- Joined
- Feb 4, 1999
- Messages
- 5,786
I'll try to keep this as brief as possible...I received my Cetan Tanto kit from Rob Simonich about a week ago. His standard kits include the ATS-34 unfinished, heat treated blade, brass pins and lanyard liner, and handle materials. I chose maroon Micarta. I also kicked a few bucks extra in for some Concealex and the rivets used to hold it together. The only stuff I needed to buy which I didn't already have was sandpaper (220, 400, 600, and 1500---totalling a few bucks, Devcon 2 Ton epoxy (about $2.50) and a couple cool little clapms that were PERFECT for the job ($5.00). Here's the breakdown:
BLADE: The blade is ATS-34 and is heat treated for a Rockwell hardness of RC-60. It has approx. a 3" cutting edge and a 4-4.5 inch handle. Nice little self-defense/utility knife. It took a LONG time to get mine finished with a decent satin finish. There are still some deep grind lines in it that Rob offered to fix up for me, but it isn't distracting enough to make him go through the trouble. Also, he forgot to put an edge on mine (I asked him to rush the order, and he apologized and offered to have me send it back for a proper edge), so that took a long time to do with my Lansky coarse stone. Getting the blade up to par took probably a whole day (maybe a total of about 5 hours of work).
HANDLE: The marron Micarta looked quite nice. I would recommend getting them thinner than you would think you'd need. Also, if you want symmetrical contiurs on both sides, you'll need to do that before the handles are on the blade. I lined up the pin holes, clamped, and did the front part of the handle to about where I thought I'd like the shape. Since I didn't want symmetrical handles on both sides, I didn't bother doing anything else at this point. Now I drilled tiny guide holes for the decorative handle holes that Rob puts on these knives, eopxied everything, and put it all together with clamps. You should let the epoxy cure overnight. I gave it eight hours or so!
Anyway, I could have saved myself a ton of time from here by using a drill press to cokplete the large decroative holes. Instead I used a Dremel and some round hand files. It took probably four hours to get the holes themselves cut in...stupid...:-( The Micarta is a fairly hard material, but hand files were perfect for the contours. I wanted more of the "grain" pattern to show up, but it still looks really nice. If you want to really show off the layers in the Micarta, I suggest using canvas instead of linen Micarta. Another time-saving approach would be to use a bench or belt grinder to grind off the excess handle material (they are cut slightly larger than the tang itself). I did it the hard way with 60 grit sandpaper, files, and the Dremel tool. This added about an hour onto what should've been a 15 minute job, at most. So, I used the files to get the shape I wanted, sanded with 220, then 400, then 600, and finally 1500, then used some red Dremel polish on a polisheg wheel to buff out the small imperfections. For some reason it looked better when I buffed after 600 than after 1500, so I might redo the handle finish, which doesn't take long at all. One stupid thing I did was drag a file across the blade right in front of the handle and put some deep scratches in it :-( Oh well. It was my first ever knife project!
Finally...the SHEATH. I used Concealex. I had no press. I used a kitchen oven, leather work gloves and an old cotton t-shirt. I heated the Concealex to whatever temp it took for the material to start folding over, laid it on the t-shift, put the knife down, then laid another layer of Concelaex on top of that. I folded the t-shirt over and stood on it. I did a little touching-up using a heat gun. The sheath is pretty ugly, and isn't what I'd call a superb job, but it works. You would probably have to do a few before you start getting the knack for it. Better pressing materials would help a lot, too. Also a metal or wood blank for shaping a belt loop is a must!
So, all in all, if this was a graded project, I would expect a C on the sheath, a C+ or B- on the blade, and a B on the handle. A drill press and bench grinder would've helped immensely, and sending the blade back for an edge and a regrind to het the deep sratches out would've helped a lot, too. I was happy with this project, and am anxious to try another one soon! It's a lot harder than it looks, but is rewarding all the same. The knife is now very sharp and serves as a great utility tool!
Email if you have questions for me that I might be able to help you with...
Steve Agocs
BLADE: The blade is ATS-34 and is heat treated for a Rockwell hardness of RC-60. It has approx. a 3" cutting edge and a 4-4.5 inch handle. Nice little self-defense/utility knife. It took a LONG time to get mine finished with a decent satin finish. There are still some deep grind lines in it that Rob offered to fix up for me, but it isn't distracting enough to make him go through the trouble. Also, he forgot to put an edge on mine (I asked him to rush the order, and he apologized and offered to have me send it back for a proper edge), so that took a long time to do with my Lansky coarse stone. Getting the blade up to par took probably a whole day (maybe a total of about 5 hours of work).
HANDLE: The marron Micarta looked quite nice. I would recommend getting them thinner than you would think you'd need. Also, if you want symmetrical contiurs on both sides, you'll need to do that before the handles are on the blade. I lined up the pin holes, clamped, and did the front part of the handle to about where I thought I'd like the shape. Since I didn't want symmetrical handles on both sides, I didn't bother doing anything else at this point. Now I drilled tiny guide holes for the decorative handle holes that Rob puts on these knives, eopxied everything, and put it all together with clamps. You should let the epoxy cure overnight. I gave it eight hours or so!
Anyway, I could have saved myself a ton of time from here by using a drill press to cokplete the large decroative holes. Instead I used a Dremel and some round hand files. It took probably four hours to get the holes themselves cut in...stupid...:-( The Micarta is a fairly hard material, but hand files were perfect for the contours. I wanted more of the "grain" pattern to show up, but it still looks really nice. If you want to really show off the layers in the Micarta, I suggest using canvas instead of linen Micarta. Another time-saving approach would be to use a bench or belt grinder to grind off the excess handle material (they are cut slightly larger than the tang itself). I did it the hard way with 60 grit sandpaper, files, and the Dremel tool. This added about an hour onto what should've been a 15 minute job, at most. So, I used the files to get the shape I wanted, sanded with 220, then 400, then 600, and finally 1500, then used some red Dremel polish on a polisheg wheel to buff out the small imperfections. For some reason it looked better when I buffed after 600 than after 1500, so I might redo the handle finish, which doesn't take long at all. One stupid thing I did was drag a file across the blade right in front of the handle and put some deep scratches in it :-( Oh well. It was my first ever knife project!Finally...the SHEATH. I used Concealex. I had no press. I used a kitchen oven, leather work gloves and an old cotton t-shirt. I heated the Concealex to whatever temp it took for the material to start folding over, laid it on the t-shift, put the knife down, then laid another layer of Concelaex on top of that. I folded the t-shirt over and stood on it. I did a little touching-up using a heat gun. The sheath is pretty ugly, and isn't what I'd call a superb job, but it works. You would probably have to do a few before you start getting the knack for it. Better pressing materials would help a lot, too. Also a metal or wood blank for shaping a belt loop is a must!
So, all in all, if this was a graded project, I would expect a C on the sheath, a C+ or B- on the blade, and a B on the handle. A drill press and bench grinder would've helped immensely, and sending the blade back for an edge and a regrind to het the deep sratches out would've helped a lot, too. I was happy with this project, and am anxious to try another one soon! It's a lot harder than it looks, but is rewarding all the same. The knife is now very sharp and serves as a great utility tool!
Email if you have questions for me that I might be able to help you with...
Steve Agocs