Soul of a knife?

[Will52100]

I don't know if it's just the allergies, or I'm haveing bad luck, or getting all mysticl..., but ever have one of those knives?

Just got done putting second handle and third gaurd on a knife, after reprofileing the point. Seems this one was insistant on how it wanted to come out, no matter how I tried to change her. First tried a bronze gaurd, could not solder it for the life of me(have soldered bronze from the same block befor, no problem) Then a nickle silver gaurd soldered perfectly, and decided to use a nice piece of stabilized box elder crotch, but on shapeing I ground to much of the wood away at the gaurd, didn't get into the glue channel or tang, but handle was 'off', too small. So I knocked the wood off, and since the gaurd was too small on the underside, knocked it off too.

Well, while fitting the new gaurd I managed to chip out a dime sized section of the edge. I normaly seat the gaurd by driveing in on with a spilt pice of wood and a hammer, driving the blade into a block of hard wood. This time I did it into my bench, and cut a nail in two. So off to the grinder I went to slightly shorten and reprofile the front of the blade. After all this I decided on goat and buffalo horn handle, and everything seems to have gone right. Will know tomorrow when I profile the handle and hopfully finish it.

If it dosn't work this time the blade is getting a bend test in the vise! I would probly have already destoryed the knife, but there's something about it,...

 

[Bruce Evans]

Sounds like you are having my kind of luck lately..Those are the ones that you will always remeber making.
Hope all goes well tomorrow.
Bruce

 

[Raymond Richard]

Will, I've done that. Bruce was telling a day or two ago that certain bronzes just don't solder, aluminum bronze is close to impossible to solder. This is where JB Weld comes in handy. As for goofing things up, when I just did sub tangs it happened more than once. With the threw tang and nutt on the end that don't happen to me anymore. I can mark what I need to take off, remove the handle, shape it and put it back on and see if more needs to come off. It has saved me alot of headaches going with the threw tang. My main problem now is just remembering that I need to epoxy the handles on. The last three knives I've made are just held together with the nut and thats it.

 

[DaQo'tah Forge]

Man!,,,its like you were out in my shop watching me mess up a knife..

I was going to seat the brass guard onto the last part of the tang, then solder it in place. I got it ready, took the hammer and a bit of wood and banged the guard right into place,,,got a really good fit,,"Oh that looks knice",,then I got out the torch and the Silver solder and did a great job,,,"So cool my best ever!"

Then I took the knife out of the vice, and noticed that when I was banging the guard onto the tang so hard, that the very sharp point of the blade must have been sitting on top of that steel screw thingy of the vice, for the blade was bent in 2 different direction,,,bent and warped,,,well byond my abilities right now to fix...

whats worse is that this is the 2nd time I have done this to a knife,,,I thought I had learned,,,Seems I had not...

I tossed it,,,

 

[Jose Reyes]

DaQo'tah,

I don't think you need to pound the guard in place with that much force. Once you have it in place you can hammer it on the sides and that should stick it in place so you can solder it on.

When you solder the guard in place are you doing it with the blade down? When I've seen Ed Fowler doing it it's been blade up and soldered from underneath. That should reduce the chance of the solder dripping past the guard onto the blade.

Now that Ed's name is in the thread maybe he'll see it and be able to offer a few tips.

-Jose

 

[flava]

Originally posted by Will52100
If it dosn't work this time the blade is getting a bend test in the vise! I would probly have already destoryed the knife, but there's something about it,...

Don't give up. If it doesn't work have it exorcised and try again.