Pig sticker-WIP completed

Tony Mont

Tony Mont

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
Messages
1,489
Good morning beautiul people!

Within the summer, a gentleman from the forum contacted me to do a pig sticker knife based on an old one I had made. Since I went on vacation a few days later, the project was "paused" until my return.
I made a first draft of the idea merely by looking my previous knife.

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With some more back and forth, I made some subtle changes to fit the user better. I extended a bit the blade and refined the measurements of the handle to fit the needs of the user.
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1st of September and I was back and running. I didn't take any pictures of the very early stages, everything is pretty straight forward up to the heat treatment.
With the heat treatment done, I like to start by cleaning up the spine and choil area. I tend to scratch my blades if I do that later on.

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After that, I went to town on the grinder for the final grind. I ground the blade to 400 grit and added the smallest of false edge to make it better at penetrating. The false edge is not sharp and doesn't need to be. If you notice, towards the edge the grind is not flat. I took the final thickness on the slack belt to create a convex grind. This way, I can make the edge thinner without sacrifising toughness. Once hand sanded, it will be blended in and not show.

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With my carbide guide, I square up the shoulders to accept the guard later on.
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Sliding a square will ensure that I've achieved squareness on the shoulders. While doing this, any drag means that it's not there yet.
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So far it's a perfect match!
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With all these steps out of the way, I wanted to test the tip and ensure it's up to standards.

NOTE: The video is a bit loud.

After driving the knife 5 times into a steel drum, the tip came out with no damage at all. The black marks on the blade are not damage, just paint from the drum.
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to be continued...
 
...

Since the knife passed my test with flying colours, I moved to the tang.

Softened the very end to thread it.
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I threaded a big nut to protect the threads while working on the knife.
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As you can see, only the very end is threaded, the rest of the tang is kept nice and thick for maximum strength.

It was time to polish up the blade. Since I managed to do an acceptable work on the grinder, hand sanding with a 320 EDM stone took the grinder scratches out quickly.

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A dirty 320 grit polish is enough for the time being.
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Prior my final finish, I like to fit up my guard and handle to avoid scratching a beautiful finish.

I failed miserably on my first go with the drill press.
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I cut off the webbing with a dremel, filed a little bit and tried my first up fit up. Not bad.

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A custom file with ground sides to square up my slot. With this file I can file without worrying whether I will widen the slot more than I want.
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to be continued.....
 
....

Squared up my slot and cut my 45's into the guard and retried my fit.

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After that, my guard was fitting all the way up with a hammer (I like to have a pressure fit).

To get a tight beautiful fit, I pin the face a little bit and once all the tiny gaps are closed, I grind the pinning off.

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Once satisfied with the fit of the guard, I fit all the handle pieces. This one is going to have stacked oak.

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Sketchy way to rough cut the guard to shape.
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With a chainsaw file, I start shaping the guard.
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to be continued...
 
...

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures from the handle shaping and finishing process. I was too focused on it and didn't take any. It was quite straight forward since I had everything 95% done prior to glue up.
With that being said, here is the final result! On these pictures the knife is full of oil.

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I hope you guys liked the process as much as I liked making this knife!
All comments and feedback are welcome!

Have a beautiful day!
 
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