance: 2.6 cm (Low)

That handle is phenomenal! I built a couple blades where I used end-grain on the handles, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet because of Coronavirus shutting down my only place to play. Do you think it will absorb sweat even more rapidly?

 

[SDC]

Hmmmm... maybe we ought to spice it up and run a thread of blade design challenge...

... maybe I set some basic outcome specs, like overall weight range (95-115 g), blade thickness, composition, ply materials, balance, ave/overall speed of blade, handle dimensions...

... then let blade makers design and build... and I buy one from each (as long as all you blade makers do not unite and enlist 500 of your blade making cousins to bankrupt me on this promise)

... I would bet some seriously large quantity of cheeze-its that one or ALL of you blade makers would make an ASTOUNDING blade so epic.

I have had my taste of Nate's handle heavy craft, and liked it, I am sure you and others would do well too.

That's a great idea, I'm definitely up for the challenge!

 

[SDC]

That handle is phenomenal! I built a couple blades where I used end-grain on the handles, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet because of Coronavirus shutting down my only place to play. Do you think it will absorb sweat even more rapidly?

Thanks! As I've mentioned in the post I've been playing with this blade for some time. The handle feels great, it absorbs sweat really fast and doesn't get soggy like what happens if you use softer woods. It also has some texture which feels really nice in the hand. The only downside is that endgrain handles are much harder to make, the risk of something going wrong is higher.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

So, the secret services contacted me saying Ma Long was out there shooting some rockets, and wanted to know what kind of weapon he was using. I told them it was a W968, so they asked if I could make it even more powerful! Well, I told them I could, but a weapon like this will be dangerous in the wrong hands, especially if it flies out and hits someone in the head 😄

Composition: Limba / Ayous / A-C / Ayous / A-C / Ayous / Limba
Weight: 110.2g
Thickness: 7.0mm
Freq.: 1550 Hz
Balance: 2.7cm (Low)

Was that secret service member who commissioned this blade named Der something or other by any chance?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

TB ALC evil twin 😈

This one is going to be available in my FS thread.

Composition: Framiré / S A-C / Framiré / Kiri / Framiré / S A-C / Framiré
Weight: 88.8g
Thickness: 5.65mm
Freq.: 1464 Hz
Balance: 3.0 (Med)

This may be an elvin twin. But when you make blades for Der, they will have to be of dwarven craftsmanship.

 

[Der_Echte]

Some other govt svc must have been reading and pounding the like button on my blade weight preferances of 110g+...

However, this blade shapes up to be too much a missile launcher for me. High end of OFF is enough blade speed for me.

 

[SDC]

Was that secret service member who commissioned this blade named Der something or other by any chance?

Not for Der, I guess that are more people out there who like to combine TT and weightlifting 😀

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Anyone like fish? Awesome fish-scale pattern on these Ako top plies.

Composition: Ako / I-C / Framiré / Kiri / Framiré / I-C / Ako
Weight: 79.6g and 79.8g
Thickness: ~5.65mm
Freq.: 1330 Hz
Balance: 2.5cm (low)

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Blade face and handle look amazing. What wood are you using in the handle?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Some other govt svc must have been reading and pounding the like button on my blade weight preferances of 110g+...

However, this blade shapes up to be too much a missile launcher for me. High end of OFF is enough blade speed for me.

Not for Der, I guess that are more people out there who like to combine TT and weightlifting 😀

Yeah. I knew it wasn't for Der. His barking would have been louder.

I like heavy blades too. But when someone requests a blade over 100 grams, I have to invoke Der_Duval, or is it Der_Echte?

 

[Ivek]

Hmmmm... maybe we ought to spice it up and run a thread of blade design challenge...

... maybe I set some basic outcome specs, like overall weight range (95-115 g), blade thickness, composition, ply materials, balance, ave/overall speed of blade, handle dimensions...

... then let blade makers design and build... and I buy one from each (as long as all you blade makers do not unite and enlist 500 of your blade making cousins to bankrupt me on this promise)

... I would bet some seriously large quantity of cheeze-its that one or ALL of you blade makers would make an ASTOUNDING blade so epic.

I have had my taste of Nate's handle heavy craft, and liked it, I am sure you and others would do well too.

I'm would also like to take up on the challenge, so our wallets won't just have a butterfly in them. Last blade hipnotic built for me is a 115g BEAST, a combi blade being slower on the backhand side, but on the Off- side nonetheless.

With the blade we basically went YOLO mode and said to make Der proud with a baseball bat. AND I ended up loving it so much. Lower balance FTW.

 

[Der_Echte]

Yeah. I knew it wasn't for Der. His barking would have been louder.

I like heavy blades too. But when someone requests a blade over 100 grams, I have to invoke Der_Duval, or is it Der_Echte?

Woof woof, 멍 멍 멍... wtf is Duval? Some random azz 50 kg weak body?

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

 

[SDC]

Blade face and handle look amazing. What wood are you using in the handle?

Thanks. Sub layer is ayous with a blue fig stripe and Olive wood on top.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Thanks. Sub layer is ayous with a blue fig stripe and Olive wood on top.

The layers look great together and that Olive Wood has amazing grain pattern. Is that quarter sawn the way the top ply is? Or is there some other reason they get the cool grain effect?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Woof woof, 멍 멍 멍... wtf is Duval? Some random azz 50 kg weak body?

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Okay. I spelled it wrong. Der_Duvel:

Perhaps it is something you win in a chicken and beer bet. Or perhaps it is some guy who is fiery, red, and has horns and a pointed tail! [emoji2]

Sent from my NSA SpyPhone from Sector 13D-SR13Z74 Sub Level 29X Fort Meade, Maryland

 

[Der_Echte]

If you hand me a cold IPA, I would drink it, but handing me one IPA is a real good way to ensure I only drink one.

 

[SDC]

The layers look great together and that Olive Wood has amazing grain pattern. Is that quarter sawn the way the top ply is? Or is there some other reason they get the cool grain effect?

Yes, Ako has a very similar grain structure to Koto, but it's softer. Quarter sawing exposes the medullary rays and produces that effect, what we like to call fish scale.