Knfe Bolsters

[James Mitchell]

First of all, Thanks to all of you for the tips, sharing and inspiration I get every time I log in. I am primarily a knife maker but have been attempting to engrave for a while now and your help has been invaluable. I am finishing, this week, a damascus blade, and decided to try the attached design on the nickle silver bolsters so I decided I'd post the idea and see what thoughts you might have. Following Mr. Biggs thread, I drew the bolster and using Illustrator, enlarged it to 200%, printed several copies at about 20% transparency and started drawing. The one I'm attaching emerged as the one I liked best but it is not set in stone, or nickle silver, yet.

 

[pilkguns]

Hey James, it looks good to me, nice flowing scrolls and even background ratio for the most part. Now its time to cut it!

BTW, I will be down at Benning somewhere between the 15 and 22nd, maybe we can get together.

 

[Roger Bleile]

James, very nice design, Go for it!

Roger

 

[James Mitchell]

Scott....Great!!! I hope we can...I've upgraded my equipment a good bit, and had some interaction with Jim Small and Lynda Schreck and my work has improved....If you have a chance to call, home is 706-576-6684 and my cell is 706-442-0218. I've been doing a lot of work at Ft. Benning and also at Ft. Campbell (not engraving)Maybe we can have dinner one evening if nothing else. Thanks for responding...James

 

[tldcowboygear]

How do I like this design, let me count the ways! Or to semi quote a cowboy song, "what do you like about this (cowboy life) design?, Every da-- thing hoss, I like'er all."

dc

 

[JBrandvik]

James, I also like the design. It flows well and is balanced too. Your leaf structure is unusual if not original. One of the things I like the most is how the stem of the scroll is incorporated with the border rather than coming out from under the border. This effect would have been lost if you had not broken the border line at the stem. It's amazing how a tiny little 1mm cut can (or leaving one out) can make such a difference. Good job!

 

[Peter E]

That IS nice and I also like the way the origin of the scroll is eminating from the border the way it is.

Hope to see it cut.

Peter

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi James

A very nice, pleasing drawing. You have all the main elements in place. I like the way it grows off the border and the leaves within leaves.

However.........................

I do have a couple of suggestions that may improve the design a bit.

1. The scroll if it were bigger would allow you to make the leaves withing the scroll bigger and more consistant with the outer leaves.

2. This would also allow you to grow the top leaves off the scroll and eliminate the the slightly over extended look that line has.

3. If you lift that first leaf that grows into the scroll and put some background between the leaf and stem it will get rid of that slightly chuncky look in that area and help define the leaf and scroll a bit better.

I'm at work at the moment but when I get home I can actually draw and show you what I'm getting at............if you want me to.

Please bear in mind that these are only my opinions and others may (and do) see things quite differently

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi James

Here's the drawing.........As you can see I've only tweaked a few things that I mentioned above.

My drawing is as rough as guts compared to yours but its only to give you an idea.

Anyway I hope this helps some

Cheers
Andrew

 

[KCSteve]

Interesting!

Not a huge change in the design yet it makes it feel more 'solid'.

 

[James Mitchell]

Thanks for all your comments, and particlarly to Andrew for taking the time to do a drawing with some very helpful suggestions. I do like the things you changed, and will go that way with the engraving. The area where you suggested a change in the size of that scroll so that other elements could be larger has a big impact on the design, and I'm much more pleased with the "background" in that area.
When the knife is finished, I'll try to post it. I plan to do some scrimshaw on the handle also, so it may be a while.......Thanks again!!!!........James

 

[John B.]

Andrew, I believe you forgot to "background" the small area at the bottom on the outside of the scroll.
With this blacked in it will give seperation to the outside elements in that area.
Hope I'm not wrong about this.

Best always, John B.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi James.

No worries. Just remember that what I drew is only my way of looking at it and roughly done to show you the area I was talking about. At the end of the day it's still a very nice drawing and a very pleasing design that you've come up with. Love to see it when engraved.

Hi John

The eagle eyed master!!!!

Yip, I forgot to fill in that area with pencil. The lines are there but the background shading is missing.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[John B.]

Hi Andrew,
Sorry about that, I should have just PM'd you about it.
Can it be edited before it goes into the archives?
It would be great if it were added to your drawing tutorial.
Best, John B.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi John

No worries ..............in fact it helps demonstrate a very good point about constantley refining the drawings and re-working them.

That little bit of background that is now shaded in shows that by seperating the leaf from the backbone of the scroll helps define both of them a lot better.

Just some more food for thought.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[pappy]

Knife bolsters

James and Andrew,
The drawings are very helpful to me as my first real piece will be a knife bolster. I am going to print out both James' and Andrew's drawing so that I can study them closely side by side. I have a few ideas for my bolster and I hope when I draw them up and figure out how to post them all of you will give me your advice.
James, when you finish your knife pleas post the pictures! It is great to see the drawing and the finished work. It helps me realize what the finished product will look like.
Thanks everybody!
pappy