Introduction and a WIP

[Will Morrison]

I shaped the spacer next.
Using a template from a previous knife I scribed the outline.

Then I removed as much material as I could with the hacksaw, just to keep dust down.

Here it is ground down to the scribed line and assembled.

Some work on the guard.

Here you can see that the spacer is much wider than the ricasso. Most knives look much better to my eye if the ricasso and handle visually flow into each other, without a sudden widening or narrowing.

Here I've marked where I need to trim the spacer to, very faint in the photo. I had to be very careful not to remove too much material in this step, but even more careful not to leave too much on!

Now the spacer is only very slightly wider than the ricasso, and the visual flow is much better.
From this point on, I used the spacer as a sort of foundation and reference for a lot of the handle and guard shaping.

 

[keithf]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to show your process Will, excellent wip mate. Handle ? Some Ringed Gidgee perhaps ?
Cheers Keith

 

[Bruce Bump]

It shows your honesty and good character to show us your mistakes. Bravo.

 

[Will Morrison]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to show your process Will, excellent wip mate. Handle ? Some Ringed Gidgee perhaps ?
Cheers Keith

Thanks Keith.
Unfortunately this one already has a handle made from some Tassie Blackwood. Wouldn't mind getting my hands on some Gidgee at some point, it looks like great stuff.

It shows your honesty and good character to show us your mistakes. Bravo.

Cheers Bruce.
I always appreciate it when other makers share their mistakes, and how they went about correcting their mistakes.

 

[Cypress]

When my girl asked why I spend so much time on the forums, I showed her this thread. Knowing nothing about knives, she conceded that this was "pretty damn cool".

You've got fans!

 

[Will Morrison]

When my girl asked why I spend so much time on the forums, I showed her this thread. Knowing nothing about knives, she conceded that this was "pretty damn cool".

You've got fans!

Haha, fantastic! I'm very glad to hear it.

 

[Will Morrison]

Now I start shaping the fittings.
I made a little sacrificial plate out of mild steel, you can see it here pinned to the guard. This plate prevents me from cutting into the surface where the guard mates with the spacer and ruining the fit. Difficult to explain, but the pictures should make it obvious.

Scribing the line to which I will be grinding.

I will grind no further than this line on the belt grinder.

I scratched in a rough outline of what I wanted to end up with.

Using the belt grinder, I hog off as much material as I dare.

 

[Will Morrison]

When I was finished grinding, I mounted the guard on this thing, and got to work with the files and the dremel.
I'm not really happy with how I went about this. It took me far too long to take off enough material.
You can see in these next couple of photos that I just nibbled away at it, even when there was still a lot of material to be removed.

 

[Will Morrison]

Instead of dicking around with blunt files and a low powered rotary tool, I bit the bullet and bought some new files.

That's more like it!

These files removed material quickly and with great control, plus they left a nice consistent finish.

Pretty soon I was ready to move to abrasives. These are strips of 120 grit paper. I used a small half round file with the teeth ground smooth, as a backing.

Sanded to 120 grit.

 

[Will Morrison]

Now I start work on the spacer.
I decided to cut a groove in the spacer, so I scribed a couple of guide lines.

I used a small dremel cut off disk mounted in my drill press to start the groove. This is an easy way to make sure it's pretty well centred. I use my less good drill press for this.

I open up the groove with a pretty small triangular file, being careful to keep everything centred.

The triangle file was followed by a tapered diamond file.

Then I used a 4mm chainsaw file to open it up to close to it's final size.

To get rid of the file marks, I used some 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around some 4mm pinstock.

Then I cleaned up the 120 grit scratches with some 320 grit paper.

These pictures don't really convey how difficult it was to keep the groove centred and even. It took me a while to get it right.

 

[Will Morrison]

Here are some of the things I used to back the sandpaper while I was polishing the fittings.

The face of the guard is taken to 320 grit using sandpaper stuck to a flat plate.

Strips of 320 grit wet/dry paper.

I used half a cork to sand some of the curved parts. The sandpaper cuts well with a cork backing.

This section of pipe was also handy for the curved sections.

 

[Ishrub]

As a mere collector and purchaser of knives: commercial, custom, antique, folders, fixed, hunting, work and kitchen; I now have an even greater respect and awe for those who create these beautiful custom pieces and not just the high end art knives.

It must be fun and a labour of love because I find it hard to believe any of you can sell them for the realistic cost in labour and materials expended.
Just for my uneducated appreciation how many hours did you commit to the finished knife?

 

[Doug Timbs]

Great detail pics, and work, Will. Good tip for cutting the groove in the spacer, I usually run a cut with a jewellers saw. Your method is much better.


Doug

 

[andybill]

Beautiful! It's great to see the detail work on the shaping and finishing of the small pieces. Answers a lot of those "how the hell did he do that" questions.

 

[mc556]

Amazing detail and dedication ... As a aspiring maker myself I really appreciate the photos and insite you've provide on your methods and ones you've borrowed from others.

I do believe I am going to reinvest in more files and hand tools etc. I feel in setting up my shop I've focused to much on power tools ... Great thread thank you

 

[Will Morrison]

As a mere collector and purchaser of knives: commercial, custom, antique, folders, fixed, hunting, work and kitchen; I now have an even greater respect and awe for those who create these beautiful custom pieces and not just the high end art knives.

It must be fun and a labour of love because I find it hard to believe any of you can sell them for the realistic cost in labour and materials expended.
Just for my uneducated appreciation how many hours did you commit to the finished knife?

Thanks, Ishrub.
You're right about it being a labour of love. This knife will not be sold, it was more an exercise in trying out some new things, and of course making this thread.

I always find it very hard to say how many hours any given knife took me to make. I tend to spend a lot of time just thinking about the knife, and what to do next.
If I had to give you a number, I think I would say 30 hours or so of actual work, which could of course be wildly inaccurate, it certainly felt like more.

 

[Will Morrison]

Great detail pics, and work, Will. Good tip for cutting the groove in the spacer, I usually run a cut with a jewellers saw. Your method is much better.


Doug

Cheers, Doug.
I'm sure I've seen the same method used somewhere before, so I can't take credit. I'm pretty happy with how it worked out.
I need to invest in a jewellers saw though, they seem very versatile.

 

[i4Marc]

Man, I'd love to see this WIP and Nick's offered as a downloadable PDF. Thanks Will for taking the time to share this with us.

 

[AVigil]

One of the Best WIP I have seen in a long time. Thank you very much for doing it.

 

[Will Morrison]

Beautiful! It's great to see the detail work on the shaping and finishing of the small pieces. Answers a lot of those "how the hell did he do that" questions.

Thanks, Andy.
I'm trying to make this as detailed as possible, and hopefully not too tedious.

Amazing detail and dedication ... As a aspiring maker myself I really appreciate the photos and insite you've provide on your methods and ones you've borrowed from others.

I do believe I am going to reinvest in more files and hand tools etc. I feel in setting up my shop I've focused to much on power tools ... Great thread thank you

Thanks, Mc556.
I'm only just rediscovering files too. Sharp files are a pleasure to use.