Fingal - WIP

[P. McKinley]

This project my interpretation of the Scottish mythical giant hero "Fingal".

In his song "Giant", beloved local musician Stan Rogers, who passed away several years ago, wrote of Fingal as rising up from the misty waters of the Bras d' Or Lake here on Cape Breton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imSFwqq4cO0

The blade is 3/16" x 10" x 2 1/4", 5160 steel.

The tang shoulders have been nicely rounded to relieve stress points. I later welded on a piece of steel and shaped the whole bit into a proper tang with a threaded end.

I'll start the handle/guard with a chunk of fresh moose antler and some of Mark's superb Redwood burl

Drilling out the tang slot. After this series of holes were drilled I used a Dremel router to cut in a precision slot.

I like the tight fit!

Rough shaping on the band saw:

Fine-tuning the curves on the face of the guard:

Dry fitting:

Gluing up the spacer assembly of bubinga, ebonized pear, and moose antler:

Dry fitting the guard and spacer piece:

The handle block was drilled and fitted to the tang, then epoxied together:
For the guard I added some powdered antler to the epoxy:

 

[P. McKinley]

Continued -


I like bolted tangs as they make glue-up a lot cleaner and much less complicated:

This is where I start shaping:

Handle shaping begins by rough shaping on the band saw. Then I use my drill press fitted with sanding drums to establish the basic contours. The knife is held in my drill press vice as I carefully go at it:

I'm looking for a bit of flare on the butt end and my drill press set-up works pretty well at roughing-in this feature:

After several hours of tedious hand filing I arrive at this:

I'll revisit the knife in a bit, but now its on to the sheath/scabbard.

I'll be using some extraordinary quilted Redwood for the main body and veg-tanned leather for the upper piece. Working from a cardboard template, I have cut out the wood slabs and created a template for the leather upper.

It actually took two "upper" templates to produce a usable piece of leather(on the bottom):

I need to fashion three moose antler d-rings so I start with a slab, cut ou the pieces and begin more filing:

One done.... two to go. These take me about an hour each to get right.

 

[P. McKinley]

Continued -

All done:

Now, on to the antler Sam Studs. I have a small lathe that does an "ok" job of these little parts

Getting there:

Good enough for now. These'll get cleaned up a bit later:

Back to the sheath body. I have routed out a depression into which I will fit the leather upper section. The depression on the back side is slightly larger than the front so to accommodate and support the d-ring straps.

I have cut out the pieces of doe skin to be used for lining the sheath. I'll finish this process later after drilling stitch holes.

I have fitted, grooved and stitch-spaced the back piece to the sheath slab and started to drill the stitch holes. I'm using a spare bit to keep the leather in place while drilling:

Almost done:

The inside face of the stitch line gets grooved before the lining goes on:

The outer face of the stitch holes are slightly eased to prevent the sharp wood edges from cutting the thread. I do this by hand with a counter sink bit. (this process may not be needed as this face will be covered with the leather, but it can't hurt):

That's all for now. More progress tonight if my aching back and needful two-yr old daughter allow.

 

[hoyer]

Nice work! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ochs]

Always fun to check out what others are doing. Thanks!

 

[Snody]

Very Interesting.

Thanks for posting....

 

[SBranson]

I like this a lot. For some reason those d-rings really made me smile. Nice work.
Where in Cape Breton are you? (I'm from Antigonish)

 

[ROBB]

Good stuff !!:thumbup:

 

[P. McKinley]

Thanks guys! More coming in a bit.

Stuart - I'm in Louisbourg. Do you have a connection to Cape Breton?

 

[DesRosiers]

Fascinating stuff...can't wait to see it progress.



Haley-

 

[SBranson]

Thanks guys! More coming in a bit.

Stuart - I'm in Louisbourg. Do you have a connection to Cape Breton?

Lived my "formative" years in Antigonish and sailed the Bras d'Or Lakes with my Dad a lot. No matter how long I've been away from NS, it will always be "home" so seeing you here from so close and making such an interesting knife...

 

[P. McKinley]

Continued -

My back is in horrendous condition which makes sitting for lengths of time a real issue, but I managed to get a bit more done over the past few days.

This is the "keeper strap" being wet formed around the knife handle. This piece will be trimmed to shape and secured to the leather upper.

Its very frustrating not having the correct weight of leather needed for a specific piece! All I had that would do the job was some skanky belly leather. I chose a portion that was fairly thick and solid then went about shaving it down a bit. I'm using an extremely sharp fishtail gouge as I don't have a proper skiving knife for this task. I'm really quite happy with the final product. It'll work just fine. The pieces in this photo are the three D-ring straps and the belt loop insert.

