Fairly Knives Chat - For people who like Knives, have Knives or use Knives.

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Moring gang!

I really don't want to be at work today, someone dropped the ball yesterday and I have to pick up the slack. 6 pages of SKU's I have to find and count, on top of receiving a big shipment item by item. Just the receiving will take me to about 1230 and then putting it away is another hour and a half. Of course, its my boss who didn't do the SKU count yesterday and he's off today, gee thanks.

Cool vid Daniel, that coupled with Salem Straub's grinders page really helps out. I wish I could afford one of those, but after getting rid of all my credit cards a few years ago, I really have to starve myself for several months to get one. I'm still contemplating a GIB, I have a motor and pullys already, I just need to find someone to weld it for me, even though its a NWG I would prefer it to be welded. Time to put a bike on eBay!


-Xander
 
I hope that goes well!

Thanks on the KMG video, I had been meaning to make that or a while. I remember wanting one and there is not a lot of videos on them.

Good idea on getting rid of the credit cards, lol that is how I financed mine. I plan on grinding them away once they are paid off, lol.
 
Evening.

Just finished up dinner, sloppy Joes and tater tots! Work went ok, busy though. But my night is now pretty much ruined, I got home and was putting my bike up in the laundry room. I had my sharpening stones sitting on the counter and I looked over and there is the dark grey stone I found tht was working so beautifully, in three pieces! I'm flippin mad! The worst part is nobody is owning up to it. I knew it had a crack in it, but it was just a shallow crack that went at a very acute angle to th surface, basically just a big chip would have come off. I could of salvaged that by cutting and re-lapping it, but it was broken cleanly in half like someone dropped it or tossed it.

Normally I wouldn't be so livid over something like this, but my stuff seems to be getting broken much more lately. I found one of my Diamler Chrystler Parts Division corporate issued high ball glasses from 1933 broken in the trash and no one said anything until I found it. I keep them locked up in my bar, but someone decided to use one and broke it. I don't even use it very often. I also found a nice paint rub down the enitre length of one of my bikes, and nice shiney new metal showing from a paint chip. Again, no ones knows anything.


Ugh, I need a drink, a shot and a beer. Where's my pipe at...gggrrr!


-Xander
 
Sorry to hear that! That just sucks.

I had a bunch of stuff happen like that a little while back... some people have no common sense! My katana was on the tv stand and it got all scratched up... lol the guy thought if it was tough how could it scratch! (pre heat treat too) I need to spend a day just taking out the big scratches. The same guy asked me if I thought it was OK to chop wood with no backing on the porch of his 1k per week cabin. I think he had chopped a big spot into it. wow! He only has good intent too, just doesn't pay attention.

Sloppy joes, that rocks! I had to run into town and we ate Long John Silvers take out. lmao, it was gnarly! We usually cook every meal ourselves but it sounded really good. We have a combo LJS/A&W.

I want some sushi! I keep wanting to order some yellow tail, I can get it at a sushi place but enjoy making it.

I'm pretty good at the rice, I just cooked rice for sushi for about 6 months and it took me about that long to get right... 6 batches at a time non stop.
 
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Xander,Man that sucks mega balls! I hope the bike was not my...uuuhhh I mean your Miyata.haha . I feel your pain. You know how many roommates I have had. In my case it was stuff just gone and nobody knows anything about it.I am off tomarrow if you need to get away from the house, just call me.
Daniel I LOOOOOOOOOOVE yellow tail !!!!!!!!!!! now you made me hungry!!!!!
Big, I hope all is going well with your health.
Have a good night y'all.
 
I hear you on that! Back in the day stuff would just disappear.

Tuna... mmm! I need to find some, it is non existent here.

In Grenada W.I. (where I used to live) they have a big fish market where you can buy whole tuna. Sushi is not big there so we could get a big triangle from the tail for pretty cheap... man I miss it!
 
Yeah, it pretty much blows. I didn't even get to finish honing my kamisori on it. I really wanted to use a self made kamisori that was honed on a stone I found. The whole self sufficient and gratification thing. I have tomorrow off and plan to drive out to the river where I found it and search some more for another (hopfully larger) stone. I've killed half a hipster of burbon tonight already just being pissed about this because I was planning to finish honing a few straights. On the plus side I have 3-750's of Bulleit unopened in the bar and about a quarter of another one still to go. Enough burbon to last me through the new year!

I'm already planning on swapping the frame out on my bike tonight, I think I have an extra frame somewhere under the ivy in the yard. I need to make some measurements for tire clearance, seat post, head tube angle, reach and such before I start pulling parts. May need to use Kevins shop/dining room because knife making has taken over the bike working area in my shop.


