Aspiration becoming Reality WIP (Pics 10/23/11)

cbwoods67

cbwoods67

Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
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A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of a knife that I drew up and said that I was going to make it. The thought was to start saving up money and begin on it part way through the summer. At the time it was more of a dream or a thought than a reality. Then Stacy saw my thread and made an incredible offer that I could not possibly pass up. Let me just say this now: To all of you new guys and gals, fill out your profile because you never know what it may lead to.

The original drawing
014.JPG


Here is the kit that Stacy sent me.
046.JPG


The file is chalked up, the handle taped to avoid dings from the clamp, and the blade covered so I can tell what the hell I am doing.
047.JPG


After a little bit of filing, I decided to call it a night
049.JPG


Feel free to send any questions comments and vulgar statements my way. I am sure that I am not doing something right, so if you notice please let me know
 
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cbwoods67 said:
A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of a knife that I drew up and said that I was going to make it. The thought was to start saving up money and begin on it part way through the summer. At the time it was more of a dream or a thought than a reality. Then Stacy saw my thread and made an incredible offer that I could not possibly pass up. Let me just say this now: To all of you new guys and gals, fill out your profile because you never know what it may lead to.

The original drawing
014.JPG


Here is the kit that Stacy sent me.
046.JPG


The file is chalked up, the handle taped to avoid dings from the clamp, and the blade covered so I can tell what the hell I am doing.
047.JPG


After a little bit of filing, I decided to call it a night
049.JPG


Feel free to send any questions comments and vulgar statements my way. I am sure that I am not doing something right, so if you notice please let me know
Click to expand...

The only problems I could see was what I couldn't see, but I was able to fix that:p

Follow Stacy's instructions and you will do fine, be sure to get all of the scratches out from the previous grit, don't focus on one area work the whole blade. As in if you see a scratch at the tip don't just sand there, sand the whole thing from plunge line to tip evenly, or you will get low spots. Other than that, just enjoy yourself and don't rush it:thumbup:
 
Way to go. Take you time and have fun. This might be the beginning of a life long pastime.

OK, guys, follow him along and post your comments and suggestions. Often an experienced maker will make assumptions that a new maker will not, so many of you with "lesser" experience may be of more use to CB than my advise at times.
 
Looks good so far.

If you are working just one side right now, try and work the other side too. You will want to do a bit on each side instead of one entire side at a time, more likely it will end up even at the end. I did this on my first two and it worked out great, just required a lot of flipping the blade in my clamps, well worth the inconvenience though.

To go a step further I even made a filing jig to give consistent angles... it isn't pretty but you can get an idea for it in my WIP thread for my first two knives which are off at heat-treating right now http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/841837-New-to-knife-making

Other than that... I must say that's a pretty cool profile you came up with. Awesome that Stacy could get you going on this! I'm very new to this as well but it's already a lot of fun and I have the next 3.5 months of summer budgeted out time/money wise for knife-making already :D
 
Looking good so far, no file gouges or anything... nice! Filing is tough at first but after getting used to everything it goes somewhat quickly, very satisfying. Looks like you're getting it right to me. :D

Stay at it and it will be done before you know it. :)
 
I spent a couple of hours filing tonight.

003.JPG


A little more
002.JPG


Time to change sides
004.JPG


Some more filing
001.JPG


Don't look, I'm naked! and kinda ugly
006.JPG


Problem!!!
007.JPG


I am not entirely sure how I did this, but I think that it is from accidentally tilting the file and running a corner down the blade..... there are a few more, but this one is the worst. They are not too deep, so hopefully with the filing I have left, I can even them out a little, then more with the sand paper.
wolffbite, for my next projects, I will more than likely build a jig similar to yours. For my first knife, I decided to make it complete with maximum human error, and it definitely shows. Hopefully the sand paper will even it out.
I measured the bevel with a nickel. At the ricasso, it is over a nickel thick, and sliding it forward toward the tip, it slowly narrows to just a hair under a nickel. Would it be wise to focus more file strokes at the ricasso and descend toward the tip to help even it out? I am also not satisfied with the plunge line, but there should be enough metal left to fix it, right? It may not be apparent in the pictures, but for some reason the sharpie is still there in the middle of the blade, but it has been been filed away near the spine and edge. When I file, I hold both ends of the file. Maybe I am pushing too hard, causing the file to bow?

Thanks for any thoughts criticisms.
 
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The gouges should be lessened with more filing for sure. A nickels width is a good reference to get for pre-sanding, and then just thicker than a dime for the handsanding before HT. Once you have done all the perpendicular filing, you can move on to some draw filing (parallel) on the blade, which will even out the whole bevel and hopefully remove the remainder of those gouges. I wouldn't worry too much about them right now, you still have quite a bit of filing left to do from what I can see. But it looks great!

