Take Down Fighter Progression!

Thanks for making this WIP helps us all out, and is great to see a knife come to life. Also wondering if you scribes the center lines with a height gauge on a granite layout block?
 
markb said:
Great WIP, did you scribe your lines with a height gage?

Thanks Mark
Click to expand...

I do not have a height gage. I used my large granite slab, a carbide tip scribe, some shims to make adjust the scribe to the proper level and a clamp to hold down the scribe.

Here is what I did today. Enjoy!

This is the blade after taking it out of the tempering oven.


Here I have started further surface grinding the tang. You can see that the tang is 0.240 thick where the guard and spacers will go and 0.225 after that. Next I'll turn the blade 90 degrees and surface grind the rest of the tang down to 0.225 thick.


I am starting to grind the rest of the tang down to to the thickness of the area I am pointing at with the brass rod.


Grinding.


Grinding...


Ground......


Now I have the blade edge in water and I'm heating the spine up will my torch to soften it and make it tougher.


Here you can see the area I heated to soften it.


This is a pic of the blade edge ready to be ground with a slack belt to give it a little bit of a convex edge.


The blade has been ground a little more and it is ready to go from the 60 grit finish to a 120 grit finish.
 
I put layout fluid on the blade and ground the ricasso up to 220 grit.


I am running another softening cycle on the tang here. I want to run a gray color into the ricasso close to the blade edge.


Here the color has started on the end of the tang.




Though you can't see it very well in this picture, the tang and ricasso are a blue/gray color.


Here I have placed my carbide filing jig onto the ricasso so I can scribe a line on both sides and have them be aliened perfectly.


Now I have good lines to grind up to later on both sides of my ricasso.


 
Time for some performance testing. I will start out by chopping through a 2 X 4 and be able to shave hair after I'm done. It chopped nicely and stayed sharp.


Next I chopped through this piece of old deer antler a few times. My goal for the blade on this test is for it to stay moderately sharp but not sharp enough to shave, which it did what I wanted. Wow! That was some old hard antler.


And last for this knife I chopped on a brass rod going up and down the blade to test the entire edge. With the brass rod chopping I expect to see the blade get very dull but not to chip or have edge deformation. It did great!



Now I am ready to use my linear sanding and plunge cutting jig to work the plunge cuts at the ricasso, which took a while because of the double edged blade.


I got the plunge cuts close with a 120 grit J-flex belt and finished it up with a 220 grit J-flex.


I like it!


The plunge cuts are ready for hand sanding.


This is a shot of the spine.


It looks good on this side.


And this side.


Here is a picture of the center ridge going down the blade. I have about five to ten minutes of grinding to do tomorrow and I can start hand sanding.


That's all for today. I'm off to bed. Thanks for following along!
 
Last edited:
Looking great so far Kyle - really enjoying this. What's the radius on your plunger platen? 1/8" or so? Looks about perfect for that quarter inch blade
 
Wulf said:
Looking great so far Kyle - really enjoying this. What's the radius on your plunger platen? 1/8" or so? Looks about perfect for that quarter inch blade
Click to expand...

Yes the radius is about 1/8 inch or a little over. I have to re-dress it every two or three months and the radius gets a little larger each time.

Well I'm off to the shop for a few hours of hand sanding.

Thanks everyone!
 
Awesome thread Kyle! Thanks for putting the time in to give us a peek at how you make these bad boys, I'm always glued to your WIPs! I never would have thought to use the magnet on the surface grinder for straightening...
 
Another great WIP Thread kyle. I love the Magnet trick and your Plunge Jig. I remember seeing a thread you did about the Jig. Nice!!:thumbup:
 
Kyle, thanks for your time ane effort on this WIP. It is so benificial. You are a rare talent! Thanks

And hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!

Steve
----------
Potomac Forge
 
I'm looking forward to see the handle being done, these take downs I never really understood how you have a tang like that but get a perfectly seated fit (never made a takedown but its in the works). Thanks for all the detailed images and your willingness to answer questions, if I make it to Atlanta this year I cant wait to see your table :)
 
There sure are some neat tricks and innovations in this thread. It's real fun to watch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top