What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

single phase motors have more vibration than 3 phase motors and as a result some people use 'link belts' to reduce transmitted vibration, but I wouldn't do a thing to that drill press other than use it.

I got my new (old) lathe in my shop now. Now it's time to get the smithy set back up and all the tools back in place.

1890 Prentice Brothers lathe, which matches my 1890 Prentice Brother's drill press =)

prenticelathe.jpg

prenticedrill.jpg
 
Pete, like Justin said, just use as is. link belts are nice but unless your drill has a very bad vibration problem you won't see the difference. The only upgrade you could do is a keyless chuck. An import one at around 60-70$ would work great.
 
link belts are nice but to be honest the biggest improvement Ive scene is changing out to machined pulleys and adding link belts. I think the machined pulleys have the best benefit with a little help from the link belts. I have an old craftsman table saw that I changed to link belts on. It helped some. Then I changed out the pulleys with a nicely machined kit I picked up, smooth as silk now and very quiet comparatively speaking.
 
Ian, I find the make it or break it feature on the gunstocks handles is the area behind the palm swell at the bottom where the pinky wraps. I have a 3" wheel that I hollow this area with, then taper it in to an Appleseed shape but leaving the but at the same shape you have. There are a few angles to transition to the palm swell that I like, but I couldn't tell you what they are as I do it by feel.
 
I agree Corey.

Justin--- that beautiful tool museum you're building is frick'n rad. :D :cool:

PT Doc- Joe Paranee and I will be sharing on the custom forum. I'd like to share some or all of it here as well. With the new sub-forums, and the new super moderation of late... don't be surprised if it either all gets locked down, or gets moved to one of the new subforums.

Not to worry though, as I've done at least a dozen "tag along" threads over the years, and none of them seem to find their way into stickies or the like anyway. ;)

edited to add*** super knife Ian! :)
 
Thanks Nick, I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

Willie, I have been doing something similar, I also use a 3" wheel for the pinky/ring finger "pocket".

Here's a couple of my final shots, you can see where I scooped it a bit better in these shots.

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the handle, in fact I rather like it. I am just having trouble landing on a style that I like 100%.

F3RDm43.jpg


CNyItQg.jpg
 
Ian,

Very nice work.

BTW why did you chose to place the pin in the center? I seem to like them about at the 1/3 of the way back from the front.
 
I go a bit higher up the side when I do mine. Maybe that is what you feel is missing in yours? I like your handle by the way.

Lousy pic, but you can see the rear handle profile behind the belly here:

11039376786_5fd0563d54_z.jpg
 
Broomhead said:
Whew...Three days after my post and there were no new ones, I was worried I'd killed the thread. Lol.

My grandpa passed away the day after Christmas, so I am making some memorial knives from a very large, double-ended farrier's rasp and a large Simonds file. Here is the first knife from the rasp.



I still have a ton of work to do, it's nearly 1/3" think, about .324. I know the whole mystery steel problem, and I'm a little worried about this rasp. It's a no-name, and after annealing it, my bandsaw cuts through it like butter, even easier than a RR spike. So, either I nailed the annealing process, or it was a cheap case hardened rasp. I have a couple of scrap pieces I'm going to try hardening and file-testing/breaking to see if it'll harden, before working on it any further. If it does harden good, then it'll be getting some type of thinner wood scales, a copper pin and a copper lanyard tube that is 5/8" in diameter.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to here about your grandpa passing away. I'm sure he would be proud of the knives you are making. Keep us posted.

Nick
 
Ian, If I had made that knife and wasn't happy with the lines (the workmanship is really clean!) I'd think about how straight it is along the spine.
The whole knife is kind of straight-line, which I don't see as a bad thing at all for using, but knives are often more satisfying to look at when there's something going on on top as well as on the bottom.
 
Ian, I would also suggest trying to get the guard and ricasso the same width. Either by widening the ricasso or my personal choice, taking a bit off the finger cut out of the guard. Like you have it now, it makes the guard a bit look a bit chunky because it is wider then the ricasso.
 
