Please tell us Nick

I

itrade

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Jul 3, 2002
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Nick,

Your close up shot in this thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=227145

is driving me nuts. I've looked at the guard work so much I see it when I close my eyes. It's to the point now where my next knives are going to be a set of hidden tangs and I'm gonna steal your design and I'm not ashamed ;)

Could you please tell me what your process is for blending that guard/spacer/handle?

File? Dremel? sander? 2000 hours of handrubbing with rottenstone? All the above?

Do you shape the guard before installing? Do you epoxy? .....

Come-on fess up -- please.

Steve
 
Wow, what a compliment Steve, I'm blushing :o

I know there are a lot more proficient and competent makers out there to answer this, but I'll give it a shot.

BEFORE I do the final press fit of the guard onto the blade, I grind a lot of the excess off with a 50x belt. I will have it oval and the transition roughed in. Then I press fit and seal the guard and fit/assemble the handle.

Once everything is set-up, I cut the excess wood off with the band-saw. Then I creep into the transition area (handle to guard) on the EDGE of my platen. This doesn't get anywhere near a nice round finish, it just gets off excess material.

I try to get it to the point that when viewing it from the side, the lines are all PRETTY CLOSE to flowing from handle to guard.

Then I put it in the vise and start at it with a small, half-round file. You have to lean a little harder on the steel guard than the wood, because the wood wants to file off at about 10 times the rate of the steel. I could show you what I mean easily, but I don't really know how to articulate it into words :confused:

You'll get everything closer yet, and then take it back to the grinder on a slack 120x belt. You can gently maneuver the belt in there and smooth things up. I take it up to a 400x J-flex (blue/yellow) belt and often end up back and forth with the file a few more times to get it right where I want it.

Once I'm happy with that stage, I start hand-sanding it with a micarta block and 600x paper. Only on the last few passes do I sand it with a rubber block, as it would easily gouge the wood and not the steel (even with something as fine as 600x).

That's about it...it takes me WAAAAY longer than it probably should, but I'm getting to where I feel pretty happy with the results.

If I ever get a digital camera I'll try to take pictures of the process.

If I can clear any of this up, I'll sure try!!!! :)

Thanks again Steve...that was a huge compliment.

Nick
 
Thanks for the inside track Nick! A couple of clarification questions tho.

With the slack 120 belt is seems to me you can gouge when the edge of the belt digs into a curve. (Maybe I'm not describing the question right.) Does the belt edge really slide right around that inside curve without biting?

Actually I have the same kinda question on the micarta block. Does the block have rounded edges so as not to dig into the curve?

I can't wait to build a blank and try this out!!


Say, while I have you 'on the line', how about one more question?

How in the world do you line up the hole in the tang with the hole in the wood? Do you drill wood-steel-wood after the handle is fitted? That might cause me problems, because I have to send the blades out for heat treat so I can't leave the tangs soft.

Thanks again for sharing.

Steve
 
But have you put it to the crucial test. When ya flang it at the ol stump ouit in the yard do it stick in?

Guess I am gonna have to come down and get another lesson or two from ya buddy ---
 
Nick,

What about the treatment for the hamon?

Thanks bud',

JD
 
Hi Guys-

I certainly hope other makers jump in here too, as I know there are a lot of different ways to do this stuff. And probably better than how I do it too!

You're right Steve, a 120x belt will gouge the heck out of your handle, IF you don't really ease it into that transition. If you get it to gently flow up into the transition it will do a beautiful job in helping to smooth it out. I used to avoid that slack belt until I had it to where a 320x or 400x was the first grit used...practice has helped to be more comfortable with going so low as 120x.

The micarta block doesn't need to be rounded off, what you need to do is sand with it at an angle, so that part of the block is always in contact with the wood, and the other part is always in contact with the metal. So if you had a centerline drawn down the length of the blade (side view) you would sand with the block at a 45 degree angle to that line.

The tang hole is a tricky one. With all of my forged blades I leave the tang at a spring temper, and it's easy to drill that hole after the handle is all assembled. In fact I made a clamp that holds the handle material tight against the guard, and then I drill that hole in the drill press. It allows me to use a pin with only about 0.001-0.002" clearance...and it will hold the whole handle together. Then the epoxy is really just a sealant. Make sense?

With a stainless blade, you have a couple options that I know of. Repeat, these are what I know...please jump in with other methods fellas!

One is to take the blade very close to finished before heat-treat and fit your guard, spacers, and handle material (including drilling that hole). Then just take it all apart and send it in.

The other is to drill it before heat-treat, and then after you get everything fitted (post heat-treat)...pull it all apart and take a pair of dial calipers and check the distance from the guard to the hole (with the inside guage). Transfer that distance onto the wood with the outside calipers. Find your centerline and drill the hole. It's really easy to make up for a little poor measuring by drilling the hole small. Then you can chuck up a reamer at the size of your pin and run the handle block (assembled with knife) up onto the reamer by hand. This is VERY DANGEROUS, but if you are careful and run the reamer very slow it's quite easy to do.

The clay was just the satanite you gave me Joss. I put a wash over the whole blade and then did the criss-cross lines and a 1/8" thick coating over the spine. The water quench will freeze your line a little more accurately to the clay, but I just wanted to see how dramatic of a line I could get in oil.

Thanks guys :)
Nick
 
Hey Nick,

Thanks - I actually meant, how did you polish & etch the hamon to get so much details? Anything special?

Thanks,

JD
 
Is that what mine's gonna look like???
Awed... once again...
Damn - I almost can't wait!:(
But then... "Anti-ci-pa-a-shun..." or... "good things come to those who wait?" And like I said in my emails... it's the learnin' about what you're doing to that piece of steel for me that means as much as the actual finished piece!

Keep Hammerin'!
:cool:
 
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