- Joined
- Dec 3, 2000
- Messages
- 3,002
It's been an interesting week for me in the shop. Last Friday I was knocking around town and decided to poke my head in the local pawnshop. I found a Dremel brand 1 inch Belt sander for $40, and jumped on it. Stopped by Sears on the way home, bought a couple of belts, and got 'er all set up. I wasn't originally planning on going out and doing anything immediately, but..it was a quiet night with the family, TV sucked, and I didn't have any good books nearby, so I decided to go play.
My first task involved an old Eskiltuna fixed blade my father had given me a few years ago. It had a ridiculously short handle, and double guards, which made the grip suck for my XX wide meathooks. (It's proportioned like a Scandanavian Scout knife) So, I grabbed a piece of mahogany left over from a previous project and went to work. It turned out to be a very, very strange night. You see I'm not a talented wood worker, it's taking me a very long time to learn that I should treat wood projects the same way I treat my children (one of which is a quadraped)
You can make them do whatever you want with gentle treatment, and subtle coaxing, but if you try to force it to submit to your will, it'll crack and blow up in your face. It was like I wasn't myself that night! Like my hands were temporarily possessed by a knifemaker that knew what the heck they were doing! everything went perfectly, the tang fit inside the magogany TIGHT, it came out perfectly rounded and smoothed when I was done sanding it, I took both guards off the knife and made it into a Puuko. (rather fitting in a very symbolic way, that part) The brass parts rounded perfectly, and I was done with everything in just a couple hours, except the finish. It had lost ALOT of useless weight by the time I finished. I coated the handle with Linseed oil and it came out perfect. Before I did that though I took fifteen minutes and made a stitchless leather sheath for it using an old holster. It came out fantastic! so well that I stayed up until about 2 AM tinkering with knives, and sharpening them while I still had my magical touch.
By Sunday I needed another fix...enter...Project Po' Boy...I took the narrowest worn file I could find, anealed it, and ground away at 'er. Came out with a four inch fully convexed wickedly sharp and pointy drop point. First thing I did was extend the tang so that it would go deeper, about 90% of the way inside the handle. The blade came out better than I'd hoped.
When I went to put a handle on it I realized that I was back to my old self. Split and screwed up the left over mahogany wood I had. Tried to do a bone spacer, but couldn't stand the smell of the bone on the sander, so I'd run off from the sander and catch my breath, then run back up to it for a minute or so...In the end I decided against the bone spacer. It didn't do as much for looks as I would have hoped, and since this was the first knife I was making with my own ten thumbs I figured the less joints the better.
I found a piece of old Walnut laying around and started making a handle out of that. Screwed it up again too! Third try was the charm, I finally got the handle roughed out. For a guard I first mutilated one of my wifes old butterknives (shh!) before I figured out that wouldn't work, and then decided to use an old Simpson strong tie left over from the porch we built. I finally got it roughed out and turned into a knife. What's odd is the way most mistakes I've made were turned into good things. for example I wound up bumping the edge of my blade into the sander while working on the handle, and took off a bit. went and fixed it up, and 'lo an' behold, It had a sweet, subtle little recurve to it. I messed up and took out a chunk of wood near the guard, made it real ugly. I didn't want to use wood filler, so I wound up tapering it much more than I'd originally wanted to. Surprise! surprise! it came out lighter, more graceful and better handling than before!
My end product was a four inch blade that's a hair over an inch wide, with a small well rounded four inch walnut handle. It's very, very light and graceful. My wife compared it to a Jarvenpaa Puukko I'd given her the same approximate size and said it was like comparing a heavy weight boxer to a ballerina. This one came out with a comfortable handle, and a razor sharp edge, with nothing inbetween. I had to work for this one, but I think it's kinda neat. It's been my EDC for a few days now. It's really nothing special at all, but the fact that I made it with my own ten thumbs makes it pretty special to me. My wife likes it enough I might try to make her a new one for Valentines day. (My wife is an incredibly detail oriented critical perfectionist, I'm amazed it passed her inspection!)
My current project is putting new wooden handles on an Old Chicago Cutlery Stockman my father gave me 17 years ago, and putting a mirror finish on an Old Timberline Mini Pitbull with some hardwood handles and a new kydex sheath.
One of my Sensei's is a knifemaker. and told me if I enjoyed making this one, then I'd might as well just give it away, cause I'll be making more of 'em to feed the addiction. I think he may be right.
