Nick Wheeler Prototype Fighter. "Oh YEA "......

Just keeping the thread moving along :)

Since the stainless showed up the other day I got right back on track and so far, things are going very well. Just wanted to share these quick pics from yesterday for fun :)

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Before anyone cries out that Jon's is different- let me point out that Cal's and David's are bowie blocks so they can sit on the butt of the block nearly vertical, while Jon's is a rectangular block of Koa (that barely fit mind you! :eek: :) ) so it had to be kicked down significantly to give the needed drop in the handle. :)
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And thank you for the attn Paul! :D
 
Just so cool to see them all coming together. Is that one to the right of my walnut in the last pic Mr. Gill's Curly Mahogany?

Roger
 
Silly tricks... ;)

One of the 10 knives in this run, has a stabilized, flame Walnut handle. I love Walnut, it's beautiful stuff. However, even stabilized it's not very heavy. So normally I would pair it with a thin blade. Even though these knives are tapered a lot and ground thin, there's still some heft to the blade itself (especially #8's with a 0.310" thick ricasso! :eek:). In order to end up with a knife that feels light (even if it has a little weight to it) it HAS to be balanced well.

I thought a couple of you might be slightly entertained by my solution (I've done it a few times in the past). Blame it on growing up a small town kid that fished all the time and spent many a week-end pouring lead sinkers for sturgeon fishing. ;) :D


Of course you typically would use a pot or babbitt/lead ladle... but I was only melting a tiny bit so we went crack house style on this one. :eek: :rolleyes: ;)
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No need for a fancy split mold :)
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Here is where it's headed---
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In its final resting place. Only about 10 grams, or 0.35 some odd ounces... but it will make all the difference in the world on keeping this knife balanced IMHO. :)
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edited for decimal point placement!!!
 
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very trick Mr. Nick
 
So what you're saying is you needed to add some ballast to my fat-assed fighter? :p

Kidding aside - that makes good sense as a solution to the balance issue.

Roger
 
Again they say God is in the details

and I love these kind of details Some makers would have let it be . Nick choose not to
 
JParanee said:
Again they say God is in the details

and I love these kind of details Some makers would have let it be . Nick choose not to
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Nick chose to use lead, personally think tungsten carbide rod is a possibly more elegant solution, and knowing Nick's selection of cutting tools, would be readily available...no melting required.

11.3-16.5 g/cm3-tungsten carbide

11.34 g/cm−3- lead

When I worked at GT Knives, Todd Jones shared a passion for tungsten carbide, and I do love the material...not so much love for lead, though.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
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HAHAHAHAHA!!!! ROFLMFAO.... "more elegant solution".... for something that's epoxied inside of a handle, never to be seen again for the life of the knife. That's funny. :)
 
:rolleyes:Yeah I am no knifemaker by any means, but I don't see the point of using something more elegant if it will never be seen. I'm with you Nick;);)

Just had to back you up!!! :p
 
I'm just glad ya took the time to balance the blade. Like I said earlier most would not have but Nick really tried to put what we spoke of into reality

Thanks Nick and Angi
 
NickWheeler said:
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! ROFLMFAO.... "more elegant solution".... for something that's epoxied inside of a handle, never to be seen again for the life of the knife. That's funny. :)
Click to expand...

Nick, I know how your mind works, so cool your jets....and follow my reasoning.

The Tungsten carbide is denser, so you get more weight in a smaller package, in tooling, it is already in rod form, so all you have to do is chock up your surface grinder, grind the rod down to the size you want, and drop it in the hole....no melting, no screwing with lead..."elegant" seemed a more reasonable choice of wording than "better".

Do what you want...like you always do.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Yea, and I know how yours works- your insatiable need to find a flaw so you can point out something negative saw a chance to overlook that I did something extra to try and balance the knife so you could point out that it wasn't a cool enough material. Bravo.

Tungsten carbide isn't something I have just laying around, nor do most shops unless they're small TIG electrodes. I'm not going to special order 5/16" Tungsten rod when I could, and did, do the job and get the same effect with something that was in my shop and easy to work with.

My break is over so I guess I'll go back to doing what I want, like I always do. :rolleyes:
 
NickWheeler said:
Yea, and I know how yours works- your insatiable need to find a flaw so you can point out something negative saw a chance to overlook that I did something extra to try and balance the knife so you could point out that it wasn't a cool enough material. Bravo.

Tungsten carbide isn't something I have just laying around, nor do most shops unless they're small TIG electrodes. I'm not going to special order 5/16" Tungsten rod when I could, and did, do the job and get the same effect with something that was in my shop and easy to work with.

My break is over so I guess I'll go back to doing what I want, like I always do. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well said!:thumbup:
 
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