Quillon Dagger WIP

Now thats a knife. Very classy Steve. Really great WIP and what else can you say about the finished knife, just beautiful. Well done all the way around.
Brion
 
Truly stunning. The blued guard is such a great compliment to the ivory and gold - and such tricky materials to work with! I'm in awe...

Thanks for sharing this, it's a great learning experience.
 
Great knife and thanks for the WIP, I know they are very time consuming and require a huge effort.
I noticed in post #138 that you have a bottle next to your HT furnace I'm assuming is co2 for purge? If this is correct could you elaborate , pressure setting?, does this eliminate the need for tool wrap, etc.

Thanks Mark Behnke
 
I noticed in post #138 that you have a bottle next to your HT furnace I'm assuming is co2 for purge? If this is correct could you elaborate , pressure setting?, does this eliminate the need for tool wrap, etc.
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The bottle next to the kiln is argon. And yes, it is for heat treating to prevent scale. Co2 doesn't work for a shielding gas because it has oxygen in it.

I've only been using this set-up for a short time, but it shows promise. Using foil on a piece that has to be quenched in liquid is difficult and I have had mixed results from using the anti-scale compounds. Using a shielding gas just seemed like an easier way to get around the problem of scaling during heat treatment.

The principle of the process is that the argon displaces the oxygen in the kiln and creates an envelope of inert gas around the parts to be heat-treated. Argon is heavier than air and fills the kiln from the bottom up. The kiln should not be air tight, as you cannot push gas into a closed container. But, it needs to be tight around the bottom of the chamber so the argon doesn't leak out the bottom and not fill the kiln.

Paragon Industries sells an argon injection kit that can be installed on just about any kiln. Paragon's "Kiln Guru", Laura Miller, was very helpful and provided me with information about how the inert gas system should work and how to install it on my kiln. Paragon cannot offer you any guarantee that your injection system will work for your heat treating purposes. They will only sell you the parts and provide information about how it SHOULD work. There are simply too many variables with how you install the injection kit, how well your kiln contains the argon and your skill at figuring out how to make the system work for your application.

I can't offer you exact information on flow settings for the regulator, but I can say it typically takes a very low flow rate. The flow rate is determined by the size of the kiln chamber and how well it contains the argon. It's pretty much a trial and error thing to figure out the flow rate that you will need to use on your kiln.

Below is a photo of some 1084 that I hardened in the kiln using argon shielding. The steel was surface ground before heat treatment. It is shown here just a couple of minutes after quenching in oil. The only thing that I did to the steel before photographing it was to scrub it with Scotch-Brite. You can still see the surface grinding texture on it.

5506184841_80768211bf_o.jpg
 
Steve,

I a couple of posts and pictures here you were using and talking about super glue for holding pieces together... for drilling, etc. In the video of your frame handle class you mentioned 150F (if I've got a memory) would cause the glue to release.

I've never used super glue but I know it comes in different viscosities and different qualities. Would you say why and how you use super glues from your experience?

Mike
 
You've probably got the picture by now that I can't make a knife without Super-Glue in my shop. :)

Super-Glue is great for affixing pieces together for drilling alignment pin holes. I also use it to fasten a part that I am working on to a piece of steel or wood to fixture the part for sawing, grinding, sanding or whatever.

As I noted in this thread, I often use paper patterns for shaping parts. I use Super-Glue to affix the paper patterns to the piece. The Super-Glue neatly attaches the pattern and also serves to bind the paper fibers together. The paper will fray a little at the edge where you saw or grind through it. Super-Glue on the paper will help to keep the paper edges sharper, so you get a better view of how close you are working to the lines on the pattern. The paper pattern can be removed from the part by sanding, or soaking in acetone. Super-Glue can soften the toner used to print the pattern, so you have to be careful not to smudge the printed lines while it is wet.