Don't know if this has been brought up or shown to you but this site is pretty much the grail of making knives by hand http://www.engnath.com/manframe.htm. Lots of techniques, tips and tricks there that should keep you reading for hours and hours (i've read it all about twice now... and keep reading to absorb all the good bits :D)
 
I did some more filing again tonight.
003.JPG

001.JPG

I got most of the gouges out, but I still have this one, and one much smaller on the other side
004.JPG


Also, I am yet to make a dedicated plunge line, but this is what I am thinking:
006.JPG

Maybe not quite that steep, but I think it looks better that way than any other direction.
Thoughts?
I know my file lines are pretty messy, but I have a lot of filing still left and all the sanding, so I think I have plenty of time to straighten up.
Please let me know if you notice anything that I have over looked or failed to mention.
Thanks
 
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Cooper,
One purpose for the plunge line is to make the rear blade edge corner not sharp. Your finger rests right there , and a sharp pointed place is sure to bite you if you are not very careful. If you make the plunge angle above this area, the entire edge will be sharp, and there will be no reason for a plunge at all. There is nothing wrong with such an edge, as many kitchen and other slicer knives are made with a full flat grind and no plunge. I personally don't think the angled plunge will look good. If you want a full sharp edge, just start filing in the bevels and forget about the plunge. This can be done with the angle you drew as the starting place and will look good ( just with no defined lip or plunge).

It looks like you have filed in the distal taper pretty good, and now are ready to file the bevels to taper the blade toward the edge. Since this is CPM-154 steel, and will be HTed in a proper setup, you can take the edge to at least .030 before sanding, and down to .015-.020 after sanding. If it is even thinner at the edge, it will be OK for this steel type, as it warps very little in HT. Just don't sand it until it is sharp :) .

Keep up the good work.
 
Thanks for the clarification, Stacy. I didn't realize that if I did it right, there could be no defined plunge line. I think that will work better for this knife, especially considering how wide the blade is. Knowing that the blade can be thinner pre-heat treat for stainless is a relief. I must have overlooked that piece of information somewhere.
 
I did even more filing tonight. It seemed like I was getting basically no metal off at all. The file would just slide down the bevel, even with a good amount of pressure, it seemed like it was not taking any metal with it. I sat there for several minutes wondering what it could be. The file? no Me being a dumb ass? bingo. I don't have any pictures, but in the next few days, I should be losing a lot more metal than before.
 
Those files I sent vary in coarseness, so make sure you are using a coarser file to start with.
Also, some of them have a bit of use, so try a different, or a new file to compare.
Lastly, you may be chalking the file too much. Brush it out with the wire brush, re-chalk it lightly, avoiding off any cake, brush it off with a soft cloth leaving just a light coating in the bottom of the grooves.
 
More filing again tonight. I was getting very close to dime size, so decided to start sanding. The idea was to take just enough metal off to be able to see the major flaws from my filing, but be able to go back and file if needed. I used up one strip of 180 grit. I can't believe how much better it looks with all the crud off the blade.

Do you think I should keep sanding or go back with a file and take more metal off that way?

056.JPG


Also, what would be the best way to get the the little dings and scratches out of the spine?
I tried just running it along the sanding block, but that doesn't work very well because of the little dips. Should I wrap some sand paper around a dowel rod, or is there a better way to go about it?

Thanks
 
Looking good. Keep up the good effort and I'll let someone that knows what they're doing say anything else that needs said.
 
Just fold up a piece of sandpaper and sand the spine smooth.

Looks good, I would keep on sanding if the shape and bevels look like they are the way you like them.
 
I did some more sanding today, but before I go any further, I have some questions. I started sanding with 180 grit, perpendicular to the blade and it looked just fine. Then I decided to switch direction and that revealed this:
001.JPG


I didn't realize how badly I had gouged the blade! The other side is not nearly as bad, but I am pretty concerned about this side. Maybe the metal shavings getting in the gouges made it seem worse, but I am still very concerned.
So, my first question is should I find some sand paper that is lower grit and try to take more metal off?
I don't want to do any more filing, because I think that I may make it worse, but it seems that the 180 grit isn't doing much good.

Second question: When I took the tape off the tang, the was what looked to be some pitting. At first, I try to sand it away, but it didn't go anywhere. Should I be concerned, or is this normal?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Use the 180 grit and switch the paper to a new area when it slows down.

Don't be too worried about the file marks, or the tang. The file marks will sand out and the tang is not an issue at all.
 
Ok. Stacy, maybe I am just a little too worried about it. I have been cutting the paper into strips and haven't quite used up a full sheet, so I guess there is plenty of time. The depth of the gouges just has me concerned.
Thanks
 
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