W-2 Chopper for Canineforge-Extended WIP

John White

John White

Joined
Jun 23, 2007
Messages
2,142
Here's the finished product, portrayed by Coop, dressed by Paul Long, and destined for our own Canineforge; 10 inches of clay-hardened W-2, Stag handled, with twist damascus and stainless steel fittings.

joeschopper-coop001.jpg


joeschopper-coop002.jpg


This is how it began.

Joe's order date came around, and we talked by phone about what he wanted this time around. He'd thought about a hunter, but couldn't get away from his penchant for big blades." Did I have any stag for a big Bowie or Chopper," he asked?

I sent him this pic.

joesstag001.jpg


"That'll do. How about something in the 9 to 10 inch range?"

So I sent a drawing of three blades, with the stag as handle.

joe13001.jpg


Joe said he liked the 10 inch chopper shape, but maybe with a little wider blade, and no fineal, so I sent a second drawing.

joe13002.jpg


Joe preferred the version with the "belly", and asked for just maybe a sixteenth inch wider blade.With a little more discussion, we agreed on the main points, and I got started.

The first thing I do in building a knife is to use my drawing to center-punch the blade and tang shape onto some plate steel to make a forging pattern.

joe1001.jpg


With a pattern to lay against the steel as I forge, the shape I've drawn out is much easier to achieve. It doesn't work to hold that red-hot blade up close to a paper drawing.....

I sent a photo of the pattern and final drawing to Joe.

joe1003.jpg


It was about this point Joe suggested we might do a WIP. I often send pics of the progress to my collectors as I go, so this seemed like a good idea.

Next will come the forging of the blade from some of Don H's 1 5/8" W-2.
 
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John White said:
I often send pics of the progress to my collectors as I go, so this seemed like a good idea.
Click to expand...

That, to me, is a great practice:thumbup:
 
Might as well carry this a little further tonight.

I figured about how much steel I'd need to be sure of getting a blade and tang forged, with maybe enough left over for a hunter, cut off 3 inches of 1 5/8 inch W-2 round bar,and welded it onto a re-bar handle. Better too much than too little, but that round bar takes some forging.

joe2001.jpg


W-2 likes to be forged between 1700 and 1900 F, so I cranked the forge up to 1950 and set the billet inside.

joe2002.jpg


First thing is to flatten and draw the round bar out into a flat bar, about 1 1/2 by a tad over 1/4 inch. That's where my new Uncle Al's press really comes in handy.

joe2004.jpg


Once the bar is drawn out, I begin the blade in the old-fashion way, forging a tip by hand on the anvil. Right here's where I can start to use the pattern, and continue throughout the forging of the blade.

joe2008.jpg


Harvey Dean gave a demonstration ,at Old Washington, of forging with the power-hammer that really changed my work process, and has made it a lot easier on the old body. I work back and forth between the anvil and my little 25 # Meyer.

joe2005.jpg


Using the pattern, I can forge the shape of the blade very close to profile, making sure I can re-produce the blade shape I'm after, with about 1/16th extra all around to grind off at profile time. That way, I can get rid of de-carb, and produce the shape Joe wants.

joe2009.jpg


When the blade shape is finished to profile, with the bevels forged in, I hot-cut the bar about 1 1/2 inches behind the ricasso, and forge out the tang. The pattern helps me get the tang where I'll want it to fit the stag, and I'll taper it as well.

The last thing I'll do today is a "forge normalize", by heating the forging to non-magnetic, and letting it air-cool. I don't like to leave all the stresses in the forged blade over-night, but tomorrow I'll use the digital oven to give a more precise normalize/heat cycle/anneal treatment.

This looks a bit like what we're after, Joe and I.

joe2011.jpg
 
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This is fantastic, John!!! All this time I thought your knives were kits from Texas Knife supply:D:D:D

Paul
 
A full scale John White WIP, this is going to be great!!!

Looking good so far.

Thanks for doing this Mr. White.
 
Great thread already !
Looks like it's gonna' be a super stag carver.
Congrats Joe and John !!

Doug
 
Thanks, John, for the time you're putting in on this WIP.
There's nothing quite like working in tandem with a press and a power hammer.
Almost makes it fun - doesn't it?
 
(Hey, guys, thanks for watching.

Kyle, this won't be a thriller like your Ring-Guard thread. As you will know, a chopper like this is pretty straight-forward. I thought folks might enjoy following through our day to day process.

Karl, yep, a little machinery helps a lot. The first 75 or so knives I forged out were all done entirely by hand....Ouch!)


Well, yesterday saw the blade "forged to shape," profile, bevels, distal taper, tang drawn and tapered, and a first "forge" normalizing to relieve stresses, so I could leave the blade over-nite. This process represents about 5-6% of the time in making this knife.

Now comes one of the most important steps in making a good performing knife, the normalizing, heat cycle for grain reduction, and annealing, all represented by this one photo.

Joe3001.jpg


While I'm working on a little vest pocket damascus bowie, I've programmed the digital oven to run this program, with a little help from my taking the blade in and out.

a) bring the blade to 1500F, hold 10 minutes, let air cool to room temp-this relieves forging stresses, and begins to reduce grain size from forging
b)to 1475F, 10 minutes, and cool to "black heat" maybe 800F
c)to 1450F, 10 minutes,"black heat'again
three cycles allow the grain to shrink, and re-align, then
d)to 1300F for 1 hour, and air cool to room temp. This gives a "sub-critical anneal" for softness and prep for heat-treatment.

Now I can mark the forging with my pattern, and grind to profile.

Joe4004.jpg


Does this look like what we're aiming for?

Joe3002.jpg


Now I'll grind the scale off with a side-grinder.

Joe4006.jpg


And, on the BMG flat platen, using my dial caliper, grind the ricasso area parallel with a 50 grit belt. I'll also knock off any "bulges" from the distal taper of the blade. Then I'll follow up on the ricasso with 120 and 220 belts.

Joe4015.jpg


Now I'll hand sand the ricasso area to 220 grit. You may notice I've roughed in the facets on the spine with the three grits on the flat platen, as well as having sanded the forge-tapered tang.


Joe4009.jpg


I'll mark a vertical line for my grind line,

Joe4010.jpg


and transfer it to both sides with one of John Perry's fine shoulder filing fixtures.

Joe4012.jpg


This forging is ready to rough-grind with a new 50 grit Norton ceramic belt.

I'm grinding free-hand, with a push-stick in one hand, edge up, sliding the blade across under the push stick. I'll switch sides and hands, and grind evenly on each side as I go, so as not to set up new stresses in my annealed blade.

Joe5002.jpg


Wheew...that's enough for right now.

Grinding's one of the high stress steps. Here's a place you can mess up all your work with one slip.....
 
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That's cool John I like your little oven it looks like pottery kiln I think I will walk over to seattle pottery supply today its about a block from my shop and see if they have one.
 
Dave,

You've got a good eye, it is originally designed for pottery. It's one of Sugar Creek's 24 inch kilns, with the programable option. Much the least expensive one I found.

John
 
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