Next Project... a take down.

tryppyr said:
Perhaps you don't understand that my inexperience with the grinder caused the problems. Continued used of the grinder would only worsen the problems.

If you read between the lines you may see my frustration... which I keep at bay.
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Keep on grinding! You are doing great!

Get some 1084 and grind 10 of them at the grinder, by the time you get to the last one you will want to re-do the first few. :D It just takes time and repetition to get good.
 
Greg, if you ever want to get together and work on some grinding together, look me up. I'm just up the 405 from you and while I'm below an apprentice at this point, I'm sure there are things the two of us can pick up from each other. Just a thought. Most of my grinds are convex however I set a lot of my original bevels on the flat platen. This one is preheat treat with a 120 belt finish.

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Thanks for the offer, Michael. I'll probably take you up on it some day this spring/summer. One thing to bear in mind about this blade, it started off as a hollow grind, which is one of the reasons it's been such a pain in the ass.

Anyway, I'm finally past the stage of working out dimples and divots, and now I'm moving forward on all fronts.

I took a piece of rusty corner steel and cut it into two flat pieces, sanded off the rust and then drilled the holes into one of the pieces to make the D-guard This time I drilled the bottom hole first, measured up to the slot, then cut that in entirely with the drill press and Dremel, no hand filing at all. So far so good.

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I selected the handle material (stabilized Vasticola burl) and drilled out the core, then sanded down the surface to shape. This is the result, which I will now use to determine the size of the contact surfaces on the D-guard.

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While fitting the handle to the tang, the welded screw broke off. That pretty much tears down the idea of making this a take down. I no longer see any benefit to welding another piece of all-thread to the tang. This project has officially become a glue-up.
 
That's a pity, Greg.

I just started my first take-down last week after I got frustrated with the project I was working on, based on your inspiration through this thread. It's going to be a large chopper/camp knife. I'm done rough grinding the blade and have opted to leave a piece on the back that will get threaded, in stead of welding in a piece of all-thread. It's going to be a while before I finish it, though - I have 6 more knives on the bench at the moment that needs to get done so they can go to their new homes... Most of them just need handles, some finishing and sheaths.
 
Well, now that I'm done steaming, I'm still thinking about putting another threaded rod on the end... I'm no less annoyed, but a little cooler of head now.
 
tryppyr said:
Well, now that I'm done steaming, I'm still thinking about putting another threaded rod on the end... I'm no less annoyed, but a little cooler of head now.
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The soothing/calming vibes I sent worked! :D
Of course you have to weld another one. Think I never broke one? Multiple times. :(
 
I welded another one... and prompt broke it. I'm really getting fed up. Welding just isn't my thing.
 
Well first advice is, stop breaking them. But that is not very helpful. ;)
Maybe somebody with welding experience will be by to troubleshoot this.
 
Im sure there is someone around who would give you a hand to weld it Greg!

I would do it for you but your a bit far away. What type of welder are you using?
 
MIG wire welder.

The first time what broke was a thin section of the bolt itself, not the weld. The second time what broke was a piece of the parent metal on the tang.

At this point I think the tang is too damaged to do any more welding. I am interested in learning to do this right... but not on this blade.
 
You have to temper the tang after the weld. You create brittle metal when you weld. Temper at 400F before doing any grinding of bending.
 
I didn't want to post a link to another forum but if you google "no-weld butt cap" you may find an alternate to welding.
 
I had a really crazy idea for the D-guard last night I just can't get out of my head. It's along similar lines to the upswept guard on the recently completed dagger. The result would be a very aggressive looking guard. I think I'll spend some time this weekend banging on the first attempt at a D-guard and see if I can make this happen the way I see it in my head.

Think in terms of a d-guard, but instead of the guard being flat, the top outer edges are bent up and filed into something like a sawtooth shape. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I have to at least see if I can do it.
 
Greg, Thanks for pushing your envelope. It makes for an interesting build and keeps life interesting as well. Jess
 
Well, I managed to crudely shape the guard. It's a bit harder to cold shape than I thought, it it is doable.

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