-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
**Progress Update!** More of a give back than a giveaway...
- Thread starter esnyx
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2013
- Messages
- 14
Almost too late, I'm in! thanks for the chance
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2013
- Messages
- 914
Congrats to Justin, and thanks for the awesome GAW esnyx.
Michael
Michael
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
- Messages
- 1,119
Justin has selected his materials and criteria!
Apache copper/creme burlap composite scales, with nickel hardware, an easy-open notch, and a rat tail on the bolster. This composite is a personal favorite, the copper mesh was given to me by a friend who works on composites used in military applications, and he sent me the mesh which is used as a conductive material in apache and black hawk helicopters.
Progress pics coming soon!
Apache copper/creme burlap composite scales, with nickel hardware, an easy-open notch, and a rat tail on the bolster. This composite is a personal favorite, the copper mesh was given to me by a friend who works on composites used in military applications, and he sent me the mesh which is used as a conductive material in apache and black hawk helicopters.
Progress pics coming soon!
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2013
- Messages
- 377
Congrats Justin! It sounds like you've chosen a great combination, you will have a truly unique knife!
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 71,200
Congratulations Justin, looking forward to seeing this one. Thanks again for a great giveaway 
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
- Messages
- 1,119
Ok, so after a long Monday, I was finally able to get some workshop time in and make a dent in this knife (not literally). Sorry about the crappy pics, its hard to take quality pics on my phone while I'm working without slowing down too much. So here is a breakdown in my progress so far:
First things first, I needed to trace out my liners, bolsters, and scales out of the nickel and composite, then I cut them out on the bandsaw:
Then I drilled the pin holes in the scales for alignment and precision purposes during the setup process. What you see here is the original scale double-sided taped to both rough cut liners to assure the holes match up properly:
Here are the liners separated from each other:
Here I am using the template I made from the old liner to mark off where I want the bolster to be:
Once I set the bolster to match the template, I clamp it in place, then I use a pencil and I shade the part of the liner that will be directly below the bolster, and the exposed edge of the bolster on the bottom. This does two things, it helps me eyeball where the bolster needs to go, and the pencil lead prevents the solder from sticking to the liner and the bottom edge of the bolster in the next step:
After wiping the liner and bolster with acetone, I put a little flux on the liners and bolsters where I want the solder to stick:
Soldering:
Cooling down:
Here is where I changed up my plan a little bit. I was planing on using a 2 ton epoxy to stick the scales to the liners and not pining them to the liner like I sometimes do on a smaller knife with a bigger bolster, but I decided to go a different route due to the smaller bolster on this larger knife. Since there is so much more surface area to cover than I usually have to work with, I definitely want to make sure that scale is secure, but since I am pinning it, there is no need to use a 2 ton epoxy, super glue works just fine!
Dry fit test to see how the bolsters line up looks good:
Here is where I drill the scale pin holes in the liners based on the old template:
After sanding off any burrs from drilling, and cleaning with acetone, the scales are ready for gluing:
Now I drill the holes in the scales and bolsters:
Dry fit for alignment looks good:
This is where I called it a night. Hopefully I will be able to finish it today and post the second half of the progress pics here this evening. Thanks for looking!!
First things first, I needed to trace out my liners, bolsters, and scales out of the nickel and composite, then I cut them out on the bandsaw:
Then I drilled the pin holes in the scales for alignment and precision purposes during the setup process. What you see here is the original scale double-sided taped to both rough cut liners to assure the holes match up properly:
Here are the liners separated from each other:
Here I am using the template I made from the old liner to mark off where I want the bolster to be:
Once I set the bolster to match the template, I clamp it in place, then I use a pencil and I shade the part of the liner that will be directly below the bolster, and the exposed edge of the bolster on the bottom. This does two things, it helps me eyeball where the bolster needs to go, and the pencil lead prevents the solder from sticking to the liner and the bottom edge of the bolster in the next step:
After wiping the liner and bolster with acetone, I put a little flux on the liners and bolsters where I want the solder to stick:
Soldering:
Cooling down:
Here is where I changed up my plan a little bit. I was planing on using a 2 ton epoxy to stick the scales to the liners and not pining them to the liner like I sometimes do on a smaller knife with a bigger bolster, but I decided to go a different route due to the smaller bolster on this larger knife. Since there is so much more surface area to cover than I usually have to work with, I definitely want to make sure that scale is secure, but since I am pinning it, there is no need to use a 2 ton epoxy, super glue works just fine!
Dry fit test to see how the bolsters line up looks good:
Here is where I drill the scale pin holes in the liners based on the old template:
After sanding off any burrs from drilling, and cleaning with acetone, the scales are ready for gluing:
Now I drill the holes in the scales and bolsters:
Dry fit for alignment looks good:
This is where I called it a night. Hopefully I will be able to finish it today and post the second half of the progress pics here this evening. Thanks for looking!!
black mamba
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2009
- Messages
- 23,602
Thanks for the tutorial!