A friend of mine is a Pagan with Norwegian descent. For her herbal witchcraft practices, she asked me if I could make her a Boline (a ceremonial sickle) with an antler handle.
I took up the challenge and started working on it.
Since my place is still under repair, I could not setup my forge so I decided to go with stock removal techniques. The Boline's blade will be cut from an old circular saw blade.
I first drew the design with a silver marker on the saw blade and made sure the proportions are correct in relation to the deer antler.
With the use of an angle grinder, I started the slow process of cutting the saw blade steel. You can't cut curves like this so I had to remove piece by piece and fine tune with a hand file.
After the blade has been cut, it's time to shape the cutting edge. Again, my angle grinder with a flap disc was used for the rough shape and I finished with a bastard hand file.
Once again, I previewed the proportions by placing the antler on the blade.
The surface rust was removed using a rough sanding paper and some phosphoric acid based solution was used to add patina (dark color) to the steel to give it a rustic look.
I took some steel sample to a laser engraving service to give it a test.
My friend chose to engrave her family bind rune and it turned out very nicely with the steel showing through the patina.
Once the blade was ready, I drilled some holes in the antler to insert the blade tang and glue it in. Some of the antler texture were sanded down to make it comfortable to hold.
I then stained the sanded areas with coffee ground to give it back its rustic coloring.
Wow, that looks really cool. I'm not into the occult but I could still appreciate such a nice-looking artifact (I'm not really sure what to call it xD).
It's a Boline (Witchcraft sickle)
Looks very cool and relatively “easy” to craft. You might have reached a better finish on the sharp part of the blade using a rotating stone cone as a bit of a dremel, and then rotate the dremel after securing it and the blade to draw a semi circumference path. 😎
Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about that one.
However, my friend wanted to leave it imperfect so to look rustic and hand made so we decided to leave it like that.
Wow that's amazing dear, your are an excellent craftsmen. Wonder job there, loved it. I am sure your friend gonna like it alot. Keep it up 😊🙏
Thank you. Indeed, my friend was to the moon :-D
My Druid arse loves this! I finally got my own boline after years of wanting one just this past year. ^_^
(Screencap from one of my faerie videos over on my @faeriestories blog of Lugh wielding said boline against an evil furby) ;)
Oh that's cool! Congratulations :-D
I might be making an Athame too.
Absolutely stunning! ^^
~Josie~
Thank you :-)