destroyed my ricasso

[jmar595]

I am working on my first blade. I was smoothing the area on the flat of the ricasso and touched the edge of it with my angle grinder. There is no more plunge left. I did the other side beautifully then destroyed this side. I smoothed the other side to match. This first knife is definately a learning curve. I will post pics tonight. Also, the tang on the blade is pretty short, about 1 1/2". I didn't have anything that would go deep enough into the handle so I had to cut the tang shorter. Going to pin it, will probabally only get one pin in it though.

 

[AcridSaint]

Since this is going to be a hidden/stub tang, you could put one or two more pin holes in the tang and run short pins through them just to give opposing surface area for the epoxy to hang onto. I would use files and sandpaper to flatten and smooth, it won't be nearly as slow as you expect and you don't have to worry about a 10k rpm grinding wheel going rogue

 

[Matthew Gregory]

So far as I can tell (and maybe it's just because I suck), knifemaking is less about making an exactly perfect knife from beginning to end, and more about trying to make an exactly perfect knife and fixing all your screwups as you go. I don't know who said it first, but the words are very true:

"There are no ruined knives, only smaller knives!"

Adapt, overcome, improvise!

 

[Justin.Mercier]

That "there are no ruined knives, only smaller knives" saying is sooo true. I was forging out a piece of 3/4" O1 drill rod into a blade and got to a point where I accidentally snapped a very nice looking blade off the bar because i was working the end of the blade hot, but the back of the blade was too cold and it stressed. I took the blade i had forged out and i've since cut it in half and ground it into 2 pen knife sized blade which I'm goign to use the small tines from a set of antlers I've got for handles.

No point in letting the work i did forging down that massive rod to blade thickness go to waste.

 

[jmar595]

LOL, smaller knives, very true. I've widdled this blade down a bit. Looks okay except don't like what happened to the ricasso. Live and learn right. Next thing I have to figure out is how to heat treat it, I'm just about at that point. I made the hole in the handle a bit too big also, hope the epoxy will fill it alright. Can you put metal shaving in there, with the epoxy? Will it give it more strength. I use a full day cure. That will be fun too, figuring out a way to hold the blade right where it needs to be.

 

[mdoyle]

Mr Purple you hit the nail right on the friggin head there buddy!!!! Man that is sooo true. I remember reading a post I think by Dan gray that said something about how easy it is to make a knife when everything goes well, but a how important it is to be able to turn your mistakes into new designs. I am still waiting on the day that ALL goes well....
Matt Doyle

 

[jmar595]

Here are the pics of the first one in works.

 

[KeithH]

nice! whats the steel? and i found that a gentle hacksaw kerf makes nice plunge cuts.

 

[jmar595]

It's a lawnmower blade, I wrote more about it in my other post about heat treating.

 

[gixxer]

so it does not have a plunge. So what if the guard will not line up seamlessly now that you have no more plunge and flats. Its a learning expierence, as long as you heat treat it right you can cut A BUNCH of stuff. use what you know and make another.