First Knife - Work in Progress

One more, Bob at the anvil and me at the disc grinder.
 

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Just arrived back at home and got online. It was a great day. Thank you for all the help you gave me today Stacy. I very much appreciate it. I learned more today than I would have learned in ages trying to do it on my own. I am looking forward to the next trip down.

Bob
 
Bob,

Man, I'm so jealous, Stacy never invited me down! :) Great work and glad you didn't pass up the chance. I agree, too, spending a day with a seasoned maker will teach you more than a year on your own. You need to attend Ashokan up in NY this fall if you want to really soak in some knowledge! Lookinf forward to seeing the final piece as well as the tanto :)
 
I'm just starting my first, and if it turns out 1/10 that good I'll be thrilled. Congrats on the great job!
 
Very nice of you Stacy, inviting someone you don't even know to spend the day and learn from you. I'm sure he probably doesn't even know yet how much he appreciates it. Good on ya! The world could use alot more like you.
Matt
 
Great job on that blade Ruck!! Looks really sweet.
I kinda lucked into a great situation myself living about 5 min away from IG. He's pretty much taken me in and showed me more in the short time I've been going there than I could have learned in 5 years on my own. That experience is priceless, but know that already.:D
Thanks to all the guys like George and Stacy for sharing the craft and keeping the fire going. :thumbup:
Nathan
 
Man, I just looked at the pics again and realized I've been wearing my respirator wrong all these years!!! :D

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That is my new "Aircap 2" positive pressure respirator. It is the cat's pajamas (That phrase should date me). It is light,full view, and super comfortable. The wire draped over my shoulder goes to the power pack in my back pocket. They run about $215 from Woodcraft.

I don't look bad for 58, but in my family I'm just a kid. My grossvater did heavy work until he was 90 ,then he slowed down a bit until he died at 98. Grosmutter kept house until she was 100, then she retired until she died at 104.Tanta Rosa lived in Germany to 107 , and kept a spotless house,too. She walked to the market daily until she was 105.

If we take care of ourselves, we can hope to live a long and happy life. - Stacy

To date myself, I'll tell an old joke that few here will get at first.The joke is from 1969 ,when I was a research chemist.

A man wakes up from a coma after fifteen years. His doctors don't tell him he has been asleep for all those years. During their conversation about the things he remembers he asks how the war in Korea is going? He is told ,"We are fighting in Vietnam, now." He says, "I'll bet President Eisenhower is kicking their ass.", and is told, "He died last spring". The man sits up in bed, white as a ghost, and cries out, " Oh, my God! That means Nixon is president. We'll lose the war for sure, now!"
(Most of you will have to ask your dad/granddad to explain it.)
Stacy
 
Sorry no replies for a couple of days, I was busy at work. I can (and do) always read the comments here during the day, but can't reply until I get home.

Erik, I do want to go to Ashokan if I can this year. Stacy was also telling me about another meet closer to this area that will happen in the Spring. I will post pics of the completed knife and the tanto as soon as I get time to finish them up.

Matt, believe me, I do appreciate it. Stacy was a very gracious host and I did learn a lot in a short time at his place. It is people like Stacy, with his generosity and willingness to teach and help newbies like me along, who give knifemakers the great reputation that they have.

Leu, Stacy ain't old. Heck, I was getting tired out just trying to keep up with him.

Bob
 
Thanks for the thoughts, Pohan, but I don't know everything. I read about four hours a day to learn as much as I can.The Internet has made that both enjoyable and less costly.What I pride myself in is being able to learn. That is a skill they don't teach any more in school. We learned the "Scientific Method" in school when I was a kid ( actually ,I was taught it at age four by my physicist grandfather). It still is a reliable system.

In a PM referring to the sparks from the grinder I thought I would post some of the reply:

The sparks come from small particles of steel sheared off the parent material (blade/bar of steel). The coarser the grit on the belt,the more sparks you get.Hardened steel sparks much more than annealed.Some alloys spark less, due to the alloying ingredients.

What make the sparks is shearing of small pieces of steel. When the abrasive grit grabs a microscopic piece of the steel, it starts to tear it away from the bar/blade. The energy required to do this transfers from the grinder to the material, and changes from kinetic energy ( moving belt) to thermal energy (heat). If the steel comes off easy, it does not absorb much energy,and the tiny pieces are not hot enough to glow. Add more energy (faster, harder grit , more pressure,etc.), and the pieces will get hot enough to glow. Add more carbon to the situation, and the pieces get so hot they start to burn as they come off the blade.If the carbon is high enough, the tiny pieces actually explode into multiple fragments ( those pretty "Fourth of July" type sparks that 1095 and similar steels are known for). This is what a spark test is all about. Since the belt speed,grit size, grit type,grinding pressure,power of the grinder, steel hardness,steel composition, and other factors affect the amount of spark, a spark test is only an indicator, it is not a reliable test for steel grade and composition.
You should see only tiny sparks (or none) when grinding with a 400 belt, due to the smaller particle size of the removed material.

When grinding hardened steel, the heat transfered to the blade is an unwanted by-product, and must be carefully monitored ( and cooled frequently) to avoid ruining the temper.

I was grinding at full speed ( around 4-5000SFPM) on a 2HP unit, using a 36 grit Blaze belt, leaning into the belt hard, on 1095. That is why there are a lot of sparks.

Stacy
 
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