Some random action shots (just 'cuz)

[J. Neilson]

That rots about missing the flight/show Nick. I hope everyone is ok.
Our best.

 

[Keith_H]

...Oh, and Keith H... You're welcome. I started by carving knives out of wood at age 12. I walked by the magazine rack at the local grocery store and saw Blade and KI. I thought, "I could make those!!!"

I had my first knife done, out of a file, by 14. It just went from there. I bought my Burr King, a Baldor buffer, and Jet 4X6 bandsaw at age 18. In the 12 years since then, I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on tools, supplies, and travel. But you know what... when I was 23 and saw one of MY knives in the pages of one of those mags for the first time... It was ALL WORTH IT.

Keith... just to let ya know, it's a tough thing to be in your twenties and try to explain to girls you make knives. I was a backstreet boy looking personal trainer and I never had much trouble approaching girls... get to the point of telling them I made knives and then things totally changed. But now that I'm 30 and not such a hot piece of ass, it's apparently more understandable!!! LOL

I mean 26. Yea... 26

Thanks, Nick! It will be more fun when I get my grinder built. Until then, Its hours of filing for me!

 

[Danbo]

The FASTEST I have ever made a knife was 6.5 hours. I had a piece of damascus from another maker (customer provided it). I forged/ground/heat treated the blade, fit a stainless guard, a piece of stag, and got it all shaped/hand sanded/buffed out in 6.5 hours. I have never done one that fast before or since.

And, I've got a good feeling I know where this particular knife is.

 

[NickWheeler]

I've got a bunch more photos but not too much time tonight, so I'm not sure how many of them I'll get resized, uploaded, and posted, but here are some pictures to balance out my verbosity


Filing the shoulders for the handle material to mate up to.

Drilling hole for handle. The green tape makes it easy to see my lay-out of the tang on the block. I found THE BEST thing for drilling these is to buy those 12" bits and cut them down to about 6" It gives you plenty of bit for your chuck or collet, and gives you enough length to drill through handles. This is a through hole, but has to be drilled in 3 steps since the tang is curved. (note tape depth stop)

I'm all about fit, and so I make the tang holes as precise as I can. This pic is using a broach I made to turn that round 1/4" hole into a rectangular one.

Initial fit of block to knife.

Here's some twist damascus that's been turned as a start for my pommel nut. I drilled a hole in the end of the blackwood with a center-cutting endmill 3/8" diameter. That gives me a flat-bottomed counter-sunk hole for this pommel nut material to fit down into. It has been drilled/tapped for 10-32 threads.

Initial fit of blackwood with pommel nut material screwed onto tang.

Sanding face of Blackwood FLAT on granite plate with garnet paper. The garnet paper isn't so important with Blackwood, but for woods like maple you want to use it so as not to leave black coloring in the wood like s/c will. The face was already pretty flat from the disc sander before I even started drilling it, but you want it to be dead-nuts flat for final fit up.

 

[jdm61]

Hey Nick........question of the week. What the hell do you cut those hard blue bastard 12 inch drill bits with? lol

 

[NickWheeler]

A cut-off wheel in the dremel will cut a 1/4" bit in about 30 seconds

 

[RogerP]

I've seen some great in-progress threads over the years, but this one is tops. Most enjoyable to watch, read and learn. :thumbup:

Roger

 

[raythebigfoot]

Another question: how do you drill a three step hole? I can see a two step of course, but can't figure out the third step. Thanks!

 

[severtecher]

Just a big thanks Nick for the extra time you took to educate folks on how it's done. Look forward to more pics. kevin

 

[Wulf]

Too cool Nick. You've got great lighting in that shop - makes for good photos too!

I can't believe I didn't even have to pay admission to view this....

 

[fitzo]

Hey, Nick, how about a foto of that broach again so I can see just how the teeth are cut? Time to make a couple of those. Thanks, my friend.

 

[Keithcellini]

For he's a jolly good fellow, For he's a jolly good fellow .... For he's a jolly good fe-ellow!!
Which nobody can deny............

Thanks Nick, I do have a question though... How do you find the time to work a full time job, go to the gym, make awesome knives and still talk to us? I am lucky to have enough time to play on the net!

 

[scottickes]

Another question: how do you drill a three step hole? I can see a two step of course, but can't figure out the third step. Thanks!

I was thinking the same thing. This will be something very interesting to learn. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do that.

 

[NickWheeler]

Three step hole... maybe semantics... maybe I just used the wrong terminology... I just meant drill once from the top, then move the block and drill down from the top at another angle... flip it over and drill from the bottom side. 1,2,3 lol

Here's one of my broaches Mr. Fitzgerald

 

[deker]

Thanks Nick, I do have a question though... How do you find the time to work a full time job, go to the gym, make awesome knives and still talk to us? I am lucky to have enough time to play on the net!

If I get a decent answer to this question out of this thread, that will be worth even more than the construction tips! I suspect a bit of the answer lies in the fact that Nick made his last post after 2am....

Thanks for the thread Nick, it's great to be able to see how other folks work even when you can't visit their shops to do so.

-d

 

[David Wesner]

Hi Nick, First, thanks for taking the time to show us the steps involved in putting this all together. I'll bet you have half as much time envolved in posting to this thread as you have time spent making the knife. Thanks.

My question is in reference to page 19, post #184, the pic titled "Initial fit of blackwood with pommel nut material screwed onto tang"

The chalk line I think, shows the shape of the tang and theoretical hole location. Did the finished hole end up curved like the chalk line or is it in reality a little more straight, with some extra space (or room) so that you're able to slide the curved tang through the blackwood handle without a fight ? And if the hole is indeed curved to match the tang shape, do you find it important to make the curve of the tang symmetrical so that it slides through easily ?

I guess to make a really long question a little bit longer.... , just how close do you match the shape of the hole to the shape of the tang ? I see that some guys make the hole rather large in comparison to the tang and rely on epoxy to fill the extra space. What do you find works best for you ?

Really great little broach, I'm making one of them for myself

And finally...... After watching and learning from you over the last few years, the only thing I've found that surpassed your craftsmanship and skill as a Bladesmith has been the humble and unselfish manner in which you carry it out.

Thanks again for sharing Nick :thumbup: :thumbup: God I love this place

 

[fitzo]

Nick, thank you for taking the fotos of the broach! Perfecto, my friend; I see exactly what I needed.

 

[NickWheeler]

I had a big post written out and my pc kicked me offline, damn it!

Oh well


I'll add a bunch more pics later... still gotta resize them and upload, blah blah blah



Thanks for all the kind words!

As per time, sometimes you just gotta sacrifice something. It's usually stuff like cardio or sleep, but sometimes it's the shop. Family always comes first....

David, THANKS! The tang hole is curved, to match the tang, but is wider in the middle than the tang is. It wouldn't slip through otherwise. It's as close to the tang dimensions as possible on each end. This makes it much more time intense and difficult to fit, but I think it's worth it in the end.

I usually "bed" the tang with epoxy anyway, just for an even better fit-up during assembly work.

The broaches REALLY make fitting the tang easier. Here's another thing that will make your knifemaking life easier.

Get yourself a BIG file. This one WAS a 14" Simmons. You need a big one to get the really aggressive teeth, and for the rigidity of it. Grind it down. You'll ruin a new 50X belt, but the $$$ for the belt and "ruining" the file will leave you with a tool WELL WORTH THE COST.

I ground it down to a little over 3/16" thick and someting like 5/16"-3/8" wide

This thing works like magic to clean up the hole after the broach work.

The thing about knifemaking... when I really started getting stuff to turn out more like I wanted... is when I realized that you never have to look for stuff on the shelf at the store that will work as is. Whether it's something as simple as modifying a file, or drilling/tapping/grinding on stuff like your $2500 grinder.... You can make stuff that works BETTER FOR YOU.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Just another big thank you for sharing all this with us Nick. Much appreciated.

Pad

 

[fitzo]

In the absence of the broaches, this is what I've used, Nick.