Introduction and a WIP

[Doug Timbs]

Hey Will, some great tips here. I'll be trying out the stones on the plunge. Really looking forward to seeing the finished product.


Doug

 

[JPuri]

gret wip an tips!! thank you very much!

 

[Will Morrison]

Hey Will,

Great WIP. I was wondering something. What if instead of trying to take the grit away with a diamond file on the opposite edge of your sanding block from the cutting edge, you used a piece of masking tape along that edge? That would protect that side from scratching as well as providing a slight angle away from the blade. So, in theory you would get cutting action in the plunge and a feathering out the farther away from the plunge you get. In practice this might not work at all but I was just curious.

Thanks, Marc.
That's a well thought out idea. I've actually tried that, but with the masking tape on the blade instead. Your version makes more sense, because the masking tape wont be abraded away if it's stuck to the sandpaper. I think it would work, but due to the slight angle you mentioned, there's always a risk of creating a low spot in the plunge.
I'll have to give it a try.

Really though, we're both over-thinking it. If the block is sufficiently wide, and pressure is applied to the blade in the right places, the risk of gouging the blade is minimal.

 

[Will Morrison]

Hey Will, some great tips here. I'll be trying out the stones on the plunge. Really looking forward to seeing the finished product.


Doug

Fantastic. I'm glad this stuff is helpful.

gret wip an tips!! thank you very much!

Thanks for watching!

 

[Will Morrison]

Now I sand the... choil(?) to 600 grit.
This is how I hold the blade.

For the final few passes, I switched sanding sticks to one lined with fairly hard rubber.
Here is the finish. I couldn't get a good photo of it.

 

[Will Morrison]

The next step is to take it to an almost finished finish.
Before these photos were taken, I replaced the angled 600 grit scratches, with lengthways 600 grit scratches. This could have been avoided if I had thought my sanding sequence through a bit better.
I try to get the finish as uniform as possible with the micarta block, before I switch to any soft backings. To do this I sand using long smooth passes from plunge to tip and tip to plunge, alternating between sanding with the flat of the block, and the edge.

Here are some of my favourite rubber lined polishing utensils.

I mainly use the edge of the block from now on, pulling from the plunge to the tip, and to lay down the final scratch pattern I only use the edge.
If I try to use the flat of the block, I always end up with hooked scratches caused by the back edge of the block.
I use soapy water to keep the paper cutting.

This is as fine as I'll finish it at this point.

 

[Will Morrison]

When I was polishing the spine, I noticed some splotches in the steel. I assume this was just some decarb.

Splotches were removed using a 1200 grit stone.

Time to cut the shoulders in.
I put masking tape on the inside of my file guide to protect the blade's finish.

Marking where the guard will sit.

Guide clamped on, and blade wrapped up in paper towel and masking tape.

I file down to the guide, but leave a little bit of steel right in the corner. This excess steel will be removed to make way for a radius.

This is what I used to cut in the radius. Just a little piece of O1 with a radius on one edge and some 320 grit paper to it. I think this is another one of Nick Wheeler's techniques.

I wouldn't recommend doing this unless your file guide has carbide faces.

 

[Will Morrison]

You can see in this photo that the abrasive cut into my file guide a little bit.

Not bad.

I file the tang to make sure it tapers away from the shoulders smoothly. This makes fitting guards a bit easier.

The edges of the tang get slightly chamfered.

 

[Serge Panchenko]

Very clean and careful work Will, thanks for showing us your process.

 

[Greenjeans68]

Thanks for putting your progress up, I don't think the average person understands what goes into taking a chunk of steel to such refined beauty. Great work sir.

 

[John White]

Excellent detail, beautiful job of work. Wonderful sharing!

John

 

[Will Morrison]

Finally time to start the guard.
I cut off a piece of stainless, and flatten it. It's well oversized in length, but there's not much excess in width for this guard style.

Before I mark out where I want to drill, I measure the tang width and thickness just before the guard shoulder radii.
You can see here that my marking out got a bit confusing.
Pilot holes drilled.

The blade is about 4.9mm thick at the guard shoulders, so I drilled out the holes with a 3/16" drill bit.

The holes are connected with a fairly sharp 4mm chainsaw file.

Now I start trying to get the slot looking like a slot. The file is angled so that the opening at the back of the guard is larger than the opening on the face. This means that the only material really contacting the tang, is right up at the guard face.

I sometimes use my file guide for the heavier stock removal.

First attempt. Not even close.

Closer.

Here you can see some steel bulging up in the corners, a good indication of where material needs to be removed from.

Here the guard can go no further without making room for the guard shoulder radii.

 

[Will Morrison]

Very clean and careful work Will, thanks for showing us your process.

Excellent detail, beautiful job of work. Wonderful sharing!

John

Thanks guys. Right back at ya. I'm pretty sure I've read and learned from WIP style threads from both of you.

Thanks for putting your progress up, I don't think the average person understands what goes into taking a chunk of steel to such refined beauty. Great work sir.

Cheers, GreenJeans. Much appreciated.

 

[Will Morrison]

To accept the shoulder radius, I chamfer/radius this edge here, and the one opposite. For this I use a square needle file with a few sides ground smooth.

Almost there.

A bit more filing.

Bam.

This is the spacer. I cut this slot in the same manner as the guard, but without worrying too much about having a flawless fit. I still want it neat, though.
Removing material with a carbide burr.

Spacer is slotted, but it has a bit of movement in it. This gave me a chance to try out something new.

I've seen people peen the edges of the guard slot to close up any gaps, I used the same principle here.

I made this U shaped punch from an O1 offcut, I think it would work well for texturing fittings. I only used it here because I thought it would look cool.

 

[Will Morrison]

Slotting some copper spacers.
It's pretty much the same procedure as the guard.

The file guide is very handy for this. A sharp file really helps, too.

Slotted.

 

[bobbywett]

Very impressive process Will! Thanks for your Time and welcome to blade forums

 

[Bruce Bump]

Will, much appreciated details on the finer things here.

 

[Will Morrison]

Now it's time to sort out some alignment pins.
Spacer trimmed.

The pins I bought were supposed to be 2mm, but they were more like 1.98mm, so I drilled the holes with 5/65" bits. I say bits plural, because I used 3 to drill 2 holes. This 304 stainless likes to work harden if it's not treated right, and work harden it did.

Hole locations punched.

Drilled.

Depth set. The fittings are glued together here.

All done.

This is the first time I've used alignment pins, but It won't be the last. It really makes the rest of the process much more pleasant.

 

[Will Morrison]

Now I want to start shaping the guard.
To make sure I end up with a symmetrical guard, I made a template. I think I first saw this method used in a thread by Josh Smith, and then again in Nick Wheeler's thread (check it out for a proper explanation).

This turned out to be a waste of time and precious micarta, because once I had the template in place I could see that if I used this template, the guard was going to be too short. I just had to make another template. Template.

 

[Cypress]

Lesson learned!