Sub-hilt Fighter Progression

Kyle Royer said:
Hi Andrew,

That is a very good question.

First of all would be my Mom and Dad for getting me into custom knives, for helping me and supporting me along the way and for bringing me into this world.

As for knife mentors there would be John White, Don Hanson, Steve Dunn, Steve Culver, Rusty Polk, Ron Newton, Brion Tomberlin, Kevin Jones, Paul Kessler, Jim Walker, Bert Gaston and Greg Neely. This list could go on because I've met many men who have been generous with their knowledge and for that I am grateful!
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thanks for replying,......were they all hands on/ shop time teachers or just people whom inspired you?

i just ask, i myself owe a good deal of my learnings to a few makers in particular, and just wondering if making was just something that came natural, or if you had any formal teachings in the craft
 
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atakach said:
thanks for replying,......were they all hands on/ shop time teachers or just people whom inspired you?

i just ask, i myself owe a good deal of my learnings to a few makers in particular, and just wondering if making was just something that came natural, or if you had any formal teachings in the craft
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The only ones that were hands on were Bert Gaston, Greg Neely and Jim Walker at the school in Old Washington.

The rest of the men I've learned through much dialog with them. Their work also inspires me.


I'll have the next video on here tonight.
 
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This WIP is amazinly informative and perfectly documented especially for folks like me with zero experience with forging, making damascus, press use, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention I love Sub-hilts and you and your knives are EXTREMLY INSPIRATIONAL to me. Good luck with your test I'm sure your a shoe in !

Big thanks out to you and your brother for doing this

-Josh :thumbup::D:D
 
This is number four!

I hope you enjoy this next clip.

Click here to see it

I think I should try to say something else besides "here" at the beginning of most of the narrations I've done on this video. I'll try to work on that for the next one. Maybe I'll throw in "next" or "now" or something like that at the beginning of the narrations, just to mix it up a little.

The dog that is in the video while I'm chopping is a 4 1/2 month old Lemon Spotted Beagle.

I think I should stop talking now and get back to work. I have one more spot on the spine of the blade, that I would like to get hand sanded to 320 grit before 2:30 AM, so I can get to bed.

Thanks for looking!
 
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Another great clip Kyle lots of great info here. The blade is coming along great cant wait to see it completed!!:thumbup:
 
Awesome work. Thanks for taking the extra time to post up vids of your work and progression. It make me personally that much more appreciative of what all goes into making a knife f/ start to finish. :thumbup:
 
This is a great thread, thanks so much for taking the time to do it...
 
Kyle,

This is a very cool and informative tutorial. Thank you.

If I may add one observation, I think your normalizing routine could be improved by clamping the tang in a vise, blade tip up. The way you showed the anvil will suck heat out of the blade at an "artificially" fast rate, and worse, the hammer will cause one side of the blade to cool more rapidly than the other.

Best,

John
 
Kyle, the progression videos are very interesting and well made. I thank you and your brother for taking the time and sharing these very informative progressions for the sub-hilt fighter. I really look forward to viewing each episode. Thanks again!
 
John Frankl said:
Kyle,

This is a very cool and informative tutorial. Thank you.

If I may add one observation, I think your normalizing routine could be improved by clamping the tang in a vise, blade tip up. The way you showed the anvil will suck heat out of the blade at an "artificially" fast rate, and worse, the hammer will cause one side of the blade to cool more rapidly than the other.
Best,

John
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It is not in the video, directly after I set the blade against the hammer I took the hammer away and had the blade sitting on it's spine, I guess I should have shown that. That definitely would not have been good to leave the blade up against the hammer. You have a good eye for catching that! Also there is something I've done in the past, is to set my heat treating oven to 1500 degrees and have it cool at a VERY slow rate (from 1500 to 100 in 10 hours) This comes close to getting it totally annealed. To get the steel I use all the way annealed I would have to put it in my heat treating oven at 1500 and set it to cool over a 40 hour period. This is not necessary as you can get the blade annealed very well in a 2 hour period.

I also anneal the blade before grinding by putting it in the hot forge and letting it cool down with the forge over a 2 hour period. So the normalizing before heat treating is just to get any stress out of the blade that I could have made while grinding.

Thanks everyone!
 
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A lot of "So that is how they do that" questions are being answered for me. Thanks and keep them coming.
 
Kyle, great stuff! I look at the knives in my collection with an even higher level of appreciation after watching your videos. Bravo! :thumbup:
 
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