- Joined
- Nov 16, 2005
- Messages
- 1,150
Well, Daddy got a grinder for Christmas and I've been dying to try my hand at making knives for a while now. I figured I'd start by doing some modifications on knives I already had. So, I had a Dumpster Mutt (Sorry Bravado) that I'd used a whole bunch on my last deployment. I really did take apart a couple of cinder blocks with it and it showed! I am an idiot and didn't take pictures of what it looked like before fixing the edge, it was UGLY, but still usable. I honestly thought the knife would be ruined by me trying to mod it, so I didn't start off with photos.
I started with pictures to show just how easy it is to strip a knife. It was way easier than I imagined. Before stripping, I had already played with convexing the edge and doing a little swedge mod.
Overall view
Swedge close up
Here is the knife about 30 seconds after I applied the stripper. I took off my gloves and turned the camera on, that's how quick this stuff works!
Ten minutes later
And after cleaning it off with a quick hit from a 120 grit sanding block. I really liked the way it looked here, but my father in law wants me to make him a polished knife so I thought I'd practice...
So here is where I'm at now. I'd call it 60%complete and I have about 3-4 hours into it. Most of that is due to me figuring out just what it is I'm doing! Next time I could do it in about half that amount.
I still have a good bit of buffing to do by hand, and I may try some file work for fun. I put a slight recurve in it and the swedge is a two part grind that was really fun to do. It's hard to see in the photos.
Next up is an apprentice blank that I've had forever! I'll add more to this one when I finish it.
Please feel free to post comments and suggestions, thanks for looking!
I started with pictures to show just how easy it is to strip a knife. It was way easier than I imagined. Before stripping, I had already played with convexing the edge and doing a little swedge mod.
Overall view
Swedge close up
Here is the knife about 30 seconds after I applied the stripper. I took off my gloves and turned the camera on, that's how quick this stuff works!
Ten minutes later
And after cleaning it off with a quick hit from a 120 grit sanding block. I really liked the way it looked here, but my father in law wants me to make him a polished knife so I thought I'd practice...
So here is where I'm at now. I'd call it 60%complete and I have about 3-4 hours into it. Most of that is due to me figuring out just what it is I'm doing! Next time I could do it in about half that amount.
I still have a good bit of buffing to do by hand, and I may try some file work for fun. I put a slight recurve in it and the swedge is a two part grind that was really fun to do. It's hard to see in the photos.
Next up is an apprentice blank that I've had forever! I'll add more to this one when I finish it.
Please feel free to post comments and suggestions, thanks for looking!
