Custom Fighter WIP

[Shawn Hatcher]

Love the twisting shots!

 

[Otaku]

I learned a lot from this thread. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

 

[canineforge]

Good stuff, Phillip! Thanks for taking the time to share this. :thumbup:

- Joe

 

[Phillip Patton]

Here's how it looks after annealing:

and then grinding. One benefit of quenching the blade after the last thermal cycle is that it really softens up the scale. Actually, most of it comes off. So there's very little grinding to do.

After grinding the blade flat and straight on the belt grinder, the shape is marked on with a Sharpie, and the extra material is cut off with the bandsaw:

Then the profile is cleaned up on the belt grinder, and the edges are painted with Dykem:

and the centerlines are scribed:

 

[Phillip Patton]

Now I use a dull belt to grind a short bevel down close to the center lines. I also made a couple sharpie marks half way across the blade:

After a few passes with a fresher 60 grit belt, grinding up to the mark:

I like to do blades in sections several inches long, rather than taking full length passes. Here the second half is done:

Then the top edge:

 

[Big Rick]

Phillip, always enjoy seeing what goes into making such a nice piece, got to say I do like the carbon fiber handle though!!

 

[Dawkind]

Another great WIP....thanks again, Phillip.

 

[crimsonfalcon07]

Subscribed. Looks like another educational and fun journey. Thanks for sharing!

 

[HJK]

A distinctive and beautiful work of art

 

[Bruce Bump]

Very interesting. Don't stop
I really like your shop too.

 

[remy b]

Looking good...

 

[Gary Mulkey]

I'm enjoying the trip through the various stages. Thanks for taking the time to do a WIP. They require a lot of extra time and we all appreciate the effort.

I especially like your way of getting different thicknesses of layers into the twist. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. I'm sure that many don't realize how much extra time and waste that is involved in making various patterns.

Please keep us updated with your progress.

Nice work.
Gary

 

[JCoutts]

Philip, thank you for the WIP! I've developed an appreciation for grinding from watching all of you guys and I have to say, yours are really nice, you make it sound and look so easy! I can't wait to see the finished knife.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Thanks for tuning in, fellas. Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I don't do much on knives on weekends, and I have some other projects going too. But I did harden the blade (actually four blades) last Friday, and finished tempering over the weekend. But that's getting ahead of myself. First, grinding. Didn't get any action pics, but here it is with all of the blade except the "inside" curve ground to 240 grit.

Here it's all done:

and here I've filed in the guard shoulders. Sorry, no pics of that either.

Have to file in the serrations before heat treating, for obvious reasons. Here I've layed them out with a sharpie. The marks are 1/8" apart.

And here I've started the grooves with a three corner file.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Then I continued the grooves with a 1/8" file:

and decided to go to a 3/16" file:

After doing both sides, it's time to heat treat. Here's the four blades I did just before coating with anti-scale compound:

The fighter blade coated:

After hardening and tempering, another guide bevel is ground on the edges, taking it down to it's final thickness:

 

[Phillip Patton]

Then the main bevels are ground (using a fresh 60 grit belt) until the guide bevel is gone, then again with a fresh 240 grit belt.

Then it's time to hand sand. Here's my sanding setup:

I have several different sanding sticks. I have flat ones for doing the flats (imagine that!) and convex ones for doing the recurve. I have a set each of hard and rubber coated. I use the hard ones for blades like this one that has a double grind, for keeping the grind line sharp. I sanded lengthwise with 400 grit paper until ALL the 240 girt scratches are gone.

One bevel done:

the other one done:

the ricasso done:

Rinse and repeat for the other side.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Other side:

After etching in ferric chloride for 10 minutes:

 

[drf1]

great thread Phillip,
and damn good looking knife too

best
dan favano

 

[Aaron Wilburn]

Loving it !!! Keep the pics coming.

 

[Dawkind]

Quite the Fighter.....extra-clean work, as always.