VorpelSword
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2007
- Messages
- 1,549
Back in the early 1980s I worked for an oil field service company that sent me to work offshore as a contract specialist in the Middle East. Twenty-eight days on a jack up rig. Sometimes very busy around the clock. Sometimes with absolutely nothing to do for two weeks!
Everyone had some little craft project on the side for those vacant periods. Making a signet ring from a stainless-steel nut was one.
A few others were making knives. Started off with a piece of spring steel salvaged from a broken down-hole centralizer. Hard stuff. Got with the welder and tried to pull back the temper a little. Then profiled the general shape with a massive grinding wheel in the mechanic's shop. There were no specialized tools, just heavy-duty machine shop gear. Used the welder's angle grinder to do a flat grind on the blade. Managed to get it symmetrical and flat on both sides. Predrilled holes in the handle for pins later. Worked with the mechanic and welder to get the holes the right size for brass brazing rod pins (what was there to use). Each step took days of slow working as the steel was still pretty hard and the tools were not meant for production shop knife making . . .and I had no real skills or experience with metal work of any kind. Worked on the blade finish for days with finer and finer grades of sandpaper wrapped around a file.
Finally got it as done as I could, and it was time to heat treat the blade. Got a couple gallons old waste lube oil from the mechanic; heavy, dirty and unknown. Filtered it with layers of red shop rags till it looked a little better. Discussed the process with the welder. What we did: got a deep pan of some sort from somewhere. Put a brick in it and filled it with the oil till it was ~1" higher than the brick. Put the tang deep in a bench vice with the blade exposed. He heated it with a torch. smd got it red hot (he judged the color). He nodded and said, "Now!" so I grabbed the tang end with ViceGrips as he released the vice. Then the blade edge went into the oil tip-first, resting on the brick. Rocked it back and forth to cover the belly and length of the blade. After a bit of this, he told me to drop it all into the oil and I did. Left it there till it was cool enough to hold.
Finishing: Out of the oil it looked pretty good. Still straight too. Re sanded the blade for a few days with fine grit wet/dry papers and left it a satin surface. Put brass pieces on the handle a lot like a Buck 110 folder with epoxy and straight pins of brazing brass. At this point there was a choice; The handle could be wood or poured Aluminum. I chose wood. Many pieces of gear were shipped out from sources on the Pacific Rim. Many had wood crates or packing pieces cut from exotic (to the USA) tropical hard wood. I cut a piece out of something that had interesting color and grain; drilled it for the tang holes. Then rough shaped it to the handle profile. Took it off the temporary pins and tried to cut the block down the middle lengthwise. Used a vice and a new hack saw blade for that (really). Got two "butterfly" grained pieces that were each flat on one side. That side went onto the tang and the rough sides were sanded flush with the brass.
There was, of course, much more. I put on brass shim-stock liners inside the wood, everything was fastened down with brazing rod pins in press fit holes and all of it locked together with industrial strength epoxy that set up as you watched. Hand work with fine grits rewrapped around files till I had no skin in places. The result was a five inch or so drop point hunter with a Buck looking handle of wood you couldn't buy in the US back then. The blade had a feint Hamon where it had only gone an inch deep into the oil. A file would skate along every part of it but the but end of the tang.
Then I made a big mistake. A guy wanted to buy it from me. I took a hundred dollars from him for it. Back in 1981 that seemed l;ike a lot for my first knife. I never got that opportunity again, working on other rigs every month . . . and other circumstances conspired to keep the outlet closed. Other things in life happened too, but that is another story.
Everyone had some little craft project on the side for those vacant periods. Making a signet ring from a stainless-steel nut was one.
A few others were making knives. Started off with a piece of spring steel salvaged from a broken down-hole centralizer. Hard stuff. Got with the welder and tried to pull back the temper a little. Then profiled the general shape with a massive grinding wheel in the mechanic's shop. There were no specialized tools, just heavy-duty machine shop gear. Used the welder's angle grinder to do a flat grind on the blade. Managed to get it symmetrical and flat on both sides. Predrilled holes in the handle for pins later. Worked with the mechanic and welder to get the holes the right size for brass brazing rod pins (what was there to use). Each step took days of slow working as the steel was still pretty hard and the tools were not meant for production shop knife making . . .and I had no real skills or experience with metal work of any kind. Worked on the blade finish for days with finer and finer grades of sandpaper wrapped around a file.
Finally got it as done as I could, and it was time to heat treat the blade. Got a couple gallons old waste lube oil from the mechanic; heavy, dirty and unknown. Filtered it with layers of red shop rags till it looked a little better. Discussed the process with the welder. What we did: got a deep pan of some sort from somewhere. Put a brick in it and filled it with the oil till it was ~1" higher than the brick. Put the tang deep in a bench vice with the blade exposed. He heated it with a torch. smd got it red hot (he judged the color). He nodded and said, "Now!" so I grabbed the tang end with ViceGrips as he released the vice. Then the blade edge went into the oil tip-first, resting on the brick. Rocked it back and forth to cover the belly and length of the blade. After a bit of this, he told me to drop it all into the oil and I did. Left it there till it was cool enough to hold.
Finishing: Out of the oil it looked pretty good. Still straight too. Re sanded the blade for a few days with fine grit wet/dry papers and left it a satin surface. Put brass pieces on the handle a lot like a Buck 110 folder with epoxy and straight pins of brazing brass. At this point there was a choice; The handle could be wood or poured Aluminum. I chose wood. Many pieces of gear were shipped out from sources on the Pacific Rim. Many had wood crates or packing pieces cut from exotic (to the USA) tropical hard wood. I cut a piece out of something that had interesting color and grain; drilled it for the tang holes. Then rough shaped it to the handle profile. Took it off the temporary pins and tried to cut the block down the middle lengthwise. Used a vice and a new hack saw blade for that (really). Got two "butterfly" grained pieces that were each flat on one side. That side went onto the tang and the rough sides were sanded flush with the brass.
There was, of course, much more. I put on brass shim-stock liners inside the wood, everything was fastened down with brazing rod pins in press fit holes and all of it locked together with industrial strength epoxy that set up as you watched. Hand work with fine grits rewrapped around files till I had no skin in places. The result was a five inch or so drop point hunter with a Buck looking handle of wood you couldn't buy in the US back then. The blade had a feint Hamon where it had only gone an inch deep into the oil. A file would skate along every part of it but the but end of the tang.
Then I made a big mistake. A guy wanted to buy it from me. I took a hundred dollars from him for it. Back in 1981 that seemed l;ike a lot for my first knife. I never got that opportunity again, working on other rigs every month . . . and other circumstances conspired to keep the outlet closed. Other things in life happened too, but that is another story.
Last edited:
