Simple edge dirk/dagger WIP

[PDQ knives]

Hello everyone.
A few months ago i saw the Erin Burke's Dirk WIP and couldn't take off from my mind that design, so i decide to start a new thread with my work in progress of that model.
But , there is a twist. Due that i'm making integral knives, i believe that it will be great to make it that way.
I start with a round piece of 52100.

Then, i start to forgin it.

The finished forge

Here is with a bolo/camp knife that i forged the same day.

The next thing i always do before moving to the belt grinder is to remove the scales with the angle grinder, because it is really harmful for the belts.

Ok. That's what i got until now.
I'm sorry about the pictures, there are some taken with the camera and some with mi phone, but all of them in terribles light conditions.
I hope you enjoy this.
Best regards.

 

[Mongo]

Looking forward to the progression of this....

 

[Mongo]

Is it done yet? Is it done yet?

 

[The Zieg]

Hello everyone.
A few months ago i saw the Erin Burke's Dirk WIP and couldn't take off from my mind that design, so i decide to start a new thread with my work in progress of that model.
But , there is a twist. Due that i'm making integral knives, i believe that it will be great to make it that way.
I start with a round piece of 52100.

Then, i start to forgin it.

The finished forge

Here is with a bolo/camp knife that i forged the same day.

The next thing i always do before moving to the belt grinder is to remove the scales with the angle grinder, because it is really harmful for the belts.

Ok. That's what i got until now.
I'm sorry about the pictures, there are some taken with the camera and some with mi phone, but all of them in terribles light conditions.
I hope you enjoy this.
Best regards.

Belduque! Muy bien!

Zieg

 

[PDQ knives]

Good morning and thanks for the comments.
Yesterday I made a some progress in the knife. Due that the pics are even worst, i put some filters on them, at least to make them look prettier.
First, i shaped the blade in the belt sander. It is a rough sanding, you will see some point where the belt didn't touch the blade, but i didn't want to remove more material before heat treating. The thing is that i get a little short in the forged shape, so there was not too much excess material.

I start with the groove. It is the first time that i do it, so it gave me some troubles.

I finished with the files.

Here is the groove sanded with #120

To the drill press. Due the tang is tapered, i use a wedge to make the holes perpendicular. I made the holes for the pins and a few holes for to take away some extra weight.

Here is the blade ready for the heat treatment.

I believe that i will be doing heat treat tomorrow, because today is a hot summer day.
Best regards.

 

[john april]

looking good !

 

[Jason Volkert]

Nice!!!! cant wait to see more

 

[PDQ knives]

Hi everyone.
Last friday made the heat treat. There's not much to see, but i let you some pictures.
Here is the blade after tempering.

The hardness is between 60 and 62 HRc after the heat treatment (hardening and two tempering cycles).

And here a picture of myself in the belt grinder, just because.

The blade is already cleaned up from heat treat and ready for hand sanding.
Best regards.

 

[PDQ knives]

Hello everyone.
I leave you a bunch of pictures of the hand sanding. Not much interesting, but it is one step closer to finish. By the way, i hate this part...
Here is after #220 grit

Before star with #400 grit, i engrave my logo. I use an stencil, salt water and a DC power source.

Looks ugly after engraving. That's why i do this before a finer hand sanding.

30° #400 and WD40 hand sanded

And here is finished with a #600 and WD40. For finishing i use a plate of brass with rubber.

After finishing i accidentally stabbed the upper part of my thumb trying to take a good picture... Didn't take a picture of that.
Ok, that's all for now. I hope make some progress soon.
Best regards.

 

[Grouser1741]

Can anyone make a knife without at least one cut? Lol love the work-in-progress, you do excellent work. Thanks for sharing.
ps,,, can you point to a link about how you did your logo, or give me a quick tutorial, I want to do that. Thanks

 

[PDQ knives]

Thank you!
That's true, although it is just the second time i cut or stab myself ever with one of mi knives.
I'm sorry, i don't understand your question. Do you wanna know how i had design my logo, how i made the stencil, or how i engrave it on the blade?
Best regards.

 

[The Zieg]

Tell all!

Thank you!
That's true, although it is just the second time i cut or stab myself ever with one of mi knives.
I'm sorry, i don't understand your question. Do you wanna know how i had design my logo, how i made the stencil, or how i engrave it on the blade?
Best regards.

Zieg

 

[Erin Burke]

Very cool. Can't wait to see how this turns out.
Erin

 

[PDQ knives]

Ok, let's see...

I was always attracted for the logo design so, when i had the need of doing one for myself i didn't doubt it not even for a while.
Staring the initials of my name, i could see that the lowercase letters was the same thing in different orientation, i knew i could put them in different combinations and make something clever (at least by my judgement).
I designed a bunch of different logos. The thing is, i wanted to reflex some of what i do on it. The other important thing was to not make an extremely thin logo because the stencil maker couldn't cut that. I like to believe that looks like a double edge axe.

