on the bench

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
47,357
I apologize for my horrific foto skillz.....lol. This is my first post since i started up again after an 8 month layoff. A little backgound. I got the bug in March of 2005 and really got motivated after meeting all of the ABS lads at Blade 05. Unfortunately, almost all of the 75-80 projects that I started before and after my layoff ended up in the local landfill:D Mostly grinder screwups. With this one, I decided to do it by hand as much as possible. I have been sanding this thing with grits up to 220 in my spare time in the evening when i can't run the forge and guess what? minimal grinder screwups:thumbup: Not perfect but definately not bad. It is now ready for stamping, clip grinding, final normalizing and heat treat, and since I took Terry Primos' advise and got some of that Brownells anti-scale compund AND now have a forge coming that will hold a temp of 1450 to 1500 +- 10 degrees indefinately, hopefully, it will still look good coming out of the normalizing and quench. The blade is 8 1/2 long and 1/4 thick and is made out of some of Don Hanson's magic W2. It will eventually get a mild steel guard, maybe a ferrule, possibly cold rust blued and a coffin handle of one of my exotic woods of which i have a LOT. Any suggestions?
 
African Blackwood. would be my fav. with a Stainless gaurd that has a brushed look. if you do the blueing I would love to see a burl on there or maybe purpleheart. But hay, thats me.
 
The guard choices would currently be 1018, NS or brass. I don't have any stainless......call it a forger's aversion...lol As for burl, i have a HUGE stick of unstabilized amboyna. Also have blackwood, ebony, olive, highly figured English walnut and curly maple, old growth brazilian rosewood, slightly plain snakewood, lignum vitae, cocobolo, tulipwood, bocote and a nice block of Alpha Knife Supply ironwood......i think that's all for now....lol. Trying to decide between a straight guard and a smaller "S" guard.
 
sunfishman said:
Wow, that is a very good looking blade Joe :thumbup:
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Shhhhh.......it still has a VERY faint divet on the other side right belwo where the clip will be ground, but too far down for the swedge to eat it up. You can only see it when you move it around in bright light, but it has to be dealt with.
Otherwise, I am very pleased with how it has turned out.....so far. Still plenty of opportunities to screw up....:D
 
It might also look good with a "D" guard or and "S" guard where the bottom part goes back a couple of inches. I hope that made sense, often times I don't. :D
 
I was thinking about a smaller S guard. Only thing that would keep me from trying something like that is anxiety. :eek: I've gotten it this far, but I have put WAY too many hours into it so far, so I am inclined to keep the rest of it as simple as possible to enusre that it turns out presentable....:D
 
Decision made for on the handle material. A lightly figured piece of English walnut that i got from Unlce Al at the fall '05 Piney Woods Hammer-in. I actually want to finish this one and after shattering another piece of ebony trying to set the live end of the lasther in it, I decided on keeping it simple. Walnut, single pin and basic mild steel guard. No ferrules, buttcaps, filework, inlay, etc. maybe later....lol. I should have preliminary fitting pics by Sunday.....assuming the HT goes well tomorrow:eek:
 
Good start there Joe. If you're uneasy about grinding the clip you can just start it with a grinder and finish it off and make it even with a file (that's what I do). Good luck with the HT! Let us know how it turns out.
-Ray
 
raylaconico said:
Good start there Joe. If you're uneasy about grinding the clip you can just start it with a grinder and finish it off and make it even with a file (that's what I do). Good luck with the HT! Let us know how it turns out.
-Ray
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I roughed it with the contact wheel at slow speed. On side is a bit round in profile, so files and sandpaper are the order of the day. I ground a DEEP clip on a comabt knife and it turned out pretty well. The KMG makes life much easier:D
 
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