Thank you Chavez. That means a lot to me, I really appreciate the sentiment.

Unfortunately, the rasp turned out to be mild steel that had been case-hardened. I'm rather perturbed, but there's nothing I can do about it. I will probably use what I have and either make a couple letter openers or experiment with bolsters and use those as the memento pieces. Now to start work on a couple knives from the Simonds file. I just have to choose a design/designs that I like and think the recipients would like too.
 
Unless I see Nicholson, Simonds, or Bellota on a file, it gets annealed and spark tested. Heck, I guess they all do.
 
AVigil said:
Ian,

Very nice work.

BTW why did you chose to place the pin in the center? I seem to like them about at the 1/3 of the way back from the front.
Click to expand...

I wanted this one to be nice and sturdy since it is a bit larger for a hunter, so I wanted as much uninterrupted wood between the guard and the pin as aesthetics would allow. Who knows how much it really helps... but it satisfied my OCD, so I guess that is something.


Willie71 said:
I go a bit higher up the side when I do mine. Maybe that is what you feel is missing in yours? I like your handle by the way.

Lousy pic, but you can see the rear handle profile behind the belly here:

11039376786_5fd0563d54_z.jpg
Click to expand...

I really like those.

I actually went pretty far up the side, but I might not have gone deep enough. You can maybe see it a bit in the photo I posted below, but the pinky/ring pocket comes about 7/8 up the handle and ends in a soft "corner" which intersects with the round of the top of the handle.

elementfe said:
Ian, If I had made that knife and wasn't happy with the lines (the workmanship is really clean!) I'd think about how straight it is along the spine.
The whole knife is kind of straight-line, which I don't see as a bad thing at all for using, but knives are often more satisfying to look at when there's something going on on top as well as on the bottom.
Click to expand...

It looks a little straighter than it actually is because of the shadow in those photos, but it does have a bit of curve even in the center, though it is straightest there.

I actually kicked the tang off a bit on this one, if you follow the lines of the ricasso down to the pin (which is centered in the tang).

As far as my preference, I do like things a bit towards the straighter side, but it's a fine line between "gentle curve" and "looks straight". :)

Fc4sCyk.jpg



Patrice Lemée;13074839 said:
Ian, I would also suggest trying to get the guard and ricasso the same width. Either by widening the ricasso or my personal choice, taking a bit off the finger cut out of the guard. Like you have it now, it makes the guard a bit look a bit chunky because it is wider then the ricasso.
Click to expand...

I share that aesthetic, and it is definitely something I shoot for myself.

When I had this thing profiled out from the block, I thought about squeezing it in a bit, but with the size of the knife I was afraid taking too much from the handle area might make it a bit slim for the overall size of the knife. I'm still happy with it, but don't entirely disagree with you.

I have another blade profiled out from this pattern, so I think on the second one I may do some more tuning in that area. I'm not sure in which way yet though.





Working on this framed coffin handle mini bowie. This ironwood is terrific, shimmers like crazy when finished. Doing sterling silver for all of the hardware besides the guard (416). Frame and spacer are black G10. Don't have the guard cut yet so I just laid a piece of scrap across tang. Need to finish the blade out too (obviously).

S4QN2IU.jpg



I almost forgot how fun setting inlays is. Almost. :/

Ng9qZzK.jpg
 
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Just finished up these two. Well the smaller one needs an edge then its off to Indiana.
 

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This one is going to Boston

Getting better at hollow grinding.
 

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My latest and part of my inventory for an upcoming show. I hope to sell them
as a set.

Both made from ATS34
Flat ground
Stabilized, Dyed Buckeye
313 SS hardware (5/16" and 1/4")

Fillet knife is very flexible (made from 1/16" stock)
Hunter made from 1/8"

Milt
 
Hey Ian curious how you like to do your inlays. Ive scene several different ways of doing them and just like to see how others work them out.
 
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