I said in the video that Super-Glue releases around 150 degrees. I don't know if that is the actual temperature, but it is probably close. Super-Glue doesn't have a high tolerance for heat, and so, it is easy to separate parts that are glued with it using a propane torch. Hardened Super-Glue is also very brittle. So, I can often separate parts by just slamming them down on the top of my work-bench, or by giving them a rap with a nylon faced hammer. Or, you can soak the parts in acetone to dissolve the glue.

As Super-Glue doesn't tolerate heat well, you have to be careful when sawing or grinding glued parts so that you don't overheat them and cause the glue to release. When a piece gets too hot to hold with my bare hands, it is time to let it cool down. Sometimes, when I am grinding a part with a paper pattern attached, I get a little too aggressive and the paper starts to come loose along the edge. I just glue it back down again and continue.

I usually buy Super-Glue in the small .07 ounce tubes. The nozzles on the tubes tend to plug up after a few uses and I don't want to waste shop time trying to clear a nozzle so I can use a few drops of glue. I have no real preference for the brand or viscosity of glue. I just buy it off the shelf and usually pick up the standard thin viscosity stuff.
 
sculver said:
You've probably got the picture by now that I can't make a knife without Super-Glue in my shop. :)
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The picture I got was you knew a bunch about super glue uses and how they remove pain/add pleasure to knife-making... =] Thank you for making the time to write about it, Steve.

The super glue use I remember in this thread was gluing pieces together for drilling indexing holes... glue applied at section edges. Are your gluing all the way around the joining points? Is gluing faces together another trick for other reasons/uses?

Mike
 
I've found Gorilla Glue brand makes a fairly large bottle of Super glue which last for quite a while. A bit thicker than others, but the bottle lasts, and lasts (gotta' clean off the tip before putting the cap back on though). I've found that just a couple of tiny dots between a scale and blank will hold it for drilling etc. an then it will just pop apart easily with a little prying.
 
Are your gluing all the way around the joining points? Is gluing faces together another trick for other reasons/uses?
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Sorry for the slow response; been a little hectic around here.

Gluing the parts around the edges is typically done when the pieces are being held in position so that you can't get to the "faces" of them to apply the glue. I don't usually glue all of the way around the edges; but you can. Edge gluing isn't as strong of a connection as gluing them face to face. So, you have to be careful that you don't break them apart as you work on them. Thin Super-Glue can help by penetrating between the parts a little. I will always face glue parts together, if possible.

When you are drilling through a stack of edge glued pieces; sometimes a drilled chip from one of the lower pieces will pry an upper piece loose. It helps to have some way (a clamp) to put downward pressure on the stack while drilling to keep this from happening.

Any time that you use Super-Glue to affix a part to your handle material for drilling, grinding, whatever; you need to be careful not to use too much glue and have to resort to an aggressive method of separating them. Use just a couple of small drops and then be careful not to knock them apart until you are done with the work.

I've found Gorilla Glue brand makes a fairly large bottle of Super glue which last for quite a while.
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The larger bottles of glue are less expensive, but time is money to me. I can't afford to spend very long trying to unplug a tip. So, I don't feel too bad about paying more for small tubes of glue and just throwing one away if the tip plugs. But, the small tubes don't usually plug too badly in the few uses that you get before the tube is empty.
 
Steve I hate to take some more of your time but I was curious about something. I see you using a dial caliper and it seems to be a cheap generic import one. I've been using the same and I always thought that someday I should really invest in a good quality one. But seeing somebody as talented and advanced as you use a cheap one makes me rethink that.
 
I see you using a dial caliper and it seems to be a cheap generic import one.
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I really haven't found that the less expensive calipers are any less accurate than high priced models. Too, I work pretty fast in my shop (i.e. carelessly). I slam things around and sometimes drop tools on the floor. So, if I wreck a cheap set of calipers, I ain't out much.
 
Steve,

The couple of super glue explanations you've given have helped me a lot. You have a serious talent for describing stuff... thank you.

Mike
 
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