-Xander
 
fast14riot said:
Yeah, it pretty much blows. I didn't even get to finish honing my kamisori on it. I really wanted to use a self made kamisori that was honed on a stone I found. The whole self sufficient and gratification thing. I have tomorrow off and plan to drive out to the river where I found it and search some more for another (hopfully larger) stone. I've killed half a hipster of burbon tonight already just being pissed about this because I was planning to finish honing a few straights. On the plus side I have 3-750's of Bulleit unopened in the bar and about a quarter of another one still to go. Enough burbon to last me through the new year!

I'm already planning on swapping the frame out on my bike tonight, I think I have an extra frame somewhere under the ivy in the yard. I need to make some measurements for tire clearance, seat post, head tube angle, reach and such before I start pulling parts. May need to use Kevins shop/dining room because knife making has taken over the bike working area in my shop.


-Xander
Click to expand...

Bulleit... I have to check that.

I hope you find a stone and bet you will find an even better one. Most rocks are not solid and even without outside influence fractures can be a really big deal. I got pissed and threw out 300# of alabaster I was working on because of this, lol. I'm sure yours was broken but you know what I mean. If I have any luck with finding any good stones for honing I will send you one... it seems hard to find out about what to look for but I bet I can find something.

Some days just suck but people may be looking out for you... I heat treated a Marlinspike today that looks good! ...just sayin'! :D
 
Yep, Bulleit Burbon. Its my go to, I like it better than Knob Creek and its just a little cheaper too. Not much of a fan of their rye (green label) but then again I'm not a fan of rye whiskeys in general.

I'm hoping I can find one. I examined this one very close and mapped out every crack and chip. I evn faced the bottom just so it would sit flat and fully supported. I also faced one side to give a good edge for sharpening right up to the plunge/shoulder. When I looked at the mating surfaces of the chip from the known crack, I could see oxidation intruding maybe 1/4" into the rock at the furthest, but it averaged about 1/8" for most of it. I think it initially cracked from sittng in the back of my truck for a day or two before I took it into the house. The break in the middle was clearly a sharp point induced fracture that went across several natural cleave lines. Not a natural looking break from stresses. It looked like it was dropped and landed on something.

What to look for, ince I have scoured the depths of the interwebz for info on this (not much out there for the hobbyist, quarry owners are pretty secretive). Areas along flood planes generally are the worst, so that pretty much rules out that the stone I found was native to my immediate area. Most of the levee riprap is mined from east of saramento (Folsom) and dumped here. I foun that the best natural hones have a high garnet content. This stone was pretty soft, but it did not gouge easily, think of those old cheap arkansas stones, about like that. Natural cleavage in flat sections is a must. The more natural the flat, the better. This will give consistant grit by using one layer that was formed at the same time, rather than grinding flat and getting several layers, veins, inclusions, etc. Like we talked about before, slate, shale, chert and stuff can work well. I use the cheap diamond stones from Harbour Freight to lap them flat.

Marlinspike?! You just made me perk up like someone said free buffet at a Jenny Craig meeting! Inquiring minds want to know...

Oh, you won't guess what the teak rigger was asked to do yesterday, and it handled it beautifully; to cut a large circle out of the lid of a heavy duty garbage can! No sawing was needed, just a good stab through the 3mm thick plastic and a slow pulling cut all the way around. The stab was the hardest part, its not designed to stab, actually its designed to avoid it all together! Yeah, the guys all standing around with their broken utility knives from trying to cut it were amazed! Of course, I just holstered it afterward and not let them see it, but just to prove the point I shaved a small patch of hair off my arm :D


-X
 
Ok guys, off to a good start this morning!

Howdy y'all.

Out rockhounding again this morning, looking to replace that stone I had, well I found some more...



A WHOLE LOT MORE!!

2012-10-18091656.jpg



Here is the big one in hand for reference...

2012-10-18091803.jpg


And here is another chunk of the green/white one. I will be sending this and one of the grey ones to you Daniel.

2012-10-18091843.jpg



I also managed to get that bike out of the ivy last night, tore it down and cleaned it up. Looks like I can do a direct swap over. This bike had been sitting against a fence for almost 4 years overgrown with ivy. I dug it out this last spring, but left it there and it got overgrown again, just not as bad. Its a Marin, steel frame. No befoe pics, but you can imagine it...

2012-10-17232910.jpg



And this is the frame it will be replacing. I'm not going to transfer all the parts over, I have some CF handlebars I'm gonna use, different brake levers and the seat post is a different size. It currently has titanium handle bars, titanium hardware brakes/levers. Its also getting a new custom built rear wheel. Time to switch it up a bit. Bikes are an old passion of mine, I just wish my knife making and collecting were as nice as my bike building and collecting was.

