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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
W-2 Chopper for Canineforge-Extended WIP
- Thread starter John White
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
- Messages
- 12,297
Super Hamon, John! Easy ain't it 
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,401
Great work, thanks for taking the time to share!
- Joined
- May 14, 2001
- Messages
- 1,414
Very nice, John. You made that hamon look easy.
Gary
Gary
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
Thanks again for watching guys.
Roger, that swivel vise is where most of the work gets done.
Let me be off to photobucket, and we'll see how the rest of this goes.
John
Roger, that swivel vise is where most of the work gets done.
Let me be off to photobucket, and we'll see how the rest of this goes.
John
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
With the blade finished out, and the shoulders cut, its ready for the fittings and handle. If you'll notice on the finished blade pic, I've filed about a five thousandths shoulder across the wide side of the tang. With any other fitting material, I usually file the top and bottom only, and file to a press fit, but stainless tends to squeeze open, so I fit to the filed down tang, and let the shoulder cover all round.
Lets start out with the JW surface grinder and face some metal. (this pic is actually the damascus for the collar, but I'll sand the guard smooth, and polish to 1000 g also)
With the face of the 3/8 s/s guard buffed to a mirror finish, I'll mark the slot with a carbide scribe, and mill to within about 3-4 thousandths fitting.
Final fitting to a press fit is with a mill file with one "safed" side. In the mirror, I can see that I'm keeping the file square to the face.
I can grind the bottom curve on the work platen,
and forge a forward curve on top, after relieving the after face.Why didn't I just clamp that thing in the vise, and just heat the tip with a torch? Oh, well....
With the roughed out guard fitted, I'll cut a pair of .040 s/s spacers, for later file-work, and a piece of twist damascus for a collar.
If you'll refer back to the pic of my playing like my platen is a surface grinder,imagine my checking the thickness with the dial caliper, and further imagine another pic of mill-slotting spacers and collar, we'll move to drilling 1/16th" holes for alignment pins through the spacers and collar.
I can mill the slots on spacers and collar a bit loose, drill the collar, then drop the first spacer onto the tang to fit up against the guard, put on drops of superglue, drop on the collar, remove and back drill, and so on. By the time all three are drilled, the assembly will fit tight, and can be shaped as a unit.
With the guard rough shaped, and the collar assembly finished shaped, I'm ready to fit the stag.
(to be continued inna moment)
Lets start out with the JW surface grinder and face some metal. (this pic is actually the damascus for the collar, but I'll sand the guard smooth, and polish to 1000 g also)
With the face of the 3/8 s/s guard buffed to a mirror finish, I'll mark the slot with a carbide scribe, and mill to within about 3-4 thousandths fitting.
Final fitting to a press fit is with a mill file with one "safed" side. In the mirror, I can see that I'm keeping the file square to the face.
I can grind the bottom curve on the work platen,
and forge a forward curve on top, after relieving the after face.Why didn't I just clamp that thing in the vise, and just heat the tip with a torch? Oh, well....
With the roughed out guard fitted, I'll cut a pair of .040 s/s spacers, for later file-work, and a piece of twist damascus for a collar.
If you'll refer back to the pic of my playing like my platen is a surface grinder,imagine my checking the thickness with the dial caliper, and further imagine another pic of mill-slotting spacers and collar, we'll move to drilling 1/16th" holes for alignment pins through the spacers and collar.
I can mill the slots on spacers and collar a bit loose, drill the collar, then drop the first spacer onto the tang to fit up against the guard, put on drops of superglue, drop on the collar, remove and back drill, and so on. By the time all three are drilled, the assembly will fit tight, and can be shaped as a unit.
With the guard rough shaped, and the collar assembly finished shaped, I'm ready to fit the stag.
(to be continued inna moment)
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
Fitting the stag starts with drilling some 3/16ths" holes and broaching a slot with my wonderful John Perry broach.
The butt end of the stag handle is cleaned of all the soft pith. This big chopper needs the cavity cleaned out to the hard part, and filled with epoxy and colloidal silica, to withstand heavy impacts. ( same goes for all stag handles, for that matter.)
