My first few knives, WIP pics and updates!

[chainring]

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I found bladeforums and my eyes were opened to the possibility of actually making my own knives. People like Andy Roy of Fiddleback Forge, Dan Koster, Rick Marchand, Ray Laconico, Matt Bailey, Tito, etc. made me want it, and guys like Dylan Fletcher, RyanW, Jonnymac44, etc. made it look easy! So, about a year ago, I started saving and buying tools and supplies. Finally got a KMG put together, got a stock of belts and supplies from usaknifemakersupply, and some 01 tool steel from MetricsUnlimited. I started playing with some mild steel, then made some prototype blank shapes from masonite.

When I had come up with something that seemed to flow properly, I traced it onto some 1/8 01 and got after it! Meanwhile, Dad saw my blank and suggested a shorter blade - so I made basically the same thing only with a significantly shorter edge and very slightly shorter handle. As far as the grind goes, I love a scandi edge for it's appearance, utility, and ease of maintenance (and to be completely honest, it's easy to do - there I said it!) After completely destroying a perfectly good little piece of 01 trying to do Andy's convex sabre-grind, it will be a while before I try it again!
So I made a 12.5 degree jig for scandi work, and tried it out. Thought I was getting some flex in it, since it is fairly tall, so I gusseted the back. Turned out that the workrest was flexing ever sol slightly - haven't figured out what to do about that.

As I mentioned, Andy Roy and Dan Koster are a great source of inspiration for me, and I'm afraid it's fairly obvious in the handle and blade shapes! I did my own thing, but it still looks like a fairly blatant ripoff! Ah, well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

So, off to Peter's Heat Treat, who's turnaround time was fantastic. An interesting note here - I was expecting to get a blank back that looked like the "forge scale" flats on Dan Koster Nessmuks and Andy's pre-Spalting stuff....but when my blanks arrived they looked exactly like they did before, only a tad grey! What the heck! Well, that forced me to do a Marchand-style etch, because I wanted the old, just dug it up look. A bit of blueing from Brownells, a Mason jar, and some bleach!

The smaller knife I blued and bleached for 30 minutes...then again. It didn't get near the Marchand look, but it looked good enough to get me excited (doesn't take much.) The larger blank I blued and bleached REPEATEDLY - actually lost track of how long it spent in the bleach and it finally looked..well, about like the other one.Unfortunately, I got distracted and didn't take many pictures of the handling process, but you didn't miss anything! However, I will say for any guys that are thinking of trying their own knife, that one should be careful not to overheat one's epoxy. It sets up IMMEDIATELY, and you will spend several frenzied and despairing minutes breaking pins off, driving them out of one scale, and scrubbing everything with laquer thinner to remove rapidly hardening epoxy! I thought I had screwed the pooch for sure.

Onward and upward. Chose some Koa scales for the larger blade and some Jade G10 for the smaller. Andy Roy's micarta pins fascinated me, not to mention being easy to shape with the rest of the handle, so I had some 1/8 micarta pin stock on hand. I HAD planned on angling the front of the scales on the larger blade, and drilled pin holes to match the future angled leading edge - but I abandoned that mid-stream, and promptly realized that my forward-most pin was...too far forward! Too late. After some fairly comical spinning handle scale drilling mishaps, somehow wedging my stick of SS lanyard tubing into the bench grinder, and getting glue all over the place, I ended up with this:

(Note that the top four pics are pre-etch)

Roughed the handles in with the 1 inch small wheel attachement on the KMG, which was easier than I had anticipated, although I was mortally afraid of getting my lanyard tubing too hot and getting the noobie black halo around it! Turns out, my inexperienced scale-spinning drill technique had given me an epoxy line in places around the lanyard tube already! So, who knows if it got too hot, or the hole was oversized - either one gives you the nasty black halo!

Then went to some files, a little rubber pad and sandpaper in a knifemaker's handle shaping vise I bought through J. Neilson. Whipped up a little base for it from out of the junk iron pile. Big John though it was cool!

Got busy at work and home projects, and took awhile getting the handles done. Finally got the Koa sanded and into the mineral oil a couple nights ago, and the G10 handle still needs work. When I went back to sharpen them on a 220 belt, I started with the Jade G10 knife, but wasn't getting the edge I expected. Finally posted a question on here, and got plenty of pointers. After slowing my belt down, getting a tiny wire edge, and stropping on cardboard I got both blades sharp.
So, sharpened, final sanded the Koa, reblued the tang on both, and Mineral Oiled.