I am happy enough with this logo, although beleive that in any time i will change it for another, time will tell.
Once i had designed my logo, i send it to a friend that make me the stencils in vinyl paper?? (I don't know if that is the right way to call it).
The method to engrave that i use is by electrolysis. I put the stencil in the blade, cover the rest of the blade to avoid the salt water projections. The current must pass from the blade to the brass electrode (i use little brass bar), so the positive pole goes to the blade and the negative one to the electrode. i wrape with cotton the tip of the electrode and soake it in the salt water. Then i start to pass it over the stencil for a few secconds. The next step is to remove the stencil, take out the rest of salt water, then i soake a piece of steel wool and clean the logo with it.
Maybe i post a video of that in instagram this evening.
I hope you understand my explanation, it is quite difficult to me to express a complex process like that in english.
Best regards.

 

[The Zieg]

Ok, let's see...

I was always attracted for the logo design so, when i had the need of doing one for myself i didn't doubt it not even for a while.
Staring the initials of my name, i could see that the lowercase letters was the same thing in different orientation, i knew i could put them in different combinations and make something clever (at least by my judgement).
I designed a bunch of different logos. The thing is, i wanted to reflex some of what i do on it. The other important thing was to not make an extremely thin logo because the stencil maker couldn't cut that. I like to believe that looks like a double edge axe.

I am happy enough with this logo, although beleive that in any time i will change it for another, time will tell.
Once i had designed my logo, i send it to a friend that make me the stencils in vinyl paper?? (I don't know if that is the right way to call it).
The method to engrave that i use is by electrolysis. I put the stencil in the blade, cover the rest of the blade to avoid the salt water projections. The current must pass from the blade to the brass electrode (i use little brass bar), so the positive pole goes to the blade and the negative one to the electrode. i wrape with cotton the tip of the electrode and soake it in the salt water. Then i start to pass it over the stencil for a few secconds. The next step is to remove the stencil, take out the rest of salt water, then i soake a piece of steel wool and clean the logo with it.
Maybe i post a video of that in instagram this evening.
I hope you understand my explanation, it is quite difficult to me to express a complex process like that in english.
Best regards.

Well done. The logo does indeed look like a double bit axe as well as a "p" and "q". And you have explained the etching well. Keep this iteration of your makers mark. I like it.

Zieg

 

[PDQ knives]

Good evening everyone!
It's getting hot in Argentina due the summer, so i´m a little lazy with the WIP in these days.
Let´s continue with this.
I chose african blackwood for the handle, and brass pins.
Here i´m cutting the scales with a handsaw.

The scales after cutting

Flattening the scales. I use a piece of sandpaper over a flat surface, nothing too fancy.

I don't have more pictures about it , but i use a file and the same tang of the knife to adjust the scales to it.

i wedge shape the scales with the sander to make the drills perpendicular. Then i use a g-press to grab the scales to the tang (no pictures o that, sorry). Once i make the first two drills, i remove the g-press and put the pines into them. Then, i drill the rest of the holes.

I wanted to use stainless steel pins, but i ran out of those, so i have to use brass pins.

Once the holes drilled, i mark and cut the scales the shape of the tang.

Then i use the grinder to finish to define the shape

Shape defined.

I make a chamfer around them to start sculpting the shape of the scales.

Ok, that is what i got until today.
I hope to make some progress soon.
Best regards.

 

[PDQ knives]

Good morning!
Last wednesday i keep working on the scales. Keep sculpting them with several hand sanding. It was so tricky because i wanted to leave them wider than the tang. So, i´ve had to be very carefully to leave the same widht all around.

Gluing the scales was a really stressful moment to me, because i've had to remove the excess of glue before it dry. I use a two component epoxy glue that start to fix in 10 minutes. The good thing is that it makes like a gum, so is fairly simple to remove in the exact moment. Of course there is no pictures of the process...

I use g-presses, piece of wood and rubber to distribute the pressure uniformly. This pic looks so psychedelic. When you work too much you start to see like that, haha. i leave it to dry all night.

The handle after gluing. it looks like frankenstein so far

Of course, the finish on the scales were ruined...
I've would love to put some rivet pines but, even with some practice, i don't felt ready to do that.
Here a picture cutting the excess material of the pins.

Here filing them...

And here, sanding them...

If i tell you that is the first time i do the scales this way (leaving a gap between the scales and the tang), and i had to re-hand sanding the scales, what could just happened? That`s right, i ruined the perfect santing finish on the tang...
i got angry, of course, because i knew that was extremely difficult to fix. I tried hand sanding but i couldn't reach the corners. So i tried with steel wool, polish paste and linseed oil. After a while rubbing the handle with this rare mix, i get a nice satin finish, not great, but nice.
Here the results.

Today i will start to make the sheath, when it is finished i'll take better pictures of the set.
I hope you like the pictures. I liked the result so far.

Best regards.

 

[Dragons Breath Knives]

NICE!! PM sent

 

[Hengelo_77]

I realy like the knife.
If you want the scales to be wider then the tang, put several layers of masking tape on the tang to give it extra thickness

 

[PDQ knives]

Thanks!
The thing is that the tang gets really thin, i don't know how could i did that.
Regards.