Some may recall seeing a Lefever Optimus 10g. that I restocked and did various restoration work on for Ken Snyder. Around the time of the completion of that project he came up with the idea to make a knife as a companion show piece to go along with the gun. He wanted the knife to draw as much inspiration from the gun as possible.
The starting point was an old damascus knife that Ken got from another member of the LACA. It was kind a a "throw away" piece to him. Ken gave me the blade after he removed the old scales.
My wheels got turning on a design and how I could incorporate the iconic features of the shotgun into the knife. I figured that making it a full slip tang would work best. And the machining of the tang presented the first issue. The blade was not hard! It cut like butter. I knew that would present an issue down the road that would end up having to be corrected. Why the blade was never hardened, who knows??? But I figured for ease of reworking things, I would keep it in its soft state until all the modifications were done to it.
I attached a threaded stud to the bottom of the tang for screwing a grip cap to.
I used pieced of wood left over from the restock of the gun to make the handle from. I made the pommel cap from horn in the same style as the Lefever guns, just in a smaller scale. And inlaid a gold ring in it, also using an old Ronald Regan commemorative coin, just like I used on the gun.
The guard was a point of much thought and I decided to go the way of form over function a bit. Normally one would see a thinner guard, but it would not allow for an adequate canvas for engraving, which was a very important part of the project. I decided to make the guard in a Japanese tsuba style as used on Samarai Katana swords. Tsubas and the artwork that they possess have always been the most beautiful part of a Katana to me. and using this style guard lent itself perfectly to being able to incorporate the Optimus breech ball carving. The only point of function that this type of guard compromised in is scabbarding it on a belt since the guard is not thin or flat. But, we were ok with that since we knew that it was more of a show piece than something that was actually going to be carried on a belt or used.
I also had to true up the backbone of the blade and thin it out some in the process of making everything.
After the major elements of the knife were made and fitted, the looming issue of the blades hardness had to be dealt with. I contacted Nick Bachtel in OH to see if he may be willing to do what needed to be done and he was happy to help out. He corrected a few wonky things that were going on with the grinds and profile, then hardened, tempered, etched and did the final edge.
Of course Geoffroy Gournet engraved the guard. The top design I worked out based on the breech ball carving on the gun. And the bottom I left up to him to do something fine and tasteful based on the other engraving on the gun. as well as the engraving on the screw and gold band to match he gun.
When the guard was done, Justin Julian of Classic Case Colors LLC color cased it and it turned out just beautiful. I had inquired with Ken if he wanted the colors aged back to match the look of the gun, or left as new. He liked the look of the colors so much that he chose to keep them as new.
I then finished the wood handle and checkered it in 26 lines per inch in a similar style to what was done on the grip of the gun.
It was overall a very fun a different project that will look great with the Optimus that it was inspired by.
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12-29-2022, 11:43 AM
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