Steps in collaboration with Ray Archer

scottickes

scottickes

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Oct 27, 2005
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I'm working on a collaboration skinning knife with Ray Archer of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. I met Ray about 6 years ago while I was traveling and visited his shop. At the time I was very inexperienced ( and still am) at knifemaking. Ray was very kind to me and we had an afternoon long discussion on knifemaking. Before I left, Ray gave me a skinner blank that he had been working on. It's made of 440C. He had done all of the profiling, grinding and heat treating on the knife. Ray kind of likes my handle styles and wanted me to finish this one out. It sat in my shop for the last 6 years, because I wanted to be confident in my ability to complete it with "fit and finish" up to the standards that I considered good enough for one of Ray's knives. Ray had predrilled three holes for the handle slab pins.

After staring at the knife for all these years, I decided on using a different layout for the handle pins. So I redrilled it for mosaics. Then I didn't like that and redrilled it again for 20 small brass pins. You'll see all of the holes in the blank in the pictures attached. The extra holes will take out weight and make the knife have better balance, so I wasn't worried too much about swiss cheesing the handle. I might even drill a few more holes to take out even more weight. I'm going to attempt to finish this knife in time to present it to Ray at the Oregon Show in Eugene this coming weekend. We'll be putting our logos on the knife at the show.

The first pictures will be of the jewelling that has been put on one side of the blade. I'll be jewelling the other side tonight, and starting on the bolsters. I'll be using brass bolsters with countersunk brass pins. The tops will be filled with my classic black epoxy fill to make the pin holes stand out against the brass. I may or may not jewel the bolsters (haven't decided yet). I'm using tulip wood for the handle. I hope you enjoy this little tutorial on how I finish out a knife.

I'll be adding more pictures as I go along, including pictures of the work being done. I've been privileged to enjoy the tutorials of others on here. I figured it was time I paid you all back. Enjoy1

Scott (Ickie) Ickes
 
After finishing the jeweling on one side of the blade, I tape off that side to protect it before jeweling the other side.
 
Since I'm jeweling the entire blade face and not just the flats, I need a tapered shim to level the surface of the blade with the hardwood dowel that will be used to add the jeweling. Here are some pictures of my setup.
 
I use valve grinding compound on a hardwood dowel. Because the surface on this blade is difficult to get completely flat and parallel to the end of the dowel, I let the end of it mushroom by working it with the valve grinding compound on some mild steel. This lets the end flex slightly when I jewel the blade, because the wood fibres are not as solid as it is when freshly cut. This allows the dowel to conform to any curves in the blade surface.

Valve grinding compound can be picked up at any auto parts store.
 
I usually begin jeweling at the blade edge, overlapping each swirl by about one half. I work down to the tip, then start at the ricasso and work down to the tip again. I overlap each row by about one half also. This doesn't require much pressure against the blade to accomplish the jeweling. I let the dowel and the valve grinding compound do the work. I keep going until the entire blade face and ricasso are covered.
 
Now I can begin the handle work. I use the following steps:
1. First I attach a file guard to the knife to assure that the bolsters and all
subsequent handle parts will be perfectly aligned.
2. On this knife I'm using brass and tulipwood. I lay a piece of brass of the
proper width and thickness against the file guard. I keep brass in a variety of sizes (both width
and thickness) so that I have the proper thickness for the knife in
process. With a variety of widths available to me, I can use the already
parallel sides of the brass to assure that everything is square. This way
I need not worry about the surface that is up against the file guard, or
the surface that is going to be against the tulipwood.
a. I lay the brass bar against the file guard and trace it with a pencil to
have a cutting and cleanup line to work with on my bandsaw and
sanding stations.
3. I carefully cut it on my bandsaw, close to the lines.
4. I then refine the size and shape on my 1X42 bandsaw for the flats.
5. I then sand the curved portions on my drill press. I take the small
drumsanding attachment from my dremel and chuck it in the drill press.
a. I've found that the drill press needs to be on the highest speed for
this operation to work. A dremel runs as fast as 30,000 RPM, and a
drill is down in the 500 to 3000 RPM range. I make sure I have a
good light source so that I don't drum sand it too small. You can
take material off, but you can't put it back on.
6. I check the fit up of the bolster often to make sure of a close size fit, to
minimize the amount of finish work needed later.
 
I then rough up the side of the bolster that will be against the knife tang with 40 grit sandpaper. This helps the epoxy adhere better. I used to have trouble with the epoxy not holding during the drilling process and also coming loose during the pinning process. Ever since I've started drilling larger holes in the tang to take weight out, I've had the added benefit of the epoxy not letting loose during these parts of the process. Epoxy is susceptible to shearing forces more than it is when being pulled away. I make sure that I get epoxy down into the holes to help resist any shearing forces.

I also rough up the tang. Before epoxying the bolsters or any handle materials on, I clean all surfaces that will receive epoxy with acetone to clean all oils and residues off of the surfaces.
 