Still need to finish sand the Jade, but here's "finished" pics for now:

I've got a cousin who is a wizard with leather, and I'm planning on sending the Koa knife to him for a leather sheath. He's going to wedge as much floral tooling on it as he can! I want to get a kydex press and some thin kydex for future projects, too.

 

[chainring]

So far, lessons learned:

Be more careful drilling handle slabs, even a 1/8 bit will grab and spin a carelessly held scale - which wallows your pin hole.

Be careful with hole placement/nebulous scale shapes to avoid pins that end up too close to an edge - the scale on the Koa knife cracked on both sides at that pin.

Be careful with slab drilling, or the scales won't line up perfectly.

Drill the tang more, the Jade knife turned out HEAVY.

Don't over heat the freakin' epoxy.

Make sure you get plenty of epoxy in the pin holes and on the pin.

Be more careful wiping the epoxy away where the scale meets the blade.

Be more careful at final edge grinding, the Koa knife has a tiny extra angle right where the blade transitions to scandi on one side. Got careless and didn't have it pinched to the jig well enough.

What did I miss? No, really, I wanna know. See a problem, flaw, noobie mistake, post it.


In the meantime, I did a similar blade shape with less handle and a swedge, along with a smaller design made to fit my last piece of 01. They are off at Peter's Heat Treat right now!

Don't mind the big fella in the back, I'm pretty sure that one won't make it to heat treat. I'd heard it before, but 3/16 IS too thick for scandi!



By the way, I noticed something that interested me along the way. Before I sent off the first two for heat treat, I had marked potential scale lines on the larger blade using a lead pencil. I didn't clean it off before sending it in to Peter's Heat Treat, and I noticed it was still there AFTER heat treat - you can see it a bit in this picture, just ahead of the two forward pin holes.

When I did the etching, it etched noticeably right where I had marked with a pencil! There was the line, clear as a bell, reproduced as an etch! Hmmmm. So, on these next two, I scribbled all over the blades before sending 'em in!

I'll let y'all know what happens - of course, this may be a common technique for everybody and I just reinvented the wheel!





Anyway, thanks for looking, and please give me the benefit of your constructive criticism! I appreciate the emails and PMs that I have gotten from Andy Roy, Dylan Slater, and Rick Marchand since embarking on this little project. They were faithful and patient with my childlike inqiries, and the forum has always been a source of inspiration and encouragement. I know these aren't perfect, but I am VERY HAPPY and excited to have gotten this far with my first two!

 

[Mitchell Knives]

Those look fantastic!

Way better than my first two!

 

[raylaconico]

Those look REALLY good! They don't look like beginner work at all. They look better than A LOT of the "pros" I've seen. I'm amazed!

 

[blademinister]

Looking good.

 

[sloth357]

yeah man, nice stuff. Looks like you have all the tools and energy to be well on your way to having your own personal forum here for your knives

 

[BMK]

Outstanding work on the knives and documenting the process. You have a good eye for balance and proportion. Thank you for posting.

 

[David Sharp]

Excellent knives; I like the design. I really enjoyed your write up.

David Sharp

 

[clseebon]

Just out of curiosity, what was the cost of all the necessary equipment? Looks like you have some top of the line shop tools.

 

[chainring]

Thanks, y'all! By far, the most expensive part of it was the KMG "Knife Maker's Grinder" from Beaumont Metal Works. Frankly, a Grizzly or Craftsman would probably work just as well for grinding out blanks, shaping handles, and doing jigged-up scandi grinds - but I was planning ahead for when I learn to do sabre grinds, etc. I saved up and bought most of the KMG from Beaumont, built a stand for it, and got a rotary platen secondhand (which I haven't used since I butchered that first piece of 01 trying for a convex grind.) Just check out the Beaumont Metal Works site and start making a list - it adds up fast. It is an amazing machine, though. I held out for the 2 horse variable speed drive and motor, which made the saving up process take MUCH longer! Had a drill press already. So, a simple vise, a drill motor (or drill press if you can swing it) and as much grinder as you can afford....that's about all I can say that you really need to do knives like these two. Lotta guys probably already own enough tools to get started!