Next, I'll silver-solder a nut to a piece of s/s for the butt-cap.
With the butt-cap roughly rounded,and the other fittings partially done,
I'm ready for a first fit-up.You've got to take time to encourage yourself. Its usually about here in the process that I'm thinking I'll give up this nonsense. Seeing the knife come together for the first time helps.
With guard, collars, and handle pinned together, I can finish out the fittings and handle as a unit, or piece by piece,as needed, and they'll fit back together exactly each time.
Chain-saw files, mill files, sandpaper wrapped around brass strips, leather pieces, and sandpaper on flat surfaces, its all fair game in finishing.
Etch the damascus collar,
File-work the spacers,
and we're ready for another fit-up!
(to be continued)
The butt end of the stag handle is cleaned of all the soft pith. This big chopper needs the cavity cleaned out to the hard part, and filled with epoxy and colloidal silica, to withstand heavy impacts. ( same goes for all stag handles, for that matter.)
Next, I'll silver-solder a nut to a piece of s/s for the butt-cap.
With the butt-cap roughly rounded,and the other fittings partially done,
I'm ready for a first fit-up.You've got to take time to encourage yourself. Its usually about here in the process that I'm thinking I'll give up this nonsense. Seeing the knife come together for the first time helps.
With guard, collars, and handle pinned together, I can finish out the fittings and handle as a unit, or piece by piece,as needed, and they'll fit back together exactly each time.
Chain-saw files, mill files, sandpaper wrapped around brass strips, leather pieces, and sandpaper on flat surfaces, its all fair game in finishing.
Etch the damascus collar,
File-work the spacers,
and we're ready for another fit-up!
(to be continued)
John,
What can I say? Informative, interesting, artsy-fartsy (thats a technical term), amd useful. I am in awe of your craftsmanship, sir. An I really like the second Bowie you laid out. We need to talk.
You wouldn't have an older brother named Doug, would you?
Larry
Tinkerer
What can I say? Informative, interesting, artsy-fartsy (thats a technical term), amd useful. I am in awe of your craftsmanship, sir. An I really like the second Bowie you laid out. We need to talk.
You wouldn't have an older brother named Doug, would you?
Larry
Tinkerer
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
Roughing out the butt-cap starts with knocking off the corner on the grinder, and then comes the hand filing.
A Dremel tool with a tiny drum helps shape the concave border.
Then its back to the sandpaper, up to 1000 grit.
A carbide cutter and the Dremel will cut the thinned edge of the butt-cap to the stag,
a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill-bit, and a trip to the buffer, and,
Now, JB weld the guard in place, squeezing it up tight with a screw press,
Clean up, glue-up, clean-up again, and,
Now comes the most important part....This puppy's off to Paul Long for a magnificent sheath, then to Coop for a family portrait, and then Joe will finally get to go chop down that tree...Wait, its already past Christmas!
We'll post up Coop's and Paul's art work when the photo's ready.
Now I want to thank our own CANINEFORGE... Joe and guys like him are really who keep me doing this.
Happy New Year to all.
John White
A Dremel tool with a tiny drum helps shape the concave border.
Then its back to the sandpaper, up to 1000 grit.
A carbide cutter and the Dremel will cut the thinned edge of the butt-cap to the stag,
a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill-bit, and a trip to the buffer, and,
Now, JB weld the guard in place, squeezing it up tight with a screw press,
Clean up, glue-up, clean-up again, and,
Now comes the most important part....This puppy's off to Paul Long for a magnificent sheath, then to Coop for a family portrait, and then Joe will finally get to go chop down that tree...Wait, its already past Christmas!
We'll post up Coop's and Paul's art work when the photo's ready.
Now I want to thank our own CANINEFORGE... Joe and guys like him are really who keep me doing this.
Happy New Year to all.
John White
Last edited:
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,401
Great WIP! Thanks again for taking the time to share with us. It has been very informative. -Burton