Now that the epoxy has set, I then work at preparing it for drilling and then epoxying the opposite side bolster on. I usually have epoxy sticking out of the large holes on the tang where I want to epoxy the other bolster. I clean it off with a scraper and then mount the knife in my drill press vice. I make sure that the bolster has a wooden support under it. If it isn't supported, the pressure of the drilling might weaken the epoxy bond or even break it loose. I then drill through the small (1/16") pin holes in the tang. I drill those all the way through the epoxied bolster, using the tang as a layout guide. I also drill with larger drills slightly down into the larger holes to provide a place for the epoxy on the next bolster to get a good grip. I also use a good drilling lubricant when drilling any metal. I go slow and let the drill do the work. I make sure my drills are sharp. If they aren't sharp, I sharpen them or use a new one. There's no fun in breaking a drill bit off in your work.
 
Now that I have one bolster epoxied and drilled, I cut and shape the opposite bolster. I rough it up as before and epoxy it on. I drill it in the same fashion as the first bolster, drilling through the pins holes in the first bolster as a template. The pins in the brass will be countersunk and back filled with black epoxy. This allows the pin work in the brass to stand out. I cut pins that are shorter than the width of the two bolsters and epoxy them in and fill the countersunk portion of the holes up at the same time with epoxy.
 
Now I work my way down the handle in the same fashion. Notice that I keep the file guide on the blade throughout the handling process. I've found that it protects the front of the bolster during the process, from things like little nicks and dents. It also keeps me from marring the front up in the drill press vice, while giving me something to clamp onto.

At this current time, I have the front bolsters on and pinned. The tulipwood is on and pinned. One of the back bolsters is on and drilled and the other is epoxied and curing. I should be able to get it drilled and pinned tonight. I'll begin the final shaping tonight or tomorrow. I'll have more pictures as I go forward.

This knife will be done by tomorrow night, since I'm taking it to the Eugene Knife show on April 14th so that Ray Archer and myself can put our makers logos on it. If you are going to the show this weekend, please stop by and see it and give me your feedback. I am always open to suggestions and willing to learn.
 
I dunno about anyone else but I learned some things from this.

That knife is shaping up nicely. I have some blades that Tim Wright gave me, sitting in a cigar box, just waiting patiently like yours did, until the time/inspiration/nerve come together.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Syn
 
scottickes said:
Did I make the thread any more interesting than it had started out as?;)
Click to expand...

I was bored to tears through out the whole thing! :p Just kidding man! Thanks for posting this, as it was quite informative. It's great seeing how other makers do things, as well as have a nicely worded explaination of what is going on. I can't wait to see the finished product! -Matt-
 
synthesist said:
I dunno about anyone else but I learned some things from this.

That knife is shaping up nicely. I have some blades that Tim Wright gave me, sitting in a cigar box, just waiting patiently like yours did, until the time/inspiration/nerve come together.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Syn
Click to expand...
Thanks syn..

I'm hoping to learn from this also. Maybe my reason for creating this thread was a little selfish. I'd love to hear how others perform some of the tasks differently than me. Easier ways to do something would be helpful, or ways that improve the fit and finish would definitely help, even if it's not as easy.
 
I epoxied the last bolster on last night and let it cure overnight. It's now ready for shaping of the handle. All of the pin holes in the bolsters are filled and will be sanded flat, leaving behind little black dots in the bolsters.
 
I always clean up the flats of the handle and bolsters first. This gives me a flat surface when I go to the drill press to use my drum sanders to clean up the sides of the handle and tang.
 
Ok...Now I find a mistake! When cleaning up the side of the tulipwood before epoxying it on, I must have removed more material from one slab than the other. I never noticed this until things were being cleaned up. Notice how the tulipwood slabe when viewed from the bottom side of the tang don't line up. This is the second time I've done this. The other time was about 8 or 9 years ago. This is what happens when we get careless and don't check fit often enough.

When I cut my scales, I first cut them on a miter saw to set the length. This means that they will line up. I then take them to my table saw and set the width of the scales with my fence and rip them to width, creating two identical slabs that I can flip to create book matched sides. So far so good. My problem was that I forgot to belt sand the miter cuts before the table saw operation to get the ends perfect. So I had to do it after the table saw operation, which isn't a problem, but means that I have to be very careful to keep the two scales identical. The mistake does not have any bearing on the performance of the knife, but it's not professional and must be fixed.

Obviously, I didn't do a final check after cleaning them up. I didn't find the mistake until I was drum sanding. I'll be drilling the pins out of the back bolsters and removing one of them. That way I can hand file the tulipwood to match, the way it should. I'll have to then cut and shape a new bolster, since the pin holes will no longer line up in the one I removed.

I'll do this after the show on Saturday. I think I'll finish it out as is and repair it later. Attention to detail is so important. I just created a lot of unnecessary work, which means it's a good thing I don't have to really on knifemaking to eat. I'll post more pictures tonight, including the temporarily finished knife and sheath.
 
is that blanket/sheet up in the first few pictures a blanket or is it a sheet of chainmaile?

cool looking knife, cant wait to see hot it finnishes out

good work on both of ya'lls parts
-matt
 
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