My Holy Grail- W.I.P.

Tony Mont

Tony Mont

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
Messages
1,269
Good evening everybody!

Now that I've been a few months around the forum, I decided to make a ''milestone'' knife and do a WIP thread about it.

Usually my knives are meant to be users, simple but with an effective geometry and an even simpler blade finish. My goal for my Holy Grail is to combine that with a more polished blade and more ''special'' materials for the handle.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from the early stages of the knife, but I'm going to take more from now on.

The design is quite simple with a blade of 15.5cm/6.10'' , height 3.5cm/1.37'', blade thickness 5mm/0.196'' and it's going to be a hidden tang. The steel of choice is 80CrV2.

The knife so far has been differentialy heat treated with clay to make a hamon. Final ground to 400grit and one side has a dirty hand sanded 120grit finish.

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For the time being, I've got to do a lot of hand sanding to reach a nice 3000grit finish before I start etching/polishing cycles for the hamon.

Thank you guys for looking! All comments are welcome.
I will have an update soon.

Tony.
 
Day 1 of handing is over.

Currently, one side has a dirty 800grit finish and the other one a 400grit.
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This is the mess I made while sanding today.

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Still a long way to go until 3000, tomorrow I'm going to get there.
 
Small update.

First side finished with 3000grit. It took me more time than I expected but I like it.

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''Hello there!''
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Joking aside, there is a visible hamon in there but it's quite hard to capture it with my cellphone. Also it's quite hard to get a proper picture of the finish, I will try to get some more tomorrow with the sunlight.
 
Good so far - keep them rolling!
 
Early morning and I'm still hand sanding.
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The second side was done up to 400grit and I took it to 3000grit.
Here is a picture when I was done.
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Now that hand sanding is completed, I sprayed the blade with WD-40 and wraped it to protect the finish.

It's time to start addressing the tang.
It's current state. As a start I need to round and true up the shoulders, once that's done, I will shape it properly to fit the guard.
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And here with the tang prepared. Rounded the shoulders and left a lot of ''meat'' in the tang therefore It's going to be strong.
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With the tang finished, I drew a few sketches of the knife on paper and find a desired finish for the guard/handle.
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Any ideas on material combinations? What do you think guys?
 
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So, today was a big day. Once I finished with the hand sanding and started shaping the guard, the more I looked on the blade, the less I liked it. It was at this moment that I had a change of heart, I took it back to a satin finish. I know that many may find this strange, but I don't know, I don't feel like a mirror polished blade is my style.

With that being said, here is a picture when I made the groove on the guard. I'm sure there is an easier way to do this but just a round file worked out fine.
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And here is the guard on the blade, soldered in place.

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Not the best pictures due to light, tomorrow morning I will have more to show.
 
Still working with the guard. I've made two steel spacers prior to the handle.
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Filed a groove and test fitted.

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There is a lot of cleaning up to do, I can't decide if I want some kind of spacer between them or not.
 
coming along nicely. i think some thin black spacers between each part would look classy.
 
So, I took a step backwards.

I just re soldered the guard in place. It took me 5-6 times to get the result that I wanted, pleasing in the eye and strong. Why did I do that? To get rid of a scratch I found and couldn't reach.
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Now I've got a ton of clean up to do again.

With tha being said, I've been toying a bit with the spacers+handle.

I like this concept, black spacer between the steel and an ebony/dark wood for the handle.
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Originally I wanted to use deer antler but none of my pieces have the proper shape for the knife. That's why I'm also thinking of etching black the guard+steel spacers, instead of a black spacer use something white/bright (like bone) and do a frame construction with deer antler scales.
 
Update!

I haven't forgotten about this knife, I took a few days off of it to decide what to do with the handle. It wasn't easy because I couldn't find the materials I wanted in the right dimensions, therefore I had to change my plans quite a few times.

I came to a conclusion tho. It's going to be a frame structure handle, I just ordered the necessary materials for it and the handle scales. The scales material is going to be a new for me which makes me really excited!
With some luck my order is going to arrive on Monday and keep working on it next week.
 
I'm rooting for you. Looks like you are on your way to a great one :thumbsup:

Ray
 
Small update!

The materials arrived and I jumped right back into the knife.

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Today involved mostly hand sanding. I cleaned up the blade really nice,the face of the guard and the ferrules.
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Also, I rough cut the frame for tha handle and drilled the water buffalo spacer.

Currently the knife sits up like this.
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I need to shape the buffalo spacer but it's a new material for me. As much as I know, I mustn't get it warm while working with it. I guess the belt grinder is off duty for this one and I should do it with files/rasps? If anybody has some input on that, it'd be really helpful.
 
Horn is quite soft. Use a saw first, then files and sandpaper. (I wouldn't use a rasp)
 
Small update!

I've been making slow but steady progress.

I drilled all the pin holes on the horn, everything is lined up perfectly. Prior to glueing, I need to make both scales with the same thickness and drill a hole which will go through the tang like a hidden tang. Also, I must line up the scales with the frame perfectly, currently there is a tiiiiny gap.

I don't have any pictures from the drilling process, but I do have a picture of a dry fit up which can give an idea of the completed knife.

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Not a big update, been quite busy lately.

I just glued everything together and did the rough profile of the handle. The picture is terrible but I will get a better one tomorrow morning when I start working on the handle.

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