John White Hunter

Doing a little file-work after something nasty, like grinding, or routing stinky sheep horn is kinda soothing.

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With everything prepped, including a rough cut of the scales to the previously marked handle profile, it's time for glue-up.

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This handle press fixture grabs the guard by the bottom, presses the handle scales on from the end, and without touching my (precious) etched surface on the damascus. I hate the thought of anything scratching the damascus at this point.

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When the epoxy; a filled, structural, waterproof marine grade, by the way, cures over night, I can finish out the handle, and drill, install, and dome a pair of stainless pins. On most materials, I would have installed the pins as part of the glue-up, and only had to peen later, but the horn will require some creative shaping , and I don't want the pins in the way now.

Tomorrow will see the knife finished, and then it'll be off to Paul Long for a custom sheath, and to Coop for immortality.

More tomorrow.
 
John White said:
...the next step in prepping the scales for glue-up is to drill a series of matching holes in each mating scale face, to capture epoxy as "blind epoxy pins" to help bond the scales.

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I always worry about movement in natural handle materials, especially here in the desert and more especially when the materials come from stock stored in a humid location like Florida. Very reassuring to see this technique--hard to imagine a better way to stabilize/secure the scales in place. :thumbup:
 
SBranson said:
Great stuff. Cool tip about marking the tape then transferring to the spacer.
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I was about to say the same thing. Simple and effective - and yet another "duh, why didn't I think of that" moment for me :)
 
This morning, after the epoxy cured over-night, I put the knife back into the Moran vise, and final shaped the handle.

It had been rough cut before glue-up, and since Will wanted as much natural surface as possible, the final shaping was mostly by eye, with rasps and files.

I exerted great self control, and stopped the sanding at 400 grit. That saw all marks gone from the horn, but allows the smoothed surface to retain the "grippyness" horn is famous for when wet.

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I installed the eighth inch 416 S/S pins with a tiny black powder .126 caliber cannon. The trick is to load just enough powder to shoot the pins through, while leaving the right length sticking out both sides.

Looks like I may have to file these down somewhat before peening.

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Final SHOTS tomorrow, after peening the pins, and then off to Paul.

John
 
WOW WOW WOW!!! Crawling out of my skin wanting to get that puppy in hand!

Glad your pin cannon didn't shatter the horn, BTW. You may want to upgrade to smokeless for better precision. :p

Truly, truly masterful, John. The thickness, fit and alignments on that handle look spot on, and the contours look like heaven to hold. First look at the twist pattern on the back side of the blade is mouth-watering as well. THANK YOU.

Will

BTW, this shot you sent me may not be quite as good technically, but I really like how it shows the tapered handle thickness and the crowned spine:

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I'm envious Will. This is surely a knife to be proud of. I love the blade profile, damascus pattern and the handle...what's not to love about it. Sheephorn feels great in the hand.
Bob
 
Fantastic, Will !
Congrats to both you and John !! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Doug
 
that is a super sweet knife.
 
OUTSTANDING!!! As I had no doubt that it would be.

Congrats for creating another masterpiece John, and good luck on waiting to get that in your hands Will!

An absolutely beautiful knife.

Peter
 
WOW WOW WOW!!! Crawling out of my skin wanting to get that puppy in hand!
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Will,

What I love about John's WIP threads is that besides showing all of many steps involved in making the knife. It also really whets the appetite of the future owner to actually have it in hand.

It's not my knife, but I can't wait to see it finished with a sheath from Paul and Coop's photo.

Great thread!

Jim Treacy
 
Wow!!! Awesome thread!!!

I had some slight hope tucked away that maybe I could redeem myself on this project with Will in the future... but Mr. White put up an impossible act to follow! :eek:

Great knife, great thread, all great people involved! :thumbup: :cool: :)
 
Of course, I forgot to take photos drilling out for the pins. No cannon shots! As most folks will, I'll use a brand new bit to drill if I'm going into anything finished that might want to chip out on the other side. I'll also tape off the back side, and make a wooden backer to fit the scales. This is all easier if I can do the drilling on square scales before shaping and gluing up.

One "trick" to drilling through the scales with the tang glued in place. The metal spirals coming up through the scale material will cut the 1/8th inch hole a bit oversize. That's not really a problem. I drill down through the tang with a 1/8th inch bit, and then switch to a # 30 to ream the hole and drill out the off scale. This gives a slide fit to 1/8th pins.

Here's my set-up for peening domed, faceted pins. The Moran vise holds the off side of the pin against the metal backing "anvils," and I facet with a polished nail set and a bronze mallet made from a piece of propeller shaft.

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A double layer of blue tape really helps keep any "bounce" licks from marring the scales.

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After the pins are faceted, I'll hit the pins on the buffer with green compound, just about six "hits" spinning the handle around to ease the edges. Too much buffing washes out the facets, and a smooth dome isn't what I'm after.

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Remove the tape and clean up the compound that gets under the edges,

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Here's the finished hunter.

This is Will York's design, and I like the looks of what he envisioned. My job here was to follow his design as closely as possible, while contributing my craftsmanship and damascus. It hardly gets more "custom" than this kind of comission.

I've had great fun with this one, and can hardly wait to see Paul's and Coop's contributions.

(I've also notified Will that we all want to see a "Group Shot" of lots of different makers interpretations of this design one day!)

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John
 
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