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Logan-Pearce —
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Published: 2011-08-17 00:03:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 44869; Favourites: 1574; Downloads: 456
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Description
Name: AvatarBlade Length: 4 1/4"
OAL: 9 1/2"
Blade Material: 5160/15N20 Pool & Eye Damascus
Handle Material: Blue Fossilized Brain Coral
Winged Series:
Thank you and for getting me the DD! Also thank you all for the comments and favorites. I really appreciate it.
This is the knife that I donated to the 2012 Arkansas Knife Show which will be held on Feb 18th and 19th.
It is also the knife that is featured along with a picture of me, in the Knifemaker's Showcase section of the Blade magazine in the March 2012 issue which hit the newsstands in Jan, 2012. You can view the write up about the knife and me here:
In all honesty it was luck that it came out like this. If I did it with the same amount of metal and tried to get the same water-ish look again, it would probably look completely different. A lot of it had to do with the acid and the temperature/age of it. Which was super old. It took nearly 3 days of non-stop etch to get this and that was only because I kept forgetting about it. When I finally pulled it from it's acid bath and I cleaned it up, this was what I got.
I have found blue stabilized coral that looks like this again, but I will probably do a higher layer count that way my results are a little more reliable and more complex. I'm not sure if it will really take away from the look or not, but we will see.
Logan Pearce
www.pearceknives.com
Facebook-> www.facebook.com/pages/Pearce-…
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Comments: 316
I am a huge fan of Kikuo Matsuda, specifically my favorite blade by appearance has thus far been his Hemmer Head model ([link] ). When I can afford him, I will purchase something of his, but for the moment, I will drool. It should be duly noted that this is the first image I've seen of your work, and if this is your scraps (according to the link to the other page implies, in my book, you rate up there high enough with Kikuo. You may both have different styles and appearances to your blades, but the end product is nothing but beautiful, especially this one. Can't wait to poke through more of your works, and seeing as you aren't as expensive as he is, perhaps make a purchase or two.
Thomas
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I know Matsuda. I had the pleasure of meeting him before. I love his grinds and his splash finish that he uses. Sadly, at the moment, this is my best work on DA and I don't rank nearly high enough to be on his level. Thank you so much!
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With this one blade, I think you sell yourself short. As I said, different styles of blades/shapes, etc, but the outcome is the same. Pure awesome.
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I'll agree there. It did come out awesome!
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Excellent! You are doing wonderful things!
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That's pretty badass. I love it.
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I have never seen such a beautiful blend of art with a weapon (so called weapon)!
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super, i can't resist the pun...it's edgy.
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congratulations on the dd my friend
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Thank you, thank you!
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Exquisitely unique, Logan. I've never seen anything like it. 
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I thought you were a cool assassin?
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This is amazing! May I ask why it's called Avatar though, or is that just the title?
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Everyone else knows it at Talon, but I already have a knife on here titled that. Plus my aunt saw the knife and said it reminded her of Avatar, so I just used that as a title.
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Oh I see c:
It's absolutely amazing <3
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OMG! I got into forging a bit recently and wanted to try to copy one of the knives in Avatar, and then saw this...
So much better than the ones in the movie! Especially the blue coral, truly amazing.
Is this Damascus or some sort? Just wondering why the grooves don't seem to affect the pattern. Did you forge the grooves in at all or just grind?
Again, amazing knife!!!
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Heh. I was going to give the knife a name like Talon or something. When I showed it to my aunt she was like it reminds me of Avatar. So I went with that instead! They totally should have used my Avatar in that movie though. It is damascus, 5160 and L-6 combination. I was trying for a raindrop effect, which was somewhat lost because of the low amount of folds that I did. But because I didn't hold it very much, the pattern is so big. The idea was raindrop pattern damascus with the blue brain coral to give a watery feel, and then I decided to put wings on it because...I like wings. 
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The wings looks sweet, and totally fit the knife! I kinda like the rougher waterdrop pattern... Makes it looks very interesting.
Any advice for a total beginner at forging wanting to try some cable damascus? I built a small forge a while ago and messed around, but then had to move. I'm thinking about making another, and have quite a bit of nice thick steel cable at my disposal (took a job as a metallurgist at a steel company)
Amazing knife! You rock!
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Oh nice! You're very lucky then. At least you know what steel you are working with. Is it the 1095 cable? If so its a lot tougher to harden and temper, vs the lower grades. It's not impossible, just more time consuming. As a metallurgist you probably know that though. My advice would be to spend as much of your time making sure that the cable is completely welded into a solid bar of steel.
My grandfather loved cable damascus, but I was a lot better at it than he was. The only reason was the reason that annoyed him the most. I took a lot of time to make sure that the cable was as solid as I could get it. Most of the time we would both take 5 pieces and make the knives. 1/5 of his would come out nearly flawless and at least 4/5 of mine would. Most of the time I never had a flaw. I also spent twice as long, if not longer, than he did on following each stand up while it was at welding temperature. The other thing I did different was I did not hot weld it. He would basically do the whole process in one go. Where I would make it a solid bar, then flatten it out to the length that I wanted to cut and fold it. I would stop there and let them cool off, then I would usually grind away all of the metal shell and slag that had built up on the bar, cut it almost in half and then the next day I would forge weld it.
If I were to change anything, I would cut in completely in half now and weld the two pieces together with a welder then finish forge welding them to make a solid piece of steel. Mainly because sometimes I would get off when trying to forge the two pieces loosely together. With them welded together with a welder though, you can make sure to have the two pieces perfectly lined up and there would be no room for error. You would need a longer soak time though, because you'll want to make sure that the heat is even through the whole piece or it won't weld properly.
Also, I usually use borax as my flux. I do 2-3 coats of it. One when it gets cherry red, one right before it gets to welding temperature, and then once after the piece has been welded together. That gives a lot of movement for the slag to be pushed out. It will also screw up a forge, depending on what all you forge in it. I like to have two forges, once for my normal knives and one for damascus because that flux will get on everything and it basically turns to glass which will make your life harder down the road. Harder as in you'll be using twice as many belts to take off the outer shell or more time with the stone wheel on your angle grinder. The reason I flux it the last time if just like I mentioned, it's like liquid glass. Once it hardens it acts like a barrier against the elements, so if you don't forge until a month later you don't have to worry about the metal rusting because of the flux.
If you don't go the flux way, you can use kerosene. It's not how I do it, but a lot of my friends do it this way. If you try the kerosene way you'll have to dip it in there before you put it into the forge and then you'll have to let it be completely cool again before dipping it in the kerosene again or you'll be in trouble.
I think that's all the advise I can give. 
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oh my god this is absolutely stunning
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