Another dagger?!?!

Just make sure to have a bucket of water next to you and grind with your bare hands on slower speeds. The feedback from the heat will tell you when to cool it down and help from over heating.

You were very brave man to take a heat treated blade to an 80 grit belt.

You got some cojones :)
 
I spent a bit of time hand sanding today, and spent considerably more time starting work on the guard. I decided to go a slightly different direction than last time. The new grinder has moved that part of the project forward quickly.

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That's starting to look great, Greg! The grinder sure makes quick work of rough shaping, doesn't it ;)
 
Today I started bending the guard. It will probably end up meaning I have to start over on the guard, but I just HAD to see whether this idea was going to work. Still enough metal there for me to make some adjustments, so I'll keep at it for a while.

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That's pretty intense, Greg! I really didn't even think tha tyou were going to bend the guard, let alone forward! It looks really cool, though!
 
I'm still a very long way from done with the guard, but it does now have a shape very close to the final shape. I've spent some time filing out the grooves and angles, to leave a smoother curve on the inside and the outside. At some point I may once again need to carve in some channels for the blade and the handle. I'll be refining the points at the ends and even out the sides a little more, then sanding it smooth as I can. But that probably won't get done this week... too much going on at work.

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Is this gonna be a take down Greg? Just asking cause the upswept guard is going to make it a pain to sharpen if not. :(
 
Interesting question, Patrice. I've been considering making it a take down, but I haven't made the decision yet. I'll ponder that some more over the next few days.
 
Patrice beat me to it.

Downswpet guards should not come lower than the ricasso, or they will impede sharpening.
 
I appreciate the information. Since I haven't started working on the handle solution yet, there is time to do this as a take down. I just need to think about how I'd do that on this project.

On the other hand, I may still make this a glue-up because sharpening will ever and always be only my problem, and I have a ready made solution (properly sized sharpening stones).
 
Last night while hand sanding the blade I noticed some ugly gouges in one bevel caused by my ham-handed first efforts with the grinder. It was pretty clear to me that I was never going to be able to hand sand out the gouges, so I went back to the grinder and taught myself a different technique. This not only got rid of the gouges but also allowed me to straighten up a bit of wobble that I'd noticed in the center ridge. I liked the results so much I did the same thing on the other side, primarily to improve the center ridge.

I also spent some time with one of my diamond dust needle files cleaning up a bit of messiness I noticed at the plunge and the ricasso, again due to my poor skills with the new grinder. Still a lot of work to do there, but I am definitely making progress.

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Just spent some time filing out the last of the major gouges and dings in the plunges, so I ought to be able to turn my attention to hand sanding now. I also spent some time working on the guard a bit. It now fits much better and I straightened out one of the points that was slightly off center.
 
This is a close up look at how the guard and the blade are mating now. Still not perfect, but getting much closer.

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Before I put in the extra time to file out the gouges and sand down the waves, this was the ugly side of the blade... not any more. Currently sanded to 100 grit.

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Now this is the ugly side.

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Went on a business trip this week and got a severe case of food poisoning... had to be hospitalized out of state. Anyway, I finally made it back home and only today felt strong enough to go out and work on the dagger again. It's now been sanded to 180 grit on the bevels. I'm hoping to get the rest of the sanding done this weekend so I can focus on the guard and the handle.
 
man sorry to hear you got sick !!! the same thing happen to me in Chicago, went there for a meeting and was in the hospital for a day on IV
but the knife looks good keep up the good work
 
Thanks! I spent some time today taking the blade up to 240 grit. Doesn't look dramatically different in the photos, but it does look much better in the hand. I also started thinking about the handle, and I'm leaning toward attempting a carved piece. I'm also not entirely sure I want ivory again, so I decided to do some rough shaping on a piece of stabilized burl (exactly like the stuff I've been giving newbies for free). The back story on this wood is it came from a giant slab I found at an estate sale for $5 and sent off to WSSI for stabilization. I have no idea what kind of wood it is, but it is cheap, plentiful, and attractive... so it makes an ideal blank on which to test my carving abilities.

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Sorry about the bug Greg.
If you want to go the take down way on this one I would suggest keeping the block intact while doing the fitting, pommel/nut, etc. Once everything is all set and in a fixed place it'll be easier to know how to carve the handle. I've never been able to fit a block exactly square and you can compensate for this while shaping the handle. If it is all shaped before hand, you don't have room for error.
 
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