Erin Burke
KnifeMaker...ish
- Joined
- May 19, 2003
- Messages
- 1,330
In an unprecedented flurry of productivity, I may end up being able to post another completed knife this month. Fingers crossed for some more shop time this week. 
I generally have several sketches laying around in my "to be buillt" pile. This particular on has been sitting paired with a block of Mark's redwood burl for a few months now. It's kind of "back to basics" after my last knife... and that's kind of what I need right now.
The following photo is an example of how one little feature can make a huge difference.
After rough grinding the blade, I felt that it just felt too CLUNKY. The shape was landing in my brain with a leaden thud... it just didn't feel alive. That's when I pulled out my french curve and added the clip. I feel the silhouette works much better this way. My theory is that the clip really just visually layers two imbalanced shapes on top of each other to form a balanced amalgam. To my eye, the outer silhouette seemed too clunky and the inner silhouette seemed too weak... but together, they work. {shrug}
This next photo is kind of embarrassing... yes, that is a FLAME hamon template. :chargrined:
The blade is fresh out of HT, and the clip was roughed-in with a file prior to that. I find that using a hamon template helps me keep the clay symmetrical on each side of the blade. The grain of the redwood kind of reminds me of fire... so... well... (not that a hamon has EVER done what I've told it to.)
Here's a quick hamon check at 240-grit.
I wasn't quite 100% happy with the angle of the clip bevels. They were a bit shallow and the grind line wasn't popping as much as I wanted... and being post-HT, draw filing was no longer a good option. Fortunately Fred Rowe came through for me Saturday morning in the form of a USPS package on my front porch.
All of the positive reviews here on BF inspired me to buy this thing specifically to help grinding clean clip angles.
Did it work? Darn tootin!!!
This is the blade with the main bevels polished to 2000-grit and the clip reground to a steeper angle using Fred's bubble jig. The initial reset of the clip bevels was done with a 120-grit Gator (A160)... followed by a 280-grit Gator (A65), then a 360-grit (A45) Trizact. Finally I followed all this up with an extra-fine stone. I'm happy with the results.
And this is where she sits right now... Acraglas curing overnight in my patented gluing rig.
This is my first time working with redwood burl... I'm stoked to see how it looks all shaped and shined.
More to follow.
Erin
I generally have several sketches laying around in my "to be buillt" pile. This particular on has been sitting paired with a block of Mark's redwood burl for a few months now. It's kind of "back to basics" after my last knife... and that's kind of what I need right now.
The following photo is an example of how one little feature can make a huge difference.
After rough grinding the blade, I felt that it just felt too CLUNKY. The shape was landing in my brain with a leaden thud... it just didn't feel alive. That's when I pulled out my french curve and added the clip. I feel the silhouette works much better this way. My theory is that the clip really just visually layers two imbalanced shapes on top of each other to form a balanced amalgam. To my eye, the outer silhouette seemed too clunky and the inner silhouette seemed too weak... but together, they work. {shrug}
This next photo is kind of embarrassing... yes, that is a FLAME hamon template. :chargrined:
The blade is fresh out of HT, and the clip was roughed-in with a file prior to that. I find that using a hamon template helps me keep the clay symmetrical on each side of the blade. The grain of the redwood kind of reminds me of fire... so... well... (not that a hamon has EVER done what I've told it to.)
Here's a quick hamon check at 240-grit.
I wasn't quite 100% happy with the angle of the clip bevels. They were a bit shallow and the grind line wasn't popping as much as I wanted... and being post-HT, draw filing was no longer a good option. Fortunately Fred Rowe came through for me Saturday morning in the form of a USPS package on my front porch.
All of the positive reviews here on BF inspired me to buy this thing specifically to help grinding clean clip angles.
Did it work? Darn tootin!!!
This is the blade with the main bevels polished to 2000-grit and the clip reground to a steeper angle using Fred's bubble jig. The initial reset of the clip bevels was done with a 120-grit Gator (A160)... followed by a 280-grit Gator (A65), then a 360-grit (A45) Trizact. Finally I followed all this up with an extra-fine stone. I'm happy with the results.
And this is where she sits right now... Acraglas curing overnight in my patented gluing rig.
This is my first time working with redwood burl... I'm stoked to see how it looks all shaped and shined.
More to follow.
Erin
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