A work in progress with quite a few pics.

[navin74]

Hello,
I would like to post a work in progress for my latest knife. It is a mix of a seahorse whittler blade and a Tony Bose gardeners handle. I have made a few of these and so far i am just trying to make each one better than the last. This is not step by step really but just something that may spark the interest of a new knifemaker. It also starts post heattreat. Any veteran knifemakers out there, please be free with comments or constructive criticism. I have crafted eight knives so far and I have a lot to learn, but it sure is nice when one turns out like you pictured with your mind's eye. This knife is not available.

Here goes....

-- 154cm Blade and spring stock back from heattreat and nickel silver liners milled and roughed out.

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-- Rough tang to spring fitting working towards the goal of flush backspring at closed, half stop and open. Note aluminum piece is hollow to fit over pivot bushing and to hold it in position. Pivot bushing is clocked to keep measurements the same through assembly.

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-- Blade grinding guide in place to clean up grind lines post heattreat. I am still saving up for that VS Burrking with a 20" wheel to make this quicker....

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-- Another shot of the blade while working through the grits. It is clamped to my file jig that has turned into a great work holder.

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-- Cleaning up the spring and getting the spring thickness close to blade tang thickness.

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-- More work on the rise and fall rig. I am now working on the kick and blade edge to backspring clearance.

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-- Tang and spring fitting. Grinding the kick also changes the measurement for the spring when closed. I have some work to do to hide the tip of the blade.

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-- Soldering the bolsters. I do one then used a jig to align the other. I wish I stopped to take a pic of it.

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-- Cleaning up the bolsters and trial fitting the knife. It is looking fat at this stage.

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-- The mess that happens...

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-- Fitting up some nice ebony scales. I also drilled and deburred the scale mounting pin holes and cleaned up the excess solder.

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-- Gluing the scales on the liners. I used a two part epoxy with a good working time.

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To be continued...

 

[MrVandercar]

Looking good! Looking forward to seeing the final product but the tour through the process is a pleasure. I have a feeling an undertaking like this would fluster the heck outta me!

 

[Modoc ED]

Deleted.

 

[navin74]

-- A little bit out of order but this shows the rig used to drill the holes through the scales and clean up the holes after epoxying them as well. This setup keeps everything nice and square. The shim wood under the scale keeps the drill bit from chunking a piece as it clears the ebony. Another hard learned lesson.

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-- Back from the grinding belt used to sand wood to the liner profile.

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-- Another shot of the profiling work this time without the spring and blade.

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-- This shows the knife after the ebony has been matched to the liners and some light sanding has been done to round the scales. Also this shot made me happy because the blade is nice and centered.

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-- Time to start sanding. And some more sanding....

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-- A trial fit

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-- After sanding the blade and sanding the handle material I like to put a little lemon oil on the ebony before heading off to get some sleep. It also cleans the dust off and lets you know real quick where you stand and what you may have missed.

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-- Here is the tool used to finish size the pivot bushing. I make the bushing .001" thicker than the thickest part of the tang. When you peen the knife together there is no bind from over peening and it make it easier for me to hide the pins.

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-- I like to finish sand the parts of the knife that will be hard to get to when the knife is assembled. This saves time and aggravation in the future when you have to use 400 grit sandpaper a few thousands of an inch away from the blade you just sanded to 2500 grit.... Sure enough my shaky hands will scratch up that part of the blade...
I also do a final check on the rise and fall jig to make sure I will be flush in all three positions. This is also the part where I clean up all the parts before assembly and put a very small amount of a special antisieze grease on the backspring where it will ride on the tang.

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-- It is getting close. I stake the pivot bushing to keep it from spinning from its clocked position. Then insert the nickel silver pins. I use a clamp to clamp down around the pivot pin to keep the bushing in place. I removed the clamp to get a quick pic.

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-- After holding my breath while peening for many minutes, it all works out fine and I check to make sure it is close to spec.

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-- Here is the shot of the back of the knife. The fit and finish is getting there. I still have alot of sanding to make this knife nice.

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-- More sanding and blending...