All the pieces and part ready for dying:

I wasn't terribly happy with the Sam Studs I turned the other day.... to big and not the right shape. So I turned some new ones. This one has a small piece of Abalone set into the tip. The other two studs will get the same treatment. This photo makes it look like there is a small gap between the abalone and the antler.... there is not. It came out clean and tight.

That's as far as I've gone. Tonight I'll dye the leather and maybe start the rather involved sequence of assembly.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Burl Source]

I can't wait to see how the whole package turns out. I think you made a good choice using quilted redwood for the scabbard.

 

[P. McKinley]

Mark - Thank you. The quilted Redwood is stunning and will work well for this project, but at $34.00CAN per board foot its a hefty investment for this use.

On a side note - I have to say...... I LOVE YOUR REDWOOD BURL! My photo skills do not adequately show off how nice this stuff looks, and its even nicer to work with. Thank you for turning me on to this wood, I will get more if and when its available!

 

[P. McKinley]

work continues -

I need to clean up the leather pieces a bit before they all get assembled. This front piece has been edge-thinned to accommodate the extra thickness of the black lining. I want it all to lay flat and clean.

Two of the D-ring straps get thinned a bit and a notch is carved into the leather upper piece for a nice, flush fit. These will be glued and stitched in place.

I cut and wet-formed a new "keeper strap". I didn't leave enough leather to accommodate the stud hole on the first one. This one is much better. I also cut and glued on a leather tab on the back that will get stitched as well. Yes... I slipped with the gouge while cutting the groove! :grumpy:

All cut edges are treated with gum trag', sanded, re-dyed, then burnished smooth:

The stitch line is marked....

Then drilled:

Check to see how it looks:

Got a bit close to the edge on this last one, but it'll be fine.

Now the wood slabs can be shaped. I'm just going slow and careful with a variety of hand files. I'll sand this to 600 grit then apply tung oil, let dry and buff. The wood will then be protected with tape while the leather is stitched on.

Hopefully more later this evening, thanks for watching.

 

[P. McKinley]

continued -

I'm carefully carving in the stitch line with a Dremmel.

The groove is sanded to 600 grit:

Good enough for now:

I've applied several coats of tung oil and left to dry over night, then buffed with Tripoli and white diamond, then carnuaba paste wax, buffed again, then taped over to protect the finish.

D-ring straps are glued and stitched to the main piece:

Belt loop insert is stitched in without any glue:

I hate doing free-hand stitch grooving because its never as clean as when I'm able to work off the edge. The groove is always uneven in width and depth. This'll have to do, but I need a better way! I guess I'm just getting old and feeble.

The leather is glued to the wood slabs. I need to line up the holes perfectly or the whole project is kaput. I used several drill bits and needles to line it up before pressing together. This worked quite well.

Checking the line-up of both halves. Perfect!

Both halves ready for final assembly

 

[adrolak]

Oh My God! I would love this knife, I really would, most of my dad's family is from Scotland, and it's a sexy knife lol

 

[P. McKinley]

continued-

Front view. Ready to assemble.

Detail:

With Jatoba welt:

May camera ran out of batteries so I missed shots of the final glue-up and stitching. I then cleaned up the welt on my drill press fitted with sanding wheels and on my grinder. The edged were then fined tuned with files and sandpaper before receiving coats of tung oil and polished. All the leather edges were given a final going over before being treated with Bear Grease and hand biffed to a nice sheen.

Here's the near-final product. It still needs the shoulder strap with two moose antler studs as fasteners. I also need to give the knife handle a final sanding and polish and sharpen the blade. I'll finished that this evening and hope for good light tomorrow to take some decent pictures.

Thanks for watching this whole process unfold. Its been a lengthy one with way to many steps in the assembly sequence. But, its been fun and I'm happy with the whole package.

 

[P. McKinley]

Here's the finished product.

The specs:
Blade
10" x 2 1/8 x 3/16" 5160 steel, hand rubbed bevels to 600, flats to 1000 with a file worked spine. Bolted hidden tang

Handle
5 5/8" long Old Growth Redwood burl from Mark at Its A Burl with a buffed Danish oil finish and a moose antler guard. Spacers of Bloodwood veneer, ebonized Pear, and moose antler. The bolt plug in the butt end is flush sanded antler as well.

Sheath
Fully doe-skin lined, Quilted Redwood case with buffed tung oil and Carnuaba wax finish. One piece solid Jatoba welt. The inlaid, glued and stitched belt loop harness is 6-7 oz. veg tanned leather dyed dark brown with buffed mink oil finish. The knife retention strap stud and two shoulder strap studs are turned moose antler with Abalone inlay. Three moose antler D-ring attachment points allow for the sheath to be slung vertically or horizontally in addition to being hung by the conventional belt loop.

Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are always welcome.

 

[P. McKinley]