Well, I finally finished my first, second and third knives. I am on school break now, so I had the time. The firts one, the boot knife from Jantz w/black micarta handles came out very nice. I am working on putting different finishes on the blade. The handle material came out really nice, i sanded up to 600 and then buffed with a piece of leather I found in my basement. The second blade I tried to do was the renaissance dagger from Jantz. This one wasn't kind to me; I cracked one of the handle slabs after it was pinned and epoxied, so I had to grind down some of the handle steel and get rid of those pointy side projections. The cut off wheels with my Dremel came in real handy there, but I used a bunch of them. I didn't bother finishing it all of the way, but I use it to try diferent dremel bits out on it. My third knife was a traditional 5" steak knife from Jantz with a raspberry dymondwood handle and stainless pins. It had a bad grind in it and a few scratches on the blade, so I gave it a 220 grit satin finish and it looks pretty nice. I like the color of the handle, too. The only thing is that I can't get those pins flush with the handle material. The stainless is a lot harder to sand than the brass, so when you get the pins down to the handle and then go to finer grits with the sandpaper, they end up sticking up a little. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Now for the Dremel. What fun! It is so much easier to shape the handles with it. I also tried to buff up the blade with the wheel, but I need rouge, I think. Those cut off wheels worked pretty well with different stuff, but they wore down quickly. I actually set up a sort of workshop in my parents basement. I set up my dad's drill press, bench grinder, and an old Dremel jigsaw on the workbench. He said I could have whatver space I cleaned out, so I cleaned up his workbenches.
Now for some more questions. Tapered tang stuff; how do you drill the holes straight using a drill press?? If you put the handle material flat on the shelf of the drill press, the holes won't be straight. Why do some places like tapered tangs?? Texas Knifemakers Supply seems to be in love with them and "super 6A Stainless". Unfortunetly, my parents said no more spending for a while, maybe even until the summer. Now what am I going to do on my breaks?? I finished 3 blades within 3 days on this break. yet another question. Is a jewerlers saw the same as a coping saw? I saw a coping saw and it looked the same and I was wondering if I could use this to rough out the handles cuz the jigsaw we have doesn't like turns and it would save a lot of filing and dremeling and dust in the basement, which now looks quite festive with the red raspberry and grenn emerald dust everywhere! Well, enough ramblings for now, I'm going back to sleep.
Now for the Dremel. What fun! It is so much easier to shape the handles with it. I also tried to buff up the blade with the wheel, but I need rouge, I think. Those cut off wheels worked pretty well with different stuff, but they wore down quickly. I actually set up a sort of workshop in my parents basement. I set up my dad's drill press, bench grinder, and an old Dremel jigsaw on the workbench. He said I could have whatver space I cleaned out, so I cleaned up his workbenches.
Now for some more questions. Tapered tang stuff; how do you drill the holes straight using a drill press?? If you put the handle material flat on the shelf of the drill press, the holes won't be straight. Why do some places like tapered tangs?? Texas Knifemakers Supply seems to be in love with them and "super 6A Stainless". Unfortunetly, my parents said no more spending for a while, maybe even until the summer. Now what am I going to do on my breaks?? I finished 3 blades within 3 days on this break. yet another question. Is a jewerlers saw the same as a coping saw? I saw a coping saw and it looked the same and I was wondering if I could use this to rough out the handles cuz the jigsaw we have doesn't like turns and it would save a lot of filing and dremeling and dust in the basement, which now looks quite festive with the red raspberry and grenn emerald dust everywhere! Well, enough ramblings for now, I'm going back to sleep.