 

[ERIK KNIVES]

Really nice work, Chainring. I too, was impressed that you were confident enough in your skills to jump into a KMG investment - apparently knowing that you would have initial success and enough fun to keep it up!

Smart jig as well. On another note, is that a concrete counter top with the colored aggregate?

EA

 

[chainring]

Thanks for the complement!

I grew up with a Dad who didn't hesitate to build what he needed, and accumulated a wonderfully well-stocked shop of tools over the years. Being an elevator man means that you have to be a welder, electrician, carpenter, salesman, contractor, and PR man depending on what kind of work is needed - so I grew up helping Dad with any and all of those efforts. We poured concrete for our porch and carport, re-plumbed, insulated, windowed, floored, sided, and painted his house along the way. I built shooting targets out of steel and wood, welded up bunkbeds and bedframes for our kids, and built/general contracted our own house over the last seven years. All of it gave me some mechanical savvy, an appreciation for having the right tools for the job, and a deep-seated hatred for having to buy twice! So, I just had to save up for the KMG and the variable speed setup. Like I said, it took about a year to get it done!

As for the concrete with aggregate, that's the floor in our house. You can see it in the picture of Big John sitting on a step-stool in front of the Knifemaker's Vice. It's just a regular concrete slab, nothing special mixed into it. We had planned on scribing and staining it, but the fella who was going to do the work mentioned polishing it first. It was the first floor he ever did with his new machine (this was about 3 or 4 years ago) and he went throught the plain grey surface in a few places, exposing the aggregate. He thought he'd screwed up, but I thought it was beautiful! So, I got him to go back over it until the aggregate showed everywhere, then scribe it into a random tile pattern and leave it alone! Then we hardwaxed it, covered it up and didn't see it again for several years while I framed up inside, wired, insulated, etc. etc. etc. and generally contemplated hanging myself over the scope of the project into which I'd gotten myself! The kids ride tricycles and little trainer bikes with no pedals all over the house, and generally crash around all they want without hurting the floor. Sucks when the baby tumps over, but I think they are learning to balance a little sooner than most kids!

 

[y0ukn0wwh0]

Chain
Those look awesome brother! Great work.

 

[giant1]

Great job

 

[Rick Marchand]

Great looking blades, brother...... I like that design a lot.

Rick

 

[PIndelicato]

Blades came out great, Chainring...never mind they were your first ones! The really like how your mineral oiled koa turned out.

How did you mount your KMG tool rest so low, and do you want to make another scandi jig like that ?

 

[BMK]

How did you etch and blue the blade - it looks good? I tried it and ended up with a mess.

 

[KFU]

Those look great man! I hope my first two turn out half that nice.

 

[chainring]

Thanks!

I just got longer bolts for the tool rest, and cut cookies of square tubing to drop it down so my tall jig would fit. Gives me room to scandi larger blades!

As for the etch, I PM'd Rick Marchand and he sent me his basic recipe for etching, which is as follows:


"After your HT and final sanding is done, you coat the entire blade in cold blueing solution (Gun Blue, at the hardware store). Do not wipe it off but rather let it dry to a light powdery texture, then immerse it in bleach. DO NOT BREATH THE FUMES. USE RUBBER GLOVES! It will grow rust like a chia-pet. After it has soaked for 20-30mins pull it out and use steel wool to get all the rust off. Sand the blade again to clean up the high spots and polish the edge. Apply more gun blue and lightly buff with fine steel wool and 2000gt wet paper to bring out highlights. Sharpen.

Tips...
- fool around with different application techniques. How the gun blue is applied makes a difference in the end pattern.
- fool around with different immersion techniques. How the blade is dipped/tilted makes a difference in the end pattern.
- fool around with different soak times. How long the blade stays in the bleach makes a difference in the end pattern. Try 20-30mins for a start.
- fool around with different post-etch sanding techniques. How the etch is removed makes a difference in the end pattern."


It never ceases to amaze me how helpful and friendly the rockstars on bladeforums are! There's no telling how many people email/pm Marchand, Andy Roy, Fletcher, Laconico, etc. and they always are willing to help. Wonderful people.

 

[hodgescl]

i think graphit is super heat resistant, thats why it left a line after the heat treating.