- Joined
- Aug 26, 2013
- Messages
- 358
I've only made a handful of knives now but have a few questions and figured I'd just consolidate them into 1 thread. I didn't want to asking something that's been asked 1000 times on here already so I've tried searching the boards, read through all of the newbie threads, watched every knife making video known to man online(well maybe not all of them but I'm getting close). Even then I know all of these things have probably been covered a bunch.
Liners- I did my first knife with liners and just put the liners on when I assembled the entire handle. It actually worked ok and looks fine but was a terrible mess trying to epoxy the tang and the liners and scales all at once. Plus I had micarta bolsters which made it more difficult making a 6 piece epoxy sandwich. So when doing a handle with bolsters(obviously not metal bolsters) and liners is it best to make the fit between bolster and scale perfect and just glue them both together on the liner and then treat the whole thing as one piece once it dries? That way you would drill pin holes, shape the front of the bolsters etc after everything is laminated to the liners?
Acid etching- I acid etched the entire blade and tang of one knife before assembly of the handle. Once I finished the handle all of the exposed tang was sanded to satin finish while the blade was etched. This leaves a kind of awkward transition line from etched blade to polished/sanded tang. How do you typically address this? You could sand the spine or add a resist to the spine during etching but that just seem like it might look weird but it would give it a uniform look all the way down the spine. I know the answer is probably try different ways and see what I like but my knife making process takes so long I wanted to get input from other to see how they think it looks best.
This is kind of a dumb question but I used nail polish for a resist and was curious if the expensive nail polish works better than the cheap stuff. I used the .99 stuff and the etching seemed to creep under the edges of the polish so the lines weren't very crisp. Does the expensive stuff stick better and make a better resist? Btw, my wife has been giving me a really hard time for how much time I spent shopping for nail polish, nail polish remover, nail polish paint brushes etc
. Or is there something better than nail polish to use as a resist?
Brass rod test- at what point do you do the brass rod test? Do you sharpen the blade right after heat treat, do the test and then grind the sharpened edge back down and finish the sanding etc if it passes? I've been waiting to profile the edge and sharpen the blade until after final handle and blade finishing but at that point it's kind of too late for the brass rod test because you can't take it all apart if it fails. I'm using 1084 heat treating in a propane forge with a muffle pipe and so far have just been testing for hardness with a file after HT but want to add more testing measures to make sure my blades are coming out ok.
Peening pins- do you peen the pins during handle assembly while epoxy is still wet or can you wait until after it dries? I've tried doing it wet and used the work surface on the back of the vise to do it on but again it makes a huge mess with epoxy oozing out everywhere. Maybe I just need to come to terms with it always being a huge sticky mess when assembling handle? Or maybe I'm using too much epoxy which is causing the mess?
Leather cutting- I was curious what everyone uses for cutting and trimming leather when making sheaths and what you found the ideal type of knife to do it would be if you were to make one just for that purpose? I've made leather sheaths for 2 knives now but am not satisfied with what I've tried using to cut/trim leather. I used a utility knife I made but the blade seems to be too thick and the grind isn't ideal. I've also used a box cutter but a) I don't really like that it seems kind of flemsy b) if I'm making a nice custom knife I don't want to be using a $5 box cutter in the process. I'd rather make a nice tool/knife myself to use in my leather work. I mean I actually made myself 2 little knives simply for the purpose of cutting strips of sand paper so why not make one for cutting leather. I was thinking a small Wharncliffe style blade, very thin and razor sharp with a chisel grind might work really well or maybe some type of kiridashi? I've never used either one of those types of knives though.
Liners- I did my first knife with liners and just put the liners on when I assembled the entire handle. It actually worked ok and looks fine but was a terrible mess trying to epoxy the tang and the liners and scales all at once. Plus I had micarta bolsters which made it more difficult making a 6 piece epoxy sandwich. So when doing a handle with bolsters(obviously not metal bolsters) and liners is it best to make the fit between bolster and scale perfect and just glue them both together on the liner and then treat the whole thing as one piece once it dries? That way you would drill pin holes, shape the front of the bolsters etc after everything is laminated to the liners?
Acid etching- I acid etched the entire blade and tang of one knife before assembly of the handle. Once I finished the handle all of the exposed tang was sanded to satin finish while the blade was etched. This leaves a kind of awkward transition line from etched blade to polished/sanded tang. How do you typically address this? You could sand the spine or add a resist to the spine during etching but that just seem like it might look weird but it would give it a uniform look all the way down the spine. I know the answer is probably try different ways and see what I like but my knife making process takes so long I wanted to get input from other to see how they think it looks best.
This is kind of a dumb question but I used nail polish for a resist and was curious if the expensive nail polish works better than the cheap stuff. I used the .99 stuff and the etching seemed to creep under the edges of the polish so the lines weren't very crisp. Does the expensive stuff stick better and make a better resist? Btw, my wife has been giving me a really hard time for how much time I spent shopping for nail polish, nail polish remover, nail polish paint brushes etc
. Or is there something better than nail polish to use as a resist?Brass rod test- at what point do you do the brass rod test? Do you sharpen the blade right after heat treat, do the test and then grind the sharpened edge back down and finish the sanding etc if it passes? I've been waiting to profile the edge and sharpen the blade until after final handle and blade finishing but at that point it's kind of too late for the brass rod test because you can't take it all apart if it fails. I'm using 1084 heat treating in a propane forge with a muffle pipe and so far have just been testing for hardness with a file after HT but want to add more testing measures to make sure my blades are coming out ok.
Peening pins- do you peen the pins during handle assembly while epoxy is still wet or can you wait until after it dries? I've tried doing it wet and used the work surface on the back of the vise to do it on but again it makes a huge mess with epoxy oozing out everywhere. Maybe I just need to come to terms with it always being a huge sticky mess when assembling handle? Or maybe I'm using too much epoxy which is causing the mess?
Leather cutting- I was curious what everyone uses for cutting and trimming leather when making sheaths and what you found the ideal type of knife to do it would be if you were to make one just for that purpose? I've made leather sheaths for 2 knives now but am not satisfied with what I've tried using to cut/trim leather. I used a utility knife I made but the blade seems to be too thick and the grind isn't ideal. I've also used a box cutter but a) I don't really like that it seems kind of flemsy b) if I'm making a nice custom knife I don't want to be using a $5 box cutter in the process. I'd rather make a nice tool/knife myself to use in my leather work. I mean I actually made myself 2 little knives simply for the purpose of cutting strips of sand paper so why not make one for cutting leather. I was thinking a small Wharncliffe style blade, very thin and razor sharp with a chisel grind might work really well or maybe some type of kiridashi? I've never used either one of those types of knives though.
Luckily I'm giving this one to my little brother and I'm willing to risk it with him.