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-- Time for an edge. I use a Lansky for the knives I build but I like to free hand my carry knives. I want the knife to look as close to perfect as I can.

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-- After many hours of work, sanding and sanding and hand polishing here is close to the final product. I usually finish up these projects late at night and it is not finished until I can look at it under sunlight. These crappy flourescent lamps hide a lot that only a loupe and good old sunlight make very obvious. I will sand the whole knife to 3000 grit the finish up with some simichrome polish and a very clean cloth and lots of rubbing.

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I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoy looking at other work in progress posts.

Thank you,
Nathan

 

[Steel130]

Looks great for only your ninth knife!

 

[pmew]

Nice work, a contemporary Ettrick design, beautifully finished too. Well done

Paul

 

[getout87]

Wow, that is quite a beauty. That f&f is great!

 

[singin50]

Beautiful outcome and something to be proud of indeed! Very unique process and unique knife.:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[meako]

Great job Nathan.Thanks for the pictorial. Beautiful result.

 

[sogflash]

I really enjoy threads like these. Seeing it from start to finish is very interesting. I like how extremely precise and careful you are about making it perfect.

One part I didn't fully understand was this, "I stake the pivot bushing to keep it from spinning from its clocked position.". What does that mean? What is it to stake the pivot? What is a clocked position?

 

[sitflyer]

Beautiful work :thumbup: I thoroughly enjoyed checking out your WIP pics, Thank You for sharing.

 

[waynorth]

Beautiful looking knife Nathan. Nicely executed!
I like the design a lot!!

 

[glennbad]

Great WIP thread. I really enjoyed the pictures. You can see from them that you put a lot of thought and work into your knives.

 

[navin74]

Thank you all for the kind words and comments. I enjoyed making the knife and the WIP. As a new maker I really like to log on here and look for a work in progress from Ken Erickson or Tony Bose or any other maker for that matter. Mainly just to learn and see how makers worked through problems and made it happen. Thank you again.

I really enjoy threads like these. Seeing it from start to finish is very interesting. I like how extremely precise and careful you are about making it perfect.

One part I didn't fully understand was this, "I stake the pivot bushing to keep it from spinning from its clocked position.". What does that mean? What is it to stake the pivot? What is a clocked position?

The way the pivot bushing works in my knife is that it remains stationary as the blade pivots around it. When I fit the bushing and do the spring and tang fit work, I punch a small dot on the bushing and make sure that it remains stationary when I am doing all my measurements. You would think that a inside hole in a bushing would be pretty accurate but usually they are not very concentric. It could be the difference between having a flush back spring to having it above the liners or below. Just before I assemble the knife, I punch a few dots on both sides of the bushing. With the knife sitting on its side with the upper liner/scale not in place and the bushing clocked correctly in the blade, I take a small piece of copper tubing and tap the upper surface of the bushing.These dots and the light tapping give the liners some purchase on the side of the bushing. Once the knife is peened together, the goal is for the pivot to be secure and to not rotate with the blade. I wish I had a picture as it would be easier to explain. I will take a few with the next knife I work on. On Tony Bose's website there is a tutorial that shows this in great detail. It is very nice of him to show how he make his knives perform and look the way they do.

Thank you,
Nathan

 

[slide13]

Really cool to see the process here, thanks for sharing!


And I have to say when I first saw this knife in another post of yours I thought it was a strange combo...but the more I look at it the more it has grown on me. Not sure what it is about it but it's just cool. Very unique and looks like a knife I really want to pick up and put to use.

 

[ken erickson]

Nice WIP. Thanks for sharing, and taking the extra time to take photos and the write-up.

 

[mike Berkovitch]

Very enjoyable post. Thank you.

Mike

 

[paulhilborn]

Nathan, that is OUTSTANDING!!! I admire your skills my friend!!! WOW...

Paul

 

[squazy]

very nice work,I wish more people would put up threads like this,I learn just a bit more every time I read a thread like this,as in folders not fixed blades

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks very much for going to the trouble of taking and uploading all the pics, it's a pleasure to look at your work