Quillon Dagger WIP

Your shop looks like mine would if I had a new concrete floor and three times the square footage I currently have!!!
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Having a nice shop is great, but it's not the shop that creates the knife. I've seen a lot of incredible pieces come out of very small shops with limited equipment. I really respect the abilities of those makers.

That is some very serious commitment to mill all the ladder grooves!
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It took about six hours to cut all of the grooves for the pattern. There were 86 in total. This could have been done quicker with ladder dies, but I don't have any...... But, gang milling; now that's something to consider!!

It's got to be more difficult to do each step in front of a camera timer?
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Taking the photos in the shop isn't much trouble. I have a tripod in the shop and use the timer to trip the shutter. I take all of the photos using ambient light. You have to be careful not to have too much motion going on, or the shot is blurred. Sometimes, ten seconds isn't very long. I've got to figure out how to start the timer, walk to the bench, pick up the tongs, open the kiln door, grab the steel and get it to the quench tank in less than ten seconds. Looks like it takes me about twelve.
The time consuming part of doing a WIP is getting the photos edited and uploaded to the internet, before posting them to a thread. I number the photos and write numbered captions for them in a Word document. Then, I can do a copy and paste into the thread.
 
Steve,

Thank you for taking the time to do this. I am learning a lot from the wip pictures.

Gus
 
I cant say anything that hasnt already been said Steve, just thanks for the pic's.
Gordon
 
Great wip Steve and a fantastic shop, I've got to get over your way and see it in person, I can't get over how clean it is, most of the time I can't even find my bench. :D

Bill
 
Thanks again to all for the comments!!

The end of the tang is split and the end of a bolt is shaped into a tenon to fit into the split in the tang. The two parts are then MIG welded together. The connection also receives a cross pin, for security.

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The blade is clamped to a bar of steel that can be held by the magnetic chuck on the surface grinder. The tang is ground a few thousands thinner than what will be the finished thickness of the tang area where the guard will fit. About 3/16" is left below the riccasso to be hand fitted to the guard later.

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The surface ground tang.

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I'll be grinding the bevels on the blade today. Should be able to post photos of that process tomorrow.
 
sculver said:
The damascus bar is heat treated. It is placed in an electric oven at 1550 degrees F to soak for 10 minutes; then quenched in oil. This photo was to be of me quenching the bar of damascus. Unfortunately, the timer on the camera was faster than me. After quenching, the bar will be returned to the oven at 500 degrees F to draw the temper.
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I can't help but be curious, are you doing this just as a spheroidize anneal???
 
I can't help but be curious, are you doing this just as a spheroidize anneal???
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Stephen,

This is actually the heat treatment of the blade steel. When making a dagger, I heat treat the blade steel before cutting out and grinding the blade. Heat-treating the steel before shaping the blade reduces the chance of warpage, vs. heat-treating the blade after grinding. Too, grinding the blade bevels on hardened steel seems easier to me.

I basically harden this damascus steel mix as O-1. It receives a 10 minute soak at temperature because of the alloys in the O-1. This steel mix doesn't get as hard as straight O-1; I'm sure because of carbon migration. I prefer for dagger blades to have a spring temper. I have chosen 500 degrees for tempering, from testing on this mix of steels.
 
sculver said:
Stephen,

This is actually the heat treatment of the blade steel. When making a dagger, I heat treat the blade steel before cutting out and grinding the blade. Heat-treating the steel before shaping the blade reduces the chance of warpage, vs. heat-treating the blade after grinding. Too, grinding the blade bevels on hardened steel seems easier to me.

I basically harden this damascus steel mix as O-1. It receives a 10 minute soak at temperature because of the alloys in the O-1. This steel mix doesn't get as hard as straight O-1; I'm sure because of carbon migration. I prefer for dagger blades to have a spring temper. I have chosen 500 degrees for tempering, from testing on this mix of steels.
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ahh, ok,

I thought 500 was really low for a anneal but I saw the picture of you cutting it on the bandsaw after the Ht so I just wasn't sure.
 
I was kind'a curious about that also. I thought you were hardening it for the reasons you stated, but didn't think one of those bandsaws would cut that steel in its hardened state.
 
I was kind'a curious about that also. I thought you were hardening it for the reasons you stated, but didn't think one of those bandsaws would cut that steel in its hardened state.
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I didn't say that it was easy. ;) It takes a sharp, high quality band saw blade and some patience. But, it can be done. Remember, the steel is at a spring temper; not as hard as the edge on a single edge blade.
 
A height gauge is used to scribe two lines for grinding the edges. The lines are placed on each edge, .020" apart.

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The two scribed lines.

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The edges of the blade are ground at about a 45 degree angle down to the scribed lines. This sets the location of the edges for the rough grinding.

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Rough grinding the blade.

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One edge of the blade rough ground.

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The grind at the tip of the blade. The first blade bevel is ground across the center line, following the outside curve of the edge. When grinding the second bevel, the center line is brought back to the middle of the blade. This thins the tip of the blade, to create an acute point.

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One side of the rough ground blade.

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The blade is further ground on the disc sander to level the coarse grit belt marks and to bring the grinds to the center line of the blade.

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The hand sanding process begins on a piece of sandpaper glued to a flat surface. This sharpens the centerline and ensures that the blade bevels are perfectly flat.

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You experts make it look so-so easy in these WIPs.
The rest of us would have the blade ruined in about 10 seconds.
 
Simply wonderful. Thank you for posting your WIP. It is always enjoyable to see another person's methods of creation.
 
^yeah, me too!

It's actually quite amazing to watch two fairly different processes through two concurrent WIPs that are both quality when it comes to photos and the details, (in case anyone was wondering, it is purely coincidence).

I don't think there's ever been as much knife making expertise displayed at one time in this forum, it's truly awesome to bear witness to it all:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Thank you Steve for taking the time to share your knowledge so freely!
 
I love these WIPs too! What is amazing to me is how fast these guys like Steve, Kyle, Bruce actually make a knife start-to-finish. What it comes down to is that they are (I believe) all full time makers who possess great work ethics and stick-to-it-iveness. Everybody asks me, "How long did it take you to make this knife?" Well, these guys probably know. Me? I haven't got a clue.

These guys go out to the shop, put in their 8+ hour day, then do it again tomorrow. Keep up the great work!

Cheers,

TV


Terry Vandeventer
ABS MS
 
Great WIP thread Mr. Culver! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished dagger.

Thanks for showing us how you do it.
 
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