Another hair-brained idea... pin-up knife

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Got out in the garage again, and I've begun hogging the bevel. Going for a hollow grind, so that the lady has something to lay on. This also lets me see how thing would look if I played it Miles... I mean Tai's way. I think I get where you're coming from, and it's starting to make sense. I'm still not sure I'll be able to resist the temptation to carve her in, but first things first. When I finish hogging out the bevel, I'll use the detail tools to get the lines as close as possible to her, and maybe hollow out the gap between her lower arm and torso.

PinUP3.JPG
 
I like it, I think you can make it look great. I like the way you laid everything out, it is different than I envisioned and much better!

Here is some background music... one of my favorites.

[youtube]DEC8nqT6Rrk[/youtube]
 
Last couple of days I have done the rough (and I do mean ROUGH) beveling. I'm still not happy enough with the results to take a photo, but I will say both sides now have the basic shape of a blade.... along with ugly ridges and gouges. So now I've begun coarse sanding on that section to be able to see the ridges and valleys better, and flatten them out. I'm not accustomed to working on such a large blade, and my little 1 x 30 is being pushed pretty hard. Still at the 40 grit level for now, but preparing to move up the chain soon.
 
At the moment I am filing bevels. (I have a few in the pipe line)
I find that drawfiling with a small single cut file flattens the bevels very well and it gives you good control where you want the bevel to start and the flats to end.
And it goes surprisingly fast. I use a little triangular file becouse it is very sturdy.
Might work for you as well.
 
I've been beating on the bevels for some time now. They still aren't perfect, but rather than allow myself to get frustrated, I'm going to move on and come back to finish these by hand (with files and sand paper) later. Apologies for the crappy photos. I really should make a light box.

PinUP4.JPG


PinUP5.JPG
 
Tonight I decided to waste a little time. I had some scrap 1095 pieces and I got the notion to make a particular kind of guard. Now mind you, if I mount this blade to the trench knife handle, this guard will be useless... so why am I making it? For the same reason I made the broach, I guess... I needed the distraction.

Guard.JPG
 
Today after much consideration I decided to abandon the notion of the pin-up and re-profiled the blade. I'm still not settled with the profile, but at least I can once again begin to move forward on making the trench knife. I plan to keep removing the spine until the profile looks right... maybe half of what's still there... perhaps more. We'll see. For now I'm playing this by eye.

DSCN5746.JPG
 
If I may, let me suggest working from the edge upwards and get the bevels the way you want before worrying about re-vamping the spine line again. There's plenty of material to work with either way. Just a thought.
 
I followed James' advice and worked in the bevel line from the spine side using the 4x36. The line is MUCH straighter now and MUCH wider and more distinct. Still not perfect at all points because the hollow grind was done on my HF 1x30, using the tiny (and hard) top wheel as a contact wheel. This means contact was stuttery at most times, giving an bumpy imperfect grind. Still, the result looks MUCH better now. Hopefully I'll find a way to straighten up the remaining waves in the line.
 
Maybe a hardwood block cut to the appropriate radius and wrapped with coarse paper to straighten/smooth the hollows? Sort of like draw-filing. It will require a lot of elbow-grease but I don't know how else to go about it, lacking a proper contact wheel.

In any case it looks like it will be a better cutter than the typical dagger usually seen on those trench knives, and still plenty "stabby".
 
ive worked a nice hollow on a table saw that had a norton diamond wheel of some sorts instead of saw blade, and slowed down via pulley, a piece of plate steel to bring everything to the top of the wheel, great perfect grinds ill posts some pics when i get athe right membership.
 
Spent a lot of time yesterday sanding the hollows. I think I got it about 98% done. The lines seem nice and straight now up to the last quarter inch before the plunge. Tough area to get. Part of me keeps screimg "Use the Dremel." The other part says "Take your time." Since I'm having a problem with my right eye at the moment, I think I'll listen to the calmer side. Besides, I now have a Herculean right arm from all that sanding... need to let it rest a while.

When I do resume I'll finish up that tiny piece of real estate, then take it through some higher grit counts in prep for sending this to heat treatment.

I may not have shown it in previous pictures, but I have a brass pommel for this knife as well. It was one of the large ones from Jantz that I've sanded down the flare to fit the handle properly. It's one of the conical pommels, not the four sided sort that was original to the knife. I've never found a four sided one yet. I suppose I could reshape this one, but that seems pointless.

- Greg
 
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tryppyr said:
Today after much consideration I decided to abandon the notion of the pin-up and re-profiled the blade.
Click to expand...

Well,... bummer! :(

Too late but,... here's kind of what I was thinking with the negative space idea...

DSCN2071.jpg
 
Interesting.

I was bummed when I made the decision. I did a little self analysis and decided that the reason I was bummed was because I was unable to see a path to completion for the project that yielded anything like what I had in mind. When I considered the negative image approach, I couldn't determine how to remove material near that border between the lady and the hollow that didn't leave either or both compromised. Since I was, at that point, committed to the hollow grind approach, I elected to put that as the priority, rather than the imagery.

Besides, I was never quite satisfied with the way the image at the top sat relative to the trench knife handle. That's why I took the diversion of creating the guard from the scrap piece. At that time I was looking for a handle solution that would have worked better with the previous profile. As I considered that further it occurred to me that the lady had no relevance without the relationship to the war... at least not for me.

So ultimately, I felt the idea was, as I described it initially, hair brained, and decided to abandon it. I'm certainly not above admitting my ideas are flawed. ;)

I will say, however, that your drawing gives me a better sense of what you were proposing than I had formed based solely on the wind vane example. I may try something like that in the future.

- Greg
 
You’ve got me thinking...

… Even more abstract, but I’m thinking about trying something like this,… maybe.

DSCN2074.jpg
 
Thanks. Your idea inspired me.

... Is it a pregnant woman or a lady with her hand on her hip?... or is it a man?,... just a knife design.

It's a bit ambiguous, but I guess it's whatever you see... whatever you like, not literal or obvious,… mysterious.

If you see Godzilla, that's O.K too. :)
 
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