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How difficult is to grind four faces and keep symmetry... I wonder how the masters do the same with recurves...

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Pablo
 
PEU said:
How difficult is to grind four faces and keep symmetry... I wonder how the masters do the same with recurves...

Pablo
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I'm not a "master" but I've ground some daggers. All knives can benefit from subtle twisting of the grinds, but it is particularly significant with daggers, otherwise the center thickness becomes a function of the width of the blade, which is not what you want. This is how you maintain a uniform thickness or even distal taper on a recurved dagger.

Helical grinds don't get much discussion, I think a lot of folks doing them aren't even aware of it because they grind intuitively, but it's pretty obvious when you're trying to machine them...
 
Nathan... I was thinking the exact same thing. I come from a simple machining background(conventional mills.... BIG ones) and can attest to the not-so-obvious twist needed to hold that geometry. Otherwise, you end up with a stretched out pyramid... taping out extremely thin at the tip.
 
That is a sweet looking dagger!

Finished and sharpend my KITH entry today.
Not good at taking pictures, but the higher I finnished the bog oak handle the the more I liked it!
Lovely wood IMHO

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Nathan the Machinist said:
Helical grinds don't get much discussion, I think a lot of folks doing them aren't even aware of it because they grind intuitively, but it's pretty obvious when you're trying to machine them...
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Nathan, I also work with CNC machines, if I had to do a dagger I would use the 4th axis and sidecut while waving the blade back and forth with the 4th, but thinking of doing it freehand (as I always grind) looks like a nightmare.


Pablo
 
PEU said:
Nathan, I also work with CNC machines, if I had to do a dagger I would use the 4th axis and sidecut while waving the blade back and forth with the 4th, but thinking of doing it freehand (as I always grind) looks like a nightmare.


Pablo
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Yeah. I'm sure a person could develop a methodology to do it entirely by hand (they do) but I rough it out on a mill first to establish the lines and symmetry before hand grinding.
 
Working on getting this one finished up. The handle is Carbon Fiber overwrapped and impregnated. The handle has been drying for about 20 hours is almost cured.

Picture is lousy and caught with last light.

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This is what Im working on right now. The dagger is for my father for his cowboy shooting rig. Its the second one I've made, the first was for him as well. He has two different set ups and this will be for the new one. The thing I like about dagger grinds is that I dont have call to do a lot of them. :-)

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After having not done much making for a while, I put on an effort and finished a project that had been hanging around for a couple of years...and boy does it feel good!

A commission from a very patient chap in the UK who wanted me to make him a hunting/bushcraft knife, in stainless, with a brass guard and a particular select piece of spalted curly birch. I used RWL34 for the blade and was influenced by Dan Farr's designs for the handle and guard. The wood was stabalised, but not 100% due to spalting, so it got a superglue finish on top. Now I remember why I don't like doing those! It turned out well though, I think.





ATB
Chris
 
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Trying to get everything decently finished before heat treat. Most will have nice stabilized wood. Also going to try my first attempt at flaring some TI and stainless tubes for the handles. Adding some GITD inserts. Half are gifts. Z-Wear.


 
Turned out pretty decent for my first bolster.
Aldo 1084 1/8" with clay quench line
416 bolster and pins
Blue g10 liner and black linen micarta scales.
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Turned out well and good practice for the future.

I think a narrower blade would suit the handle better. Handle feels like a million bucks compared to my earlier ones. First one I've done that I'm happy with. Very oval in cross-section and feels great. Hopefully done with the newbie two by four handles.
 
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Going through the rather interesting process of looking at Vertical Machining Centers (large CNC mills) at the moment... I decided a while back that I didn't want to keep doing everything by hand as it's not something I enjoy when I have to put in long hours at it, I also think that I'll be able to make better knives in the long run with the help of automation as I'll be able to focus more on the details of the process which will be nice and something I enjoy... More recently the schedule was pushed up when my hands themselves started to pack it in... After spending around 15 hours hand-sanding over the course of a couple of days my hands started hurting almost constantly and haven't quite gotten back to normal yet a week or so later.

It's an exciting and also terrifying process as these big machines aren't cheap, and I'm only looking at the 'little' ones! Seems like a HAAS Mini Mill is in my future provided I can swing the financing.

I'm pretty excited about the abilities the machine will bring in terms of increased consistency and so on. Being able to make all my knife handles and sheath shapes exactly the same for instance will bring a bunch of benefits, not the least of which is the ability to ship a customer a new sheath if they lose or damage one, without them having to return their knife. 2015 is likely going to see my shop looking very different than it does now!

Will be lots of fun to share that journey with you guys!
 
Foundation poured, hammer moved, new 900 RPM motor acquired, new drive pulley machined, motor mount built for the motor, 5HP rotary phase converter installed and wired up to the new motor. Just need to fabricate the tension arm / idler pulley to get my power hammer back up and running.

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aarongough said:
After spending around 15 hours hand-sanding over the course of a couple of days my hands started hurting almost constantly and haven't quite gotten back to normal yet a week or so later.
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Aaron there are better ways at hand sanding then spending hours doing it.

Watch Karl Andersons video series where he talks about hand sanding and how it really only takes minutes if done correctly.

Also look at Nathans set up for sanding his blades on his grinder the pretty much eliminates hand sanding.

When I hand sand a blade I feel like I am cheating by using cork belt in 400 grit then cork to 1000 grit and then maybe 10-15 minutes to hand sand to 800 grit.

Hand sanding for hours is not an option
 
AVigil said:
Aaron there are better ways at hand sanding then spending hours doing it.

Watch Karl Andersons video series where he talks about hand sanding and how it really only takes minutes if done correctly.

Also look at Nathans set up for sanding his blades on his grinder the pretty much eliminates hand sanding.

When I hand sand a blade I feel like I am cheating by using cork belt in 400 grit then cork to 1000 grit and then maybe 10-15 minutes to hand sand to 800 grit.

Hand sanding for hours is not an option
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Hey Adam! Doesn't sound like cheating to me, sounds pretty great in fact! :)

I will look them up! The CNC won't necessarily eliminate the grinding needed for the bevels, at least not initially, so it would be good to improve regardless. Thanks!
 
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