1st off the grinder

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
5,786
Well, after 5 years of knifemaking here is the first one off the new grinder. Had other projects going, but I couldn't resist. I've had it for a full week and barely touched it, so I couldn't resist anymore! Has my typical convex blade with a flat edge bevel. Definitely have a long way to go before my skills match my ideas, but at least I was able to produce a usable knife, and in a weekend instead of a month! This "model" is my Tactical Orange Peeler and it is 3 15/16" OAL with a 2" blade. Designed as an EDC fixed blae pocket knife or neck knife. Definitely a 2-finger knife, comfy to hold, and with a knotty lanyard or one with a couple decent sized beads on it you can effectively extend the length of the handle. Clay coated Japanese style heat treat, of course. Next projects: finishing two projects I have started and gotten frustrated on and refuse to stop breathing down my neck, then cleaning my shop so I can actually get things done, then building a lightbox, then grinding more. If I don't clean my shop I'll trip on garbage and run my skull right into a spinning belt and I don't like the sound of that.

orange4.jpg


orange8.jpg
 
Chiro,

Nice knife. Just one question, I've looked at the Coot Grinder, and didn't see a flat platen area used to do a flat grinds. How did you do this grind with the coote. Excuse my ignorance here.

Dave
 
Coote grinder comes with a platen. It's kind of hard to see in the pics on Norm's site, but if you go to www.cootebeltgrinder.com look at the grinder on the left of the picture. You'll see it there. It's hidden behind the belt more or less, but look at that grinder on the left and you'll see it above the contact wheel and behind the work rest.

I cut in a grind at about 45° on the platen to get my choil placed, then did the real work with the slack belt area above the platen to get it slightly convex. I found I could leave my angle consistent and simply move the blade closer to the tracking wheel if I wanted to grind more from the edge area of the blade or down closer to the platen to take more off the spine area. It's probably a better idea to not move at all and just rotate the blade a little one way or another to accomplish the same thing. But, to answer your question, it's a convex grind, not a flat grind, so I could have accomplished it without the platen altogether. It does, however, come stock on the Coote grinder.
 
This little sucker sold already! I was convinced it'd be a keeper. Oh well, I'm not complaining! :D
 
Decent little knife, I bet the new owner is going to be pleased. I particularly like the orange G10, classy stuff. Grinding is so much better than filing... If I had to make knives with files and sandpaper I'd have taken up pottery or something. :D

Not to hijack your thread, but where can you get 3/8" G10 if at all? I'm really a Micarta fan but those vibrant colors turn me on.
 
Very nice first knife off your grinder. looks like a great little utility cutter. :)
Scott
 
Dave, I don't know about 3/8", but the one in that picture used the really thin stuff made for folders that is pre-textured. You peel the top layer and voila! Instant Spyderco-style texture! The downside to the texture is that I got some epoxy on it, dirt from belts, etc and it was a total disgusting mess, so I filed it and got rid of the texture.

I got this stuff from Halpern and it wasn't even listed. They may have thicker orange G-10, too. Fibermascus is made in orange, too, so that may be an option. The tricky thing about the textured stuff is that tearing that top layer off to reveal the texture is almost impossible if you radius the edges first. So, next time I'll probably radius the front/choil end of the scales, glue them up, trim my pins down and countersink them, then tear the top layer off and finally round the edges a bit.
 
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