I also mark up the bevels with a sharpie periodically to show me high spots when working on a flat grind.
Your probably still going to have to file the plunges in it you want them nice and clean.
I am sure you saw it and turned the dial but just in case - the tracking adjustment is on the back right of the grinder, and I never put that side black cover on- seems to just slow down belt changeovers.
Of course also always use gloves, eye protection and a respirator.
Finally I predict 2-3 knives before your on craigslist looking for a bigger grinder.
Have fun!
You caught me. I do have a mask and a respirator. I don't know why, but I didn't use them this time. I was probably too excited to use my new tool. From now on though, I will observe proper PPE. No sarcasm intended, I'm sincere.
Alright, time for the next installment here.
Last night I worked on cleaning up the choil area and drilling both the pin holes and the weight reduction holes in my blank.
Cleanup on the choil area was done with a bastard chainsaw file and 80 grit sand paper. The sand paper was from the loose belt that was giving me all that trouble on Sunday. For some reason or other I had a handle to a plunger lying around and that worked great for sanding that area with a little bit of that 1x30 belt wrapped around it. I then followed up with some 100 grit emery paper wrapped around a paint stick. I don't remember whose idea it was to use a paint stick for sanding, but they are a genius.
Next up was drilling the holes in the tang with my drill press. It is a 5-speed craftsman, so I used the lowest speed which is 620 for the drilling. The machine recommends a speed of about 1200 for metal, but I didn't want to break any bits just yet. I'll try a higher speed next time, unless anyone recommends against it.
By the way, tryppyr mentioned in someone else's thread about getting swivel clamps from harbor freight. Those things are great. I only have one right now, but I am definitely getting some more here real soon.
Here's some pics of the drilling.
This one was taken by my roommate as I was drilling.
Here you can see that I've clamped the blade to the work table with the swivel vise. This thing made it much easier to move the blank around when drilling multiple holes of the same size.
As you can see, when I started drilling any holes over 1/8" I began to get long curly pieces of steel.
Now for the lessons I learned while doing this. I haven't drilled this much metal before and the metal I had drilled before was about 14 gauge aluminum. Quite a different beast.
1. I knew this already, but I went ahead and tested it. Always drill pilot holes. I used a 1/16" bit for the pilot holes and it made things so much easier on the bits and my nerves. I did try drilling a straight 5/32" hole once. It made a hell of a screeching sound and the drilling was very very slow. Also, don't forget to center-punch your holes before drilling. I don't know if I could have gotten away with not doing it with the small pilot holes I drilled, but I didn't want to chance it.
2. Use some kind of oil for drilling. And use it like it's free. Drilling with about 2-3 drops of oil on the bit per hole made things very very smooth. In fact, with all the drilling I did, not one of the bits got too hot to touch.
3. Drill all of the same size holes at once. I was still learning as I was doing, so with the first three holes for the pins and lanyard tube I changed bits and finished out each hole one at a time. This is very slow, since the shaft of a 1/16" compared to 1/8" compared to 5/32" is quite different. I had to move the material rest between each bit change and then realign the blank with the bit. So 11 bit changes for three holes and I probably spent well over an hour just drilling those three.
When I started doing the weight reduction holes I drilled all of the pilot holes first, then moved up to the next size bit in the progression, drilled those holes, then did it again until I was finished. Total time on the remaining 8 holes was maybe 45 minutes.
4. There may be a better way of doing this and I will experiment some more on my own with it, but I found progressing the bit sizes incrementally seemed to be the best way to do it. I went from 1/16 to 1/8 to 3/16 to 1/4 on the weight reduction holes. It looks like I moved up 1/16 in size with each bit change. Anyone that has more experience, please feel free to tell me I'm wrong on this progression or if there is a better way. I'm still learning here.
5. Make sure to clean the material rest every couple of holes or so. I found that bits of steel were getting stuck under the blank so that it wouldn't sit level on the rest. This may or may not have affected my hole orientation, but I felt better with the stock flat.
6. Wear a full face shield when doing this. My drill press is mounted a little high at the moment and when I started using bits over 1/8" the bit would throw smoking pieces of metal at me like it was aiming. I don't know if it would have hurt or not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
Now for the pics at the end of cleanup that night.
Drilled holes. The two holes with the sharpie on them are the pin holes. Also, I didn't quite eyeball the weight reduction holes right when I was center punching them, so two were a little to close together. I made them all 1/4" except on where I stopped at 3/16" since I thought that the metal in between would have been too thin. I still have plenty of room to drill more holes if needed. Any opinions on this?
And finished for the night.
Also, I found a scribe at Lowes for 5.98 with the tungsten carbide tip and a pretty strong magnet on the other end that is pencil shaped.
I do have one question about the plunge line for the bevel. In one of the books I have on knife making, the author suggest filing the plunge cut with the edge of a mill file. He also says to file halfway through the metal on one side of the blank and then flip it over. This doesn't seem quite right to me. Could someone give a little more explanation about how to hand file the plunge line and about how far I should go while doing it please. I checked Stacy's "How to make a knife" thread in the stickies, but he seemed to have skipped that part in his explanation. The plan at this stage is to do a full flat grind, but that may change since this is my first time.
Thanks guys for the chance to share this with ya and for the advice you've given. Looking forward to starting on my bevels next with the files.