Drop point WIP

Salem Straub

Salem Straub

Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
5,547
This is a simple little 4" drop point hunter with a rabbeted tang and curly koa handle. Blade steel is CPMS30V. I built it at Ken's shop, and definitely learned some good things with it.

I drew a pattern on a piece of paper, photocopied it, kept a copy, then cut the drawing out of the paper. I took some 3/16" white plexiglass from a sign shop, spray glued the paper pattern on, and used a bandsaw and belt grinder to profile the plastic right to the outlines of the drawing. Here is the pattern:

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I included what pics I could but the blade appears already rough ground and heat treated in these pictures. I got carried away and did a good bit of work before I remembered I had the camera and was going to do a WIP! More pics next knife, I promise... The pattern has a couple possible configurations of pins/rivets drawn onto it, eventually I settled on a single Corby.

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Nothing too special, flat ground on a Burr King and disc grinder, 36 grit gold belt first, then 220 and 400 grit J-flex belts. I trued the flats on the disc, then hit it lightly with a fine scotch brite wheel before stoning with #400, then #600 Falcon slip stones. I then wet sanded it at 600 grit.

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Actually, this was all done after heat treat. The blade was only profiled before HT, I never tried that before but Ken recommended trying it to minimize warpage. Surprisingly, grinding was not too bad afterwards, although stoning and sanding took some elbow grease for sure.

This is the blade at 600 grit, with some sanding left to do.

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I'll try to post again tomorrow, thanks for looking.
 
With the blade ready for assembly, I turned to making the guard. I cut a piece of 3/8" thick nickel silver off with the bandsaw, deburred it, and flattened it on the disc grinder. I measured the width with calipers, then scribed a centerline down the guard stock. I placed the tang/shoulders of the blade onto the guard, and marked for width on each end of the intended slot on the centerline. Then I went to the Bridgeport to mill out the slot, using an endmill and plunge cutting a little deeper with each pass.

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With the slot milled, I check the fit on the blade. It turned out pretty snug.

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I then chucked up a 1/2" endmill and plunge cut out a rough radius to start the finger notch in the bottom of the guard. The main shaping of the guard was done with the Burr King but the mill was used first to hog out to general dimensions.

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I shaped the guard with the Burr King, profiling it and refining the finger groove area on the small wheel, then truing it up a bit on the disc then sanding the guard down to #400 and shining it up on the buffer. Then it was time to solder.

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I've got to say, Ken's method of soldering produces a way nicer joint with less hassle than how I had done it before. This solder job was actually his work, he demoed the method for me on this blade. Good job, dude! And it had been a good while since he even soldered a guard...

I'll post some handle work stuff soon. Thanks for looking!
 
Ok. I had heard of this way of doing the solder joint before, but for some reason never tried it. I always used the "stick" method, which could produce a sound joint, but a fair amount of cleanup afterward. Not very good for damascus blades. I bet lots of you do it this way, it's more like a jewelry soldering technique. First, Ken broke out a simple little tool he made to aid the process: a 4" length of SS pin stock, with a large flat point on one side and a smaller point on the other side. Sort of like a double ended round bottom graver's burin with no handle, shined and sharpened to a mirror finish. Here is a hastily drawn picture:

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I thoroughly cleaned the guard and tang with acetone and scrubbed it with Dawn and water.

We semi-flattened a piece of 3/4" pipe, gripped it end up in the vise, fitted the guard up to the tang shoulders, and set the tang down into the pipe, blade point up. (See pic below.)

We used sta-brite solder and safety-silv flux. First he poured a small capful of flux and used the end of the little SS chisel to transfer solder to only the joint, keeping flux this way out of all areas where solder was not desired.

Ken cut small pallions of solder off the coil, perhaps 3/16" long. He rested one under the ricasso, two on each side, right at the solder joint corner.



He heated the guard carefully from below with a soft brushy propane torch flame, moving constantly around all sides. When the solder started to flow, he aided it in wetting the entire joint with the SS pick/chisel.

With the entire joint covered, we let it air cool. Then the pick was used to trim the solder to an evenly radiused, neat and clean joint. It just took a few curls in each direction, then the joint was lightly buffed with green on a loose muslin wheel. Little to no solder cleanup was required outside of the joint.

After soldering, we moved to handle work. Selecting a wondrous piece of curly koa, I cut to length and ripped a rough block. A thin slitting saw was put in the Bridgeport, and the block was cut into two scales using plenty of lubricant and cutting around all sides. This was done to take a minimal kerf and give a nice bookmatched effect in the finished handle.

I then flattend the ends of the guard side of the scales with the disc, and scribed a tang outline on the inside of each scale. A 1/2" endmill went in the mill, and each scale was mortised to half the thickness of the tang plus a little for epoxy. One hole was drilled and counterbored for a corby, as I chose to keep the design clean and simple. The fiber spacers from the original drawing were eliminated as well since the thickness of the guard stock had increased.

Here is a pic of the progress after roughly profiling the scales:

[URL="http://[IMG]http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=368&pictureid=3847[/IMG]"]

I taped the blade, cleaned the tang again, mixed up some T-88 epoxy, gooped the it all up, and set the corby tight. Then I clamped it lightly, tapped the butt of the scales toward the guard, clamped it tight, cleaned up the epoxy, and inspected the glue joint.

[URL="http://[IMG]http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=368&pictureid=3848[/IMG]"

I then left it in the vise to cure for three weeks while Ken went bear hunting in Alaska and I slaved away at the hardware store.

Resuming work the other day, I rough ground the handle with the Burr King, hollowing out the contours and defining the palm swell with the 8" wheel. I shaped the guard and grip into a finger notch with the 3/4" small wheel.

Here's a couple pics with the grip rough ground:

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[URL="http://[IMG]http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=368&pictureid=4521[/IMG]"]

I then slack belted and small-wheeled everything down to 400 grit. Here is a poor picture of the result, and I will post more and better in a couple of days after hand sanding, buffing, and cleaning everything up. Thanks for bearing with me! Hope you enjoyed it.

 
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vorpalknives said:
Thanks for looking, fellas. Glad you enjoyed it. What's that Bro Workshop gonna be, mostho?
Click to expand...
We have enjoyed alot your work mate!
That Bro Workshop will be soon become a website where I can show all my knifeworks, resin jewels, and a lot more.
Some funny stuff I hope...

Cheers!
 
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Here's a pic after all finishing, sanding to 600 grit, buffing with white rouge, then rubbing coats of Johnson's paste wax in with a little lighter fluid here and there.

Call me cheesy, but I named it "Honeychile" because of the warmth and tone of the wood.

Still gotta fiddle around with my lightbox/bulbs/technique, though...
 
vorpalknives said:
Call me cheesy, but I named it "Honeychile" because of the warmth and tone of the wood.
Click to expand...

I'm really picky about knife names, but I don't think that's cheesy at all. I dig the way the single bolt is slightly ahead of center, and its placement matches the curve of the handle. That's very balanced and pleasing to my eye. The knife overall looks excellent! Keep up the great work, and thanks for the inspiration.
 
Man that's beautiful! Thanks for the great WIP. I cannot solder worth spit, but I'll try the Dawn washing next time; maybe that will help. I know I never get the joint clean enough. This is fantastic! Beautiful handle.
 
Salem,
I'm a bit into embellishment right now with filework, wire inlay, and scrimshaw but as you've shown here embellishment is not needed. Simply beautiful ! Beautiful wood and beatiful steel, I think thats what it all about. Great Work.

-Josh
 
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