I'd love to show y'all pics, but I'm gonna need help from my wife taking pictures and loading them on the computer (I aint so good with that kinda thing)
My first task involved an old Eskiltuna fixed blade my father had given me a few years ago. It had a ridiculously short handle, and double guards, which made the grip suck for my XX wide meathooks. (It's proportioned like a Scandanavian Scout knife) So, I grabbed a piece of mahogany left over from a previous project and went to work. It turned out to be a very, very strange night. You see I'm not a talented wood worker, it's taking me a very long time to learn that I should treat wood projects the same way I treat my children (one of which is a quadraped)
You can make them do whatever you want with gentle treatment, and subtle coaxing, but if you try to force it to submit to your will, it'll crack and blow up in your face. It was like I wasn't myself that night! Like my hands were temporarily possessed by a knifemaker that knew what the heck they were doing! everything went perfectly, the tang fit inside the magogany TIGHT, it came out perfectly rounded and smoothed when I was done sanding it, I took both guards off the knife and made it into a Puuko. (rather fitting in a very symbolic way, that part) The brass parts rounded perfectly, and I was done with everything in just a couple hours, except the finish. It had lost ALOT of useless weight by the time I finished. I coated the handle with Linseed oil and it came out perfect. Before I did that though I took fifteen minutes and made a stitchless leather sheath for it using an old holster. It came out fantastic! so well that I stayed up until about 2 AM tinkering with knives, and sharpening them while I still had my magical touch.By Sunday I needed another fix...enter...Project Po' Boy...I took the narrowest worn file I could find, anealed it, and ground away at 'er. Came out with a four inch fully convexed wickedly sharp and pointy drop point. First thing I did was extend the tang so that it would go deeper, about 90% of the way inside the handle. The blade came out better than I'd hoped.
When I went to put a handle on it I realized that I was back to my old self. Split and screwed up the left over mahogany wood I had. Tried to do a bone spacer, but couldn't stand the smell of the bone on the sander, so I'd run off from the sander and catch my breath, then run back up to it for a minute or so...In the end I decided against the bone spacer. It didn't do as much for looks as I would have hoped, and since this was the first knife I was making with my own ten thumbs I figured the less joints the better.
I found a piece of old Walnut laying around and started making a handle out of that. Screwed it up again too! Third try was the charm, I finally got the handle roughed out. For a guard I first mutilated one of my wifes old butterknives (shh!) before I figured out that wouldn't work, and then decided to use an old Simpson strong tie left over from the porch we built. I finally got it roughed out and turned into a knife. What's odd is the way most mistakes I've made were turned into good things. for example I wound up bumping the edge of my blade into the sander while working on the handle, and took off a bit. went and fixed it up, and 'lo an' behold, It had a sweet, subtle little recurve to it. I messed up and took out a chunk of wood near the guard, made it real ugly. I didn't want to use wood filler, so I wound up tapering it much more than I'd originally wanted to. Surprise! surprise! it came out lighter, more graceful and better handling than before!
My end product was a four inch blade that's a hair over an inch wide, with a small well rounded four inch walnut handle. It's very, very light and graceful. My wife compared it to a Jarvenpaa Puukko I'd given her the same approximate size and said it was like comparing a heavy weight boxer to a ballerina. This one came out with a comfortable handle, and a razor sharp edge, with nothing inbetween. I had to work for this one, but I think it's kinda neat. It's been my EDC for a few days now. It's really nothing special at all, but the fact that I made it with my own ten thumbs makes it pretty special to me. My wife likes it enough I might try to make her a new one for Valentines day. (My wife is an incredibly detail oriented critical perfectionist, I'm amazed it passed her inspection!)
My current project is putting new wooden handles on an Old Chicago Cutlery Stockman my father gave me 17 years ago, and putting a mirror finish on an Old Timberline Mini Pitbull with some hardwood handles and a new kydex sheath.
One of my Sensei's is a knifemaker. and told me if I enjoyed making this one, then I'd might as well just give it away, cause I'll be making more of 'em to feed the addiction. I think he may be right.
I'd love to show y'all pics, but I'm gonna need help from my wife taking pictures and loading them on the computer (I aint so good with that kinda thing)
Wally, aren't you in Alaska...dayum boy don't touch your tongue on those blades. But...if you do get a pic.