2012-10-16160856.jpg


That blue schwinn frame is from the late 80's or early 90's, one of the first aluminum frame MTB's offered by Schwinn. Its super flexy, hard turning I can make the tires rub the frame! Its served its purpose, though.

Updates later...

-Xander
 
Ok, found another stone. This is typically how it looks when I find it...

2012-10-18094233.jpg


After carefully excavating this one, only half of it was stable enough to cleave into large enough chunks. Most of it was so fractured that it crumbled in my hand like egg shells. I managed to get some larger chunks off of it, hopefully after washing and lapping it will remain large enough to be usefull. The big chunk there is about 6x8!

2012-10-18094303.jpg


As you can see, these all cleave rather flat which is what you want, that helps eliminate stresses travelling through veins going across the surface. Let's hope I get several good one from all this!



-Xander - Posting from the field.
 
Xander, way cool stuff!

After seeing the formation I think it must be a shale or mudstone... something along those lines. Awesome you found more.

As a general rule when rockhounding you will do better the second time. I remember it took me years to be able to spot rhodonite (pink inside but looks like coal on the outside... it is a parkerized rock lol) and now I can spot the stuff from my car.

Nice bikes! I really need to get a bike going. I'm in bike riding central here!

I like trails, it seems highway riding is popular here. You can take a bike up the ski lift in the summer and ride it down, I really want to get into that.



I had a big day yesterday doing heat treat and have a bunch of kiridashis and 5160 to work on later. I spent the morning yesterday chamfering the butts and the afternoon and evening doing ht.

The dashis in W2 are ready to epoxy soak, I did one with a cool green cord over black rayskin. The hamons are about as popping as I think I can get them... I spent about 4 hours on each dashi after I was up to 2000 grit. I finally got a subtle white clouds look! I can also etch it dark and go for a more defined look but the clouds are where it's at.

Worn 2000 grit with a M3 slurry ( M3 lapidary polish, I think Aluminum Oxide based... probably 25,000 grit) got me the best look in my opinion and spending a lot of time etching then sanding off with 1000 (20 cycles?) seemed to do the trick. I am still after that eye popping look some guys get, I'm sure I'll have to do hundreds more to get there.

It was odd, you could see the hamon at all times but every 500 or so passes it literally changed dimensions from 2d to more and more 3d. I just wanted to polish more! I'll say they are tough.
 
I think it is a shale of some sort. I found lots of it containing veins of quartz or some other white crystaline rock. I got one small piece lapped and gave it to Kevin (fbc), it should work very well. No major cracks or anything in it. Consistant color, a nice natural flat, and a good size, maybe 3.5"L by 1.25"W with one long straight edge. Took only about 15 minutes of hand lapping under running water with a 220 diamond hone.

As I get more lapped I'll post pics and figure out what's what with these stones. The white/green one, I don't think I'm going to lap it, it took me hours to do the last one!


-Xander
 
Morning gang!

Got my bike built yesterday at Kevins house, of course not without some issues! First off, I had to take the frame to the belt grinder! Then, the one special wrench I needed, I asked Kevin where it is and he said, "Its out there on the grinder becoming a knife." Damn it! The one wrench he has only one of, the one I needed, and he decides to cut it up into a knife! Most people sell stuff to buy knife making supplies, not canibalize it into knives!

Anyways, after discovering my crank bearing are toast, and I didn't bring any new ones with me, so I finished it up late in the garage at home. Of course, more small details were over looked initially, improvisation and years of experiance got it together and functioning smoothly now!

Here is the wrench I needed...

2012-10-18151850.jpg



Gonna try lapping some more stones this morning. Some of the ones I picked up look a little different, so we'll see how they come out.


-Xander
 
Afternoon men.Off to see my daughter at college tomorrow.Mite have to look at some rifles while being in a big city with all the stores.
 
Hey Big!

Have a good trip and have fun checking out all the latest and greatest toys! I'm gettin the itch to finish my 1917 and start a new project. Next one is going to a .257Bob A.I. Probably on a Savage 110 action, but would love to build on a Mauser.


-Xander
 
Hey Bigcountry! :cool:

Just walked in from the shop here, tossed a whole paper towel soaked in blood. Note to self - tanto tips are sharp!


Done today...

4 kiridashis ground up to a shiny satin finish on the bevels, they are sharp! ready to cord wrap

one tanto ground to finger bleeding for 10 minutes sharp, ready to wrap - Hartsfield Style lines! high satin as well and ready to wrap

2 S7 harpoon tips finished! They are freaking sharp too! Sara did one last conditioning on the sheaths this morning. Pics soon!
 
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