Damascus Camp Knife WIP

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Here's the blade clamped in my handy dandy little knife vise.


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Hand rubbing. You can see the area at the plunge which is about half way there.


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Here's the little swedge grind at the tip. You can see some small scratches, probably 120 grit that are waiting to be erased.


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And poof! Magic...


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Here's the blade after the hand rub. Finish is 600 grit. It's not long and smooth strokes like a carbon steel blade. It'll all get etched anyway, it just needs to be fine enough to not show scratches when it's done.
 
that sucker has wicked lines.
 
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Here's the bolster material. It's the remaining part of the original billet.


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I cut it to rough shape. That little bitty piece is all that's left of the billet. Now that's careful planning.... ;)


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The bolsters are sanded flat.


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I mark then so they can't get mixed up


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Front and Back. Front for me is the side where my logo is etched on the blade.


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The front bolster is clamped to the blade and holes drilled.


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Front bolster pinned to blade. I scribe around the blade onto the bolster so I can rough out the profile.


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I grind down to the scribed lines.
 
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I grind the top of the bolster to shape, and the bottom of the bolster, which needs to fall half way in between the holes I already drilled in the blade.


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Now I pin the front bolster which is nearly to shape to the still rough back bolster.


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I first rough grind the rear bolster on the belt grinder.


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Then on the disc grinder to final shape. I use a semi-rigid, articulating grinding jig that my best friend designed. It is very useful.


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I pin and clamp them to the blade to check symmetry.


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And finally, I pin them "permanently" to the blade with steel pins. I peen the pins so that the bolsters will stay put during grinding. Even though the heads of the peened pins will be ground off during grinding, the pins have swelled in the holes during the peening process and the bolsters will not come off. Not until we want them to.
 
Question: Are the very front of the bolsters finished? I knew this was to be done before pinning, as that area can't be sanded easily now?

Boy I am learning a whole lot. This process of bolster and pinning was very informative for me. I have a blade blank I forged years ago that is at this stage. It's awaiting my next move. Now I think I got it...! :thumbup:

Wonderful!

Coop
 
gotta be the best WIP thread to date. Im going to try a few of the methods youve used here, one being the flat disc sander for the finish grinding on the bevels.
 
Burt,

This has already been one of the best WIPs, and only part-way thru! Great fun and lots of info,...ready for more.

John
 
Burt Foster said:
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Then on the disc grinder to final shape. I use a semi-rigid, articulating grinding jig that my best friend designed. It is very useful.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that your Friend art in heaven? Did a good job designing your jig:thumbup:
 
Coop,

Well, the fronts are finished mostly when they're pinned. However, they're coming off later when the blade is etched. and I'll do a little fine tuning there before final assembly anyway. If this were a carbon steel blade, and the bolsters were not getting etched, and they were being pinned permanently, then yes, the fronts would be finished before pinning them.
 
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Here's a piece of nice carmel colored walrus ivory that I'll use for the handle.


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I cut off the end that I won't be using.


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After marking where I need to cut, I split off the left side of the tusk, then the right, leaving the center.


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Here are the two scales, the unused center and the unused end. I need to start making small knives, because I have a lot of this kind of stuff piling up....


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I rough flatten the scales on the belt grinder.


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Then I remove most of the excess around the perimeter. I'll leave a little extra for now.


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Here are the two scales ready to go on the knife. Almost.


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In order to keep as much enamel as possible on the finished knife, I grind down the scales from the underside and check frequently like this to see the approximate thickness of the handle.
 
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I'll be using a special thin black spacer material that I have to get from a special supplier to line the underside of the scales.


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The black spacer material is glued to the underside of the scales, and a hollow is ground in the scales for the same reason I grind one in the tang. The white stuff is just dust from the ivory.


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I clamp the scales to the knife and drill the pin holes.


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I pin the scales on the knife with steel pins. These pins, like the ones in the bolsters are just temporary, but they keep everything from moving around while I'm shaping the handle.


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I profile the handle down to the tang.


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I put a front and rear hollow in the handle to give it a nice swell in the center. I grind these on the contact wheel.


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Here's what they look like when they're roughed in.


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I make sure to check that the curves and swell are even before going on.
 
Thank you, Sir, for all of your time and trouble posting this great thread...:thumbup:
 
So my million dollar question is... how on earth did you forge those cute little 1/16" holes in the tang?!?!?!?!?! :eek:

Definitely one of the best threads on BF... probably ever :D

But how come when I post pics of stuff like using a disc sander to finish bevels nobody notices? :grumpy: LMAO :p (j/k)

Thanks for sharing Burt!!! :D :cool: :thumbup:
 
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NickWheeler said:
So my million dollar question is... how on earth did you forge those cut little 1/16" holes in the tang?!?!?!?!?! :eek:

Definitely one of the best threads on BF... probably ever :D

But how come when I post pics of stuff like using a disc sander to finish bevels nobody notices? :grumpy: LMAO :p (j/k)

Thanks for sharing Burt!!! :D :cool: :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Because at the rate you finish knives, the WIP posts drag out over 3 years as opposed to 3 days?:eek::D
 
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