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New swell end.....
- Thread starter Brian.Evans
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
- Messages
- 386
That sunset bone your son picked, trust the quality engineer, he's been doing this his whole life I'm sure he knows what he's talking about!
Brian.Evans
Registered Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Messages
- 3,267
Haha. Yeah he has. He saw me messing with my knife stuff today and waited until I was out of the room to grab a big handful of micarta slabs from daddy's toolbox. I walked in on him stacking them neatly on my grinder base. I shooed him away from that, then a bit later I heard the cordless drill running behind me. The stink had pushed a chair over to the cabinet, opened the case, and took out my drill and was running around "fixing" things.
He's awesome, but can be a handful when he's "just being a boy."btw, I didn't have a chance to test Peanut on her choice of cover material. She'd probably go with her older brother's opinion, though.
:thumbup:
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2007
- Messages
- 3,372
I'd use the bone on this one. Thanks for sharing the process with us.
Mike
Mike
Brian.Evans
Registered Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Messages
- 3,267
Here's what I've decided. I've held both cover materials in my hands. I looked at both. I thought about what it would be to have a knife in both. The micarta is nice, but it just doesn't get me going, you know? It feels dead and cold, while the bone feels alive. Neither of the materials it's particularly rare or valuable. The bone was around $13, the micarta $5 ish. They make more of both, it's not like I'm discussing micarta vs mammoth ivory. If I stuff up the bone I can tear it off and use the micarta. I picked up a couple set screws and I'm going to see if I can devise a spinner system from them. If not, I'll probably just peen the heads and polish. I have significant experience peening pins in straight razors, I think I could make them look decent.
So, when the blade gets here next week, I'm going to assemble the knife, check the tension, then grind, sand, mount and cover it. Then, take pictures and show it off. Until then......
So, when the blade gets here next week, I'm going to assemble the knife, check the tension, then grind, sand, mount and cover it. Then, take pictures and show it off. Until then......
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2008
- Messages
- 2,516
Medic....WOW!! Im really impressed with what youve done.....Its going to be a lovely knife for sure!....Will post tother stuff after the Roar.. FES
Brian.Evans
Registered Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Messages
- 3,267
Ok, so you know how I said I was done posting pictures until the knife was complete? Yeah, I lied. I wanted to get this out there for anyone thinking of making a slipjoint. Maybe my dumb newbie mistakes can keep another newbie from having to learn the hard way.
They aren't completely shaped; I'll have to do that once I get everything in place. I also have to get the small pin in place by the bolster, but I couldn't find my 1/16" drill bit last night. I'll do that tomorrow.
I learned a lot doing this.
1. Grind a little, dip in water. Grind a little dip in water. I melted the solder on the pile side bolster by getting it too hot, causing the bolster to come loose. I fixed it, but there is a slight line between the liner and bolster now.
2. FLAT, FLAT, FLAT. Everything has to be perfectly flat. Liners, bolsters, covers, everything. I didn't get the pile side cover perfect, and it still show. I didn't get one of the covers perfectly square, and there might be a gap where the cover meets the bolster on one side.
3. Take it off the back. I knew this when working with stag, but apparently forgot when working with jigged bone. I should have thinned the bone from the back a bit more and I could have kept more of that sweet jigging. As it is, I had to grind into the bone a lot to get everything to even out. It is also going to be thin at the bolsters and thick at the other end. It will look ok, but next time I'll do it differently.
4. Stop when you're ahead! I really wanted to do threaded bolsters on this knife. Then, last night, I decided "hey, pinched and threaded bolsters would look cool." STOP! Everything in my mind said STOP! but I didn't listen. I took the bolster to the wheel and proceeded to almost stuff it up completely. Luckily my good sense kicked in. Better late than never, I suppose. As it was, I had to take a lot off the profile of the mark side bolster. It looks a little squashed, but I'm going I can make it look a bit better once I profile everything for the last time. Needless to say, I'm not doing threaded bolsters.
My mistakes WILL affect the finished product, but hopefully I can minimize their impact a bit. #3 will be better.
They aren't completely shaped; I'll have to do that once I get everything in place. I also have to get the small pin in place by the bolster, but I couldn't find my 1/16" drill bit last night. I'll do that tomorrow.
I learned a lot doing this.
1. Grind a little, dip in water. Grind a little dip in water. I melted the solder on the pile side bolster by getting it too hot, causing the bolster to come loose. I fixed it, but there is a slight line between the liner and bolster now.
2. FLAT, FLAT, FLAT. Everything has to be perfectly flat. Liners, bolsters, covers, everything. I didn't get the pile side cover perfect, and it still show. I didn't get one of the covers perfectly square, and there might be a gap where the cover meets the bolster on one side.
3. Take it off the back. I knew this when working with stag, but apparently forgot when working with jigged bone. I should have thinned the bone from the back a bit more and I could have kept more of that sweet jigging. As it is, I had to grind into the bone a lot to get everything to even out. It is also going to be thin at the bolsters and thick at the other end. It will look ok, but next time I'll do it differently.
4. Stop when you're ahead! I really wanted to do threaded bolsters on this knife. Then, last night, I decided "hey, pinched and threaded bolsters would look cool." STOP! Everything in my mind said STOP! but I didn't listen. I took the bolster to the wheel and proceeded to almost stuff it up completely. Luckily my good sense kicked in. Better late than never, I suppose. As it was, I had to take a lot off the profile of the mark side bolster. It looks a little squashed, but I'm going I can make it look a bit better once I profile everything for the last time. Needless to say, I'm not doing threaded bolsters.
My mistakes WILL affect the finished product, but hopefully I can minimize their impact a bit. #3 will be better.