Down time knife WIP

Tai,
thanks for documenting this, and for all of the fun along the way. If a thing is worth doing, its worth doing right - and its worth having fun while doing it.
I have a lot of copper pipe from an old heating loop that we took out of our garage (copper hot water pipe for hot water baseboard heating). I have a lot of raw materials to play with, and you have given me some good ideas/basic techniques to build with. Thanks again.
kc
 
Thanks guys. :)

My website needed redoing anyway so I thought ,... why not put a slide show of the WIP on the homepage.

Hope it works.

http://taigoo.com/

(Edited: Slide show moved to the "On The Bench" page.)
 
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I got a little work done on the end piece fabrication today. It’s three pieces brazed together. I put a variation of my mark on the very end.

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That end piece looks nice. I like that it compliments the stags crown overall, but has it's own flow. This is an awesome WIP.
I can't wait to see what sheath is conjured up for it. Thanks Tai.
 
It's just for fun right now,... a nice little break from my orders.
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I'm going to try and do some work on a decorative pin for the tang today,... similar to the end piece.
 
I find it a lot easier to drill a hole straight (without a drill press) using an extra long bit. It’s easier to tell if you’re off.

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I used brass for the pin itself, because it’s a lot stiffer than copper.

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Burnished over the stag for a flush fit.

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I'm thinking it might just be ready for my big buddy, Mr. yaR, to sheath up,... can't wait! :)
 
Thanks!

Traditional, “cutler’s art”.

Well,… “I know it’s only Rock and Roll, but I like!”
(It ain’t over until Jagger sings…)

(((… holding my breath until after sheathing, final finish and assembly, etc.)))

So far so good.,,, I’m thinking.
 
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Great looking knife Tai. Looking forward to seeing it sheathed in one of Rays sheaths, he's been making some nice stuff in his new style, ought to make an impressive total package.

Regards
Jerry Fisher
 
Thanks guys! :)

Had a student that saw the WIP come for a lesson yesterday. We made a ferrule similar to the one in the WIP. I think he might post some pix. We'll see..

(I’m going to shoot Mr. Ray some pix of saguaro cacti... I guess he has an idea. The man's an artist!)
 
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Mr. Ray said he was having trouble posting, so I'm posting this for him.
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I got back home from Little Rock and Texas Wednesday night. Thursday morning I received an email from Tai saying the knife was on its way and it showed up early afternoon on Friday. Huge box with a ton of newspapers and in it I found the knife. It was pretty much as I expected and it weighed about as much as a feather. After looking at it several times for the next couple days I came up with a plan.

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First thing I did was find an empty cereal box and I used the thin cardboard to cover the blade and to also use it as a preform to shape the inner sheath. With Tai's knife I had to keep in mind that the front of the blade was the widest part of the knife. Also I had to run it up aways on the handle since this was going to be a pouch style sheath. After I had this part done the next thing to do was to make a paper pattern. I used a legal size piece of paper and just worked the paper around the pre form so it fits pretty snug and then I cut it with scissors as close to the preform as possible.
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I'll use this paper pattern and trace it on the leather I'll be using. I'll give my self a little extra just to make sure I have it big enough. All my new sheaths are two layers of leather. An inner and outer sheath. I use 1/8" leather on the inner sheath. After I have the leather cut I'll totally saturate the leather with a 50/50 mix of shellac and denatured alcohol but I'm starting to think water would work just as well. Once the leather is saturated I'll start working it around the preform. I'll start and the top and work my way down and as I'm going I'm using real thin wire to hold the leather in place. I'll leave the wire on for about an hour and then remove it and work the knife with the preform out. The leather will hold its shape then but you can still make some adjustments as its drying. The next two photo's are just showing the front and back of the inner sheath. After a couple hours I'll cut the over laps and get a nice clean seam.
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I let the sheath dry without the knife in it over night and if I'm not sure its 100% dry I'll stick it in my heat treat oven at 90 degrees and let it dry out more. An hour is usually plenty.
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I worked mainly on the back of the sheath today. I made the belt loop and got that glued in place. When I'm doing that I'll cover the top of the seam with the bottom of the belt loop. Tai also was wanting the sheath to have more of a point so I added that by first gluing a piece of 1/8" leather on the back and then adding a piece of sole leather to that for the new point. Tomorrow I'll start working on the front of the sheath.
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Fantastic! I can't wait to see the finished product. You can tell Ray's an Oregonian... Reduce Reuse Recycle in action with a cereal box once again. ;) Forge blower box, sheath forms... :D

Ray, I really liked seeing your sheaths as much as your knives in December at the mini OKCA show in Eugene.:)
 
Tai Goo said:
Thanks guys! :)

Had a student that saw the WIP come for a lesson yesterday. We made a ferrule similar to the one in the WIP. I think he might post some pix. We'll see..

(I’m going to shoot Mr. Ray some pix of saguaro cacti... I guess he has an idea. The man's an artist!)
Click to expand...
That was me taking the class. Had a blast and learned so much. Tai is a great teacher and a very nice guy. Tai, I'm still traveling and won't be back at the shop for about 3 weeks. Have'nt decided on the blade to use with the ferrule yet. No pic of it yet. I'll see if I can figure have to take a pic with my camera and get it uploaded.
 
Got some more time on the sheath yesterday so I'll see if I can get it posted. Been having internet connection problems the last few days.

I started working on the front of the inner sheath. This is the part I really have to give a lot of thought to since most of what I have been doing is still pretty new to me. I told Tai I was wanting to do some Arizona fir trees as the main subject. :D I need to make things big enough and at the same time I'm limited on space so I always have to take that into consideration.
I used some 1/4" leather for the cactus figures. I'll just contact cement them to the inner sheath.
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After I have that done its time to make another paper pattern. When I do this pattern I try to leave a an extra half inch on both sides to make it easier to work with. Once I have the patter made I'll coat both sides of the inner sheath with contact cement and let that dry or force dry it with a hair dryer. I'll use the paper pattern and get the finish piece of leather cut out keeping in mind which is the finish side of the paper pattern. After I have that piece of leather cut out I'll coat the rough side with more contact cement.
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Once the contact cement is dry I'll take a spray bottle filled with water and spray the outside of the finish piece of leather and let that soak in for a few seconds. Then I'll stretch that piece of leather. Here's the tricky part. You need to get the inner sheath centered on the stretched piece of leather and once it touches you pretty much committed. I'll just work it on with my hands trying to keep out wrinkles as I'm working it around the sheath. I'll try to center the seam as good as possible and then pinch it with pliers to get it good and tight.
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Then I go back to the front and work it around the pieces I'm going to enhance. I just used a 16 penny nail that I've rounded the tip over as a tool for doing that.
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I'm hoping to get this one wrapped up by the time I get the other one back from Mr. R... get some down time from the up time. I forgot which one was up/down now?

I put a good deal of elbow grease and canola oil in it so far, but it still needs more...

That's the other sheath I was waiting on from Chuck.

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