First one done

Kevin McGovern

Kevin McGovern

Joined
Jul 31, 2015
Messages
3,118
I'm going to stop fiddling with this one and call it done. If making mistakes is how you learn I am now a genius. . The blade is narrower at the plunge then the start of the curve to the tip and there are some finish issues that I felt I should leave, as correcting them would leave the plunge area too thin. It is real sharp and holds a good edge. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
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Your handle looks a bit square. Ideally you want an oval or egg shape to fit the inside of your hand. Also, is that little piece sticking out below the handle supposed to be a glass breaker? If so, you wouldn't want it to be that wide. 3/16 inch wide would do fine, as well as reduce the contact area meaning more force would hit a smaller area and break glass easier. (Although I must add, a glass breaker is probably unnecessary unless your fire department, LEO, etc and need one for your job.)
 
JN7556 said:
Your handle looks a bit square. Ideally you want an oval or egg shape to fit the inside of your hand. Also, is that little piece sticking out below the handle supposed to be a glass breaker? If so, you wouldn't want it to be that wide. 3/16 inch wide would do fine, as well as reduce the contact area meaning more force would hit a smaller area and break glass easier. (Although I must add, a glass breaker is probably unnecessary unless your fire department, LEO, etc and need one for your job.)
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Thanks for the input. I made the scales a bit thin so not much to work with. The but end is hardened its just for crushing or grinding that I don't want to do with the blade.
 
It looks like your rear pin didn't come all of the way through. Try to make them stick out beyond the scales when gluing up. Also, there are some scratches on the handle from your lower grit sandpaper.

I like the blade shape, but the rear of the handle is too bulbous. Keep at it and make another one. This is really good for a first.
 
Thank you sir. The pin is all the way through and flush. It's not a great picture and it's a shadow. I should set up a camera on a tripod and set up better lighting.
 
1095. Carefully and evenly heated to non magnetic plus a minute, fast quench in warm canola, two temper cycles in the oven of 425° for an hour with cool down in between.
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And my first kydex sheath is done. Not terribly hard. It is a bit tighter than I would like, but erred on the side of caution.
 
No. Perlite and furnace cement mix. Little bit of water in the cement to make it Mixable. Use 4 parts perlite to 1 part furnace cement. Do NOT use vermiculite instead of perlite it retains moisture. Let it cure for a week before firing it for increasingly higher temps. Sand and pofp won't hold up and are poor insulators. My forge only gets warm on the outside when running full tilt.
 
thanks , i'll give that a try for fitz and giggles. do you have a thermocouple installed or do you just estimate the temperature
 
I have one on the bench right now that has a similar issue with the plunge. Yours looks like a good solid "user" and once it has some wear on it all the little flaws will be long forgotten. Good job.
 
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