Stupid Mistakes

Have you ever laid the blade down that you have been working on for an hr. go inside to grab a cup of coffee, come back and cain't find the dang thing ? 2-3 hrs later you find in the water bucket starting to rust. Have 3 water buckets- don't suppose thats a good thing, with my( lack of) memory.
And it's getting worse . Jerry
 
Jerry, I've done that except I didn't loose it in the water bucket. I just lost it on my workbench!! That always tells me that it's time to clean up. Funny how you always find something you're looking for in the very last place you look.....;)

--nathan
 
I drill wrong sized holes all the time, last time was in a spare tooling arm for my KMG. I am thinking about maybe using some color coding for the drill bits. ;)

Pat
 
I've gotten in the habit of only using two size drills, 1/8" and 1/4". This helps prevent my grabbing the wrong one.

One day I will wear them out or just get tired of sanding down pin/tube material to fit, and buy one size bigger :o Then I will probably get in an order of slightly undersized pins and tubes and be really grumpy again :D
 
James that's what a micrometer's for. :) Not for measuring the thickness of foil on your anti-CIA Viking safety hats :)
 
James, get a "F" size bit for your 1/4" tube, It is 6 thou bigger than 1/4 works good for me--Jerry
 
I just recently glued up a knife with two different liner thickness *slaps forehead*
 
NickWheeler said:
I know what Nathan did, I was just offering some un-asked for advice based on his description of his process.

Based off the way I'm misunderstood around here the last few months though, I think that should come to an end. :)
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Nick,
For what it's worth, I completely understood you! Which scares the hell out of me!!
 
Hey, at least you did not put your thumb on a running disk grinder while flipping the switch off.

Or forget to clamp down a sharpened knife when drilling out the handle tubes and get all cut up when the spinning knife of death swung around (not me on that one),


Or any other of the thousands of ways to injure your self so that you can't make a knife for a while.
 
I've drilled holes in the wrong place, made tangs too short, made 3 (yes 3) left side handle scales, and on and on. My worst was not even on a knife. Me and my partner spent 2 days x-raying welds on some stainless tanks, and when we went to develop the film, we used the wrong solution to replenish the developer, and shot 2 days of work down the drain. After developing, all the film was either clear as a windsheild (ie we missed entirely) or had the texture of an overcast sky in the background, so we couldnt see anything.
 
Over the years I have made a few boo boos.

1) I forgot to drill the holes on a knife prior to heat treat. Never did finish that one up.

2) Made two left handed handle scales of layed stabilized wood.

3) Forgot to add the second part of the epoxy glue, as the glue never set, and I had to drill out and start over.

4) Forgot to stamp my name to a dagger blade prior to heat treat. To remedy the issue, I simply stamped my name on the side of the brass guard.
 
I was making stone scales for two dinosaur gem scaled Buck 110's. I somehow mixed up the order and had two different colored dino bone pieces on the knife. I had to chisel off a $100. piece of dino bone.

I still occasionally make two left or right hand scales too....
 
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I use a buffing wheel on a mandrel in my drill, with the blade in a vise. I feel that this approach is safer, as it lets me see better where the wheel is in relation to the ehdes that it may want to grab, and if it does grab, I am generally not on the list of targets for flying blades of doom.

Polishing out the final pass on a mirroor polish, I looked the wrong way for a second and the wheel ate the tip of the blade, breaking off almost an inch from the end of my knife.

That was when I learned to take creative license with my work, and ground the flat spine down to a drop point!
 
Dont give a buffer anything you dont want it to take away from you:eek:
Had big chunk of buffing compound fired back at me because I got distracted and looked away for a second. Wont make that mistake again!
 
NickWheeler said:
I know what Nathan did, I was just offering some un-asked for advice based on his description of his process.

Based off the way I'm misunderstood around here the last few months though, I think that should come to an end. :)
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So I guess that will teach you to keep your mouth shut and let the ex spurts do the teachin here. After all you have only been making knives for like fifteen years or so so how the hell do you know anything?:eek::jerkit:
 
Bill Burke said:
So I guess that will teach you to keep your mouth shut and let the ex spurts do the teachin here. After all you have only been making knives for like fifteen years or so so how the hell do you know anything?:eek::jerkit:
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Nick will throw a toyota at you if you keep up that language!
 
Bill Burke said:
So I guess that will teach you to keep your mouth shut and let the ex spurts do the teachin here. After all you have only been making knives for like fifteen years or so so how the hell do you know anything?:eek::jerkit:
Click to expand...


I know! I should go crawl back under my rock :(

Mike, is it a nice Toyota? Because I might just drive it instead :D

For the record, Nathan is as good natured as they come, and my smart-ass-ed-ness was not directed at him. :)
 
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