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

islandblacksmith- SUPER COOL smithy photos!!! :cool: So is that shop in Vancouver or Japan?

Darcy- I agree with what you're saying if we're talking about one relatively thick spacer, or even multiple thicker spacers. However, if you put some thin stuff in there, like a 0.020" thick ss spacer, it's almost guaranteed to wear enough with the repeated assembly/disassembly, that it can move on you. Now if you stack up 3-5 thin pieces, IMHO, you'll really want alignment pins.

I'm sure not saying one way is right and one is wrong... they're just different. But personally, I prefer pins most of the time.




I decided a couple days ago, if my 9" disc "donut thing" :foot: ;) was worth having, I better just buck up and make a decent one. I'm really glad I did... it works really well. I used it on the big bowie on the last page.:) It only took me like 5 years to grit my teeth and finally just do it! :rolleyes: :o

Better late than nevva!!! (most of the time)


If nothing else, it's shiny... Me like shiny. :D
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@NickWheeler pretty much permanent on Vancouver Island these days (across the Salish Sea from Vancouver), we made the move to Canada a couple years ago, the second shop pic was during set up in Dec. 2011
 
What's going on in my shop? I actually picked up an unfinished blade from my pile for the first time in almost four years. Between deployments, a year in Korea, moving to another state, trying to sort out the electrical in my garage, I am finally gearing up to work on blades again. I have a smallish skinner in CPM154, I think I finished the blade to a 400 grit machine finish, natural canvas micarta scales, a pair of brass pins. All I have to do is glue up the scales, everything is 90%. Sidenote... I lost my stencils. Guess I need to order some more. That and re learn how to use my etcher.
 
Thanks for that info on the thinner spacers Nick. I have never really done anything with spacers that thin.......usually just a single 1/4" to 3/8" spacer behind the guard. I'll remember that and use pins if I decide to use some thinner stuff.:thumbup:
Darcy:)
 
Now that you mention it Frank, that might be one of my problems. Plus I drill these like bigger holes, using a small vise that is not attached but free floating on the table. With bigger holes it lets the vise auto center itself under the bit but it is a lot more tricky with the small bits and may result in a tiny amount of side flex. The thing is if I clamp the vise it becomes a question of locating the hole perfectly. I am thinking I might have better luck on the mill with that as well as a stiffer setup.
Thanks for making me rethink this. :thumbup:

PS: I also should check the run-out in my 2 old drill presses. Might finally be time to buy a new one. :(
 
Had the grinders fired up today.

I got some of the 3M 984s in 36X and 50X. Um... holy crap. :eek:

I haven't ground steel with a 36 grit belt in years... mostly because the grit on the old AO belts would shear off and leave you with an 80-100X belt in about 4 seconds. :thumbdn:

The 3M 984 in 36X... against steel... is frick'n NUTS!!! :eek: These belts eat steel like it's frig'n wood. Dang. :D

I took the UK Chopper to the grinder... Turns out that Khuks are just about as awkward to grind as I had anticipated. ;) LOL
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I was going to sweep the shop out since it's actually nice and sunny today! :D 49F Woot woot. :D But who needs to sweep when you have 180# dust mops?!? :D
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After getting a QC approval from the dogs, I'm calling the UK Chopper -ready for hardening- :)
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About time you start working on that guy :D

Not much here, hardened the scandi I am working on.

I decided to do some no flux welding today. 3 pieces of 1075 stacked and welded to a handle (until it came off lol). Gotta say this is the easiest weld Ive done, gonna see how good it is after it cool and I get to cut into it. Will post picks.
 
I sure do love your dogs, Nick. I was surprised to see you don't have a magnet disc set up like my friend Rod Neilson sells. With the variable speed it's a sweet machine for sure !! I have five discs, so far, that are all changeable on the one machine because of his magnet set up. Frank
 
NickWheeler said:
Had the grinders fired up today.

I got some of the 3M 984s in 36X and 50X. Um... holy crap. :eek:

I haven't ground steel with a 36 grit belt in years... mostly because the grit on the old AO belts would shear off and leave you with an 80-100X belt in about 4 seconds. :thumbdn:

The 3M 984 in 36X... against steel... is frick'n NUTS!!! :eek: These belts eat steel like it's frig'n wood. Dang. :D

I took the UK Chopper to the grinder... Turns out that Khuks are just about as awkward to grind as I had anticipated. ;) LOL
View attachment 408776

View attachment 408777

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I was going to sweep the shop out since it's actually nice and sunny today! :D 49F Woot woot. :D But who needs to sweep when you have 180# dust mops?!? :D
View attachment 408779

After getting a QC approval from the dogs, I'm calling the UK Chopper -ready for hardening- :)
View attachment 408780
Click to expand...

Love the shape of that blade.
 
I found a sweet deal on some turning spindles of Redheart and some boards of Purpleheart. I cut the turning blanks into blocks and sanded them down. The boards I'm going to let dry as they are. I've never worked with either, but I really love the color of the Redheart. I should get 4-5 scales from each block.
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Wanted to share something I "discovered" the other day.

Have you tried the 3M Sandblaster Pro paper? It's far and away my favorite paper for handle materials and wood.

Now I know ya'll might laugh or scoff at this, but I tried it on annealed steel with wd40. Don't ask why! The thing is that, not only did it work, but it worked well. Yes, it's not designed for steel, but it's also not garnet. It's a synthetic abrasive that must be pretty hard. Really resists loading, wear and seems to keep the wd40 on the right side.

One thing, the backing on the Lowes version of the paper is designed to stick to itself for folding. I like the attribute, but you may not.

Anyway, I highly recommend the stuff for wood if you haven't found something already that you really like. Just for kicks, try it on steel. You may really like it there too.
 
Strigamort said:
Wanted to share something I "discovered" the other day.

Have you tried the 3M Sandblaster Pro paper? It's far and away my favorite paper for handle materials and wood.

Now I know ya'll might laugh or scoff at this, but I tried it on annealed steel with wd40. Don't ask why! The thing is that, not only did it work, but it worked well. Yes, it's not designed for steel, but it's also not garnet. It's a synthetic abrasive that must be pretty hard. Really resists loading, wear and seems to keep the wd40 on the right side.

One thing, the backing on the Lowes version of the paper is designed to stick to itself for folding. I like the attribute, but you may not.

Anyway, I highly recommend the stuff for wood if you haven't found something already that you really like. Just for kicks, try it on steel. You may really like it there too.
Click to expand...

Lol I used this stuff on my last blade because I was out of my lower grit paper and was impatient. So bought this stuff it worked very well, lets just say I bought a lot more then I needed. I still like rynowet better but this stuff is great as a back up.
 
I've been using that Lowe's 3m sandblaster pro paper on blades and handles. I haven't had the chance to try Rynowet, or any of the Norton or other stuff knifemakers use, so I cannot compare. I am always on a budget, so I use what's around. The paper works quite well, IMO. Lowes has the Sandblaster Pro, and the Gator stuff. Both work, maybe not REALLY well, but do get the job done. Some grits are better with Gator, some grits are better with sandblaster pro. I do like the somewhat tacky feeling the back of the paper has. I can lay a sheet on my granite table top and go to town without worrying about making it stationary.
 
Haha... I had a ridiculous amount of trepidation about even posting that. I may be new to knifemaking, but not to using sandpaper. Didn't want to look like a knucklehead, but the SBP paper really does seem to work pretty well on 1084 at least.

I've been using 80 and 220 grit (goes up to 400 grit). Good point about certain grits working better than others. The 220 lays down a nice even scratch pattern. I'm going to grab some 400 to see how it works as a finisher, but I have high hopes. I just really like how durable