Stan Wilson Advisor III - a making of thread

GREAT stuff. I'm really enjoying this.

What is turco?

Peter

Turco is a heat treat scale inhibiting compound.
It is actually a orange color but it is showing up yellow in the pics.


I wonder where stan got this. :cool:
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Hello Stan,

Great documentation of an amazing folder!
Your Advisor III is truly a beautiful design!

I still enjoy the Advisor you made for me in 2005...

Thank you ArsMachina for presenting this WIP thread!

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

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Here is a peek at Stan while making of the Advisor in 2005, as
displayed in my book "The Art of Modern Custom Knifemaking" (2006).
Here he is, I suppose, in his "old" workshop...

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

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PART X

Time so start prepping the tooth. Anyone who has worked with mammoth tooth knows it can be a pain sometimes.
I would rather spend more time in preparation in order to minimize issues later.

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First I will use some tape to make a handle to hold the tooth and keep my fingers away from the disc.

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I will sand the front of the tooth completely flat on the disc sander.

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Now that the tooth is flat on the front I have a block of wood that has been milled flat and parallel.

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More super glue.

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I will glue the tooth to the wood face down with super thin glue and clamp it down. I have a steel block to spread out the clamping force.
The block is wrapped in cling wrap, super glue won't stick to it.
I had a set of tooth that was very porous and the glue wicked up through the tooth and glued itself to the block once.

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Glue the second piece down the same way.

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While I'm waiting for the glue to set up completely I will dust a few ten-thousands off the back of the bolsters and each side of the spine

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Once the glue has set on the tooth I can go to the grinder with a 36 grit belt and hog off the back down to about .020 of my final thickness.
Having it glued to the board makes it much easier to do this as I can use a good amount of pressure and not be concerned about breaking it.
It also helps in the next step, surface grinding the back perfectly flat.

To do this I use these really cool but ridiculously expensive hold down clamps. ( with fortunately for me I have on permanent loan)

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They are made to hold non-magnetic items down on a mag chuck, like this block of aluminum.
Place the fingers on the clamps against edge of the part to be held, see how the fingers are raised off the chuck.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XI

Activate the mag chuck and the fingers pull down against the part holding it in place.

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Surface grinding the back of the tooth.

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The back of the tooth is now flat and 5 thousands thinner than the bolsters.

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It's time for even more super glue.
I cut the wood in half and have dyed a sheet of card stock with leather dye and cut a piece the size of the wood the tooth is glued to.
The white paper is release paper, super glue won't stick to it.

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Glue the front of the tooth.

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Clamp it down to the paper.

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If the glue has not completely permeated the paper I will give an additional coat to the back of the paper and let it dry.

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Once the glue is dry I go back to the disc sander and sand it down. The result is a super glue impregnated paper backer about .010 thick.

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Saw the excess wood off on the band saw.

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Sand the remaining wood off and I now have a prepped set of tooth, .005 thicker than the bolsters with a perfectly flat backer.

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To be continued ...
 
Thanks for all who have commented.

Hey David, I wish I had more Ivory like that, do you have any idea how many customers I have who are waiting for something similar, I have not seen anything even close in quite a while.

Peter, as Mike said Turco is a scale inhibiting compound. It's available from K&G, It's not listed in the catalog but they do have it. The key to good results is to not have too heavy a coat and as even as possible. That's why I spray it on with an airbrush, and don't overheat during heat treat.
 
Hey, Stan, and David, I am one of those awaiting the right piece so he can do the same knife as is on his home page. Maybe this will be the year eh Stan? Blade is coming up. Hope to see you there and maybe you will find the right set of scales.

BTW -- this is still a great and unique piece that Stan made for Blade a couple years ago

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PART XII

Time to start fitting the tooth, I have the section that we want to use marked out.

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I trim the tooth roughly to size.

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I will sand in the dovetails with a dedicated set up.
This is a treadmill motor with a 6" disc mounted to it, it is permanently fixed at the angle of the dovetails.

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Grinding in the first dovetail.

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I have the 2 dovetails roughly cut in, I will alternate between the front and back dovetails till they match up to the bolsters and the tooth drops in to the line

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Getting closer to where I want it.

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Both handle scales have been fitted, I try to keep the as closely book-matched as possible.

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This is all I had time for today, I'll clamp the scales together and let the rest overnight.
If they are going to move at all I want them to do it now rather than after they have been mounted.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XIII

I have the scales fitted and clamped down to the liners.

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I will now drill through the liners and into the scales to a depth of .050

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I have the mounting holes spotted into the scales.

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The scales get set up on the mill and the center of the holes is located. This is the beginning of the hidden screw assembly.

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I will use a 1/16 " carbide end mill and cut the mounting slots. On this knife the slots are shaped like an L. I will explain why later.

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The first slots are cut.

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I now switch cutters to a 9/64 end mill and bore a hole at the short leg of the L

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Now it looks like this.

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Switching to an 1/8" carbide 60 degree dovetail cutter I will come down to the depth of the first cut and open it up into a dovetail.

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This is how it ends up, two dovetailed slots that look like a bent keyhole.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XIV

I will now turn the dovetail discs for holding the scales down.

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After it is turned down to size I drill a hole and then thread it for a 0-80 screw.

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I set the cross slide angle to match the dovetail cut and cut the angle. I cut the part off and repeat 3 more times.

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I end up with 4 little discs like this.

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The liners have been counter bored for the screw heads and 4 more screws have been modified as before.
The discs mount to the liners like this.

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To be continued ...
 
Really cool knife and very entertaining WIP.

Years before I started collecting folders, I acquired one of Stan's Advisors in a trade. This one:

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Instead of holding on to the knife, I sold it (for a nice profit;)). To this day I regret that I sold it because in hindsight it would have been one of the greatest folders in my current collection.

One day I will own a Wilson again:cool::thumbup:

Marcel
 
Hi Uli,

nice to meet you here.
I still love the slim folder with horse bone handles you once made for me ;-)

Jochen
 
This is a great thread, but no comparison to seeing his processes first hand. He's freakishly meticulous, extremely systematic with juuust enough crustiness. Calling his work great is an understatement... A true master mind at work.

Uli, no screws makes it that much better, right!

I smell worms? Oh, I see, hi Wormy! Your die is history, if it really is your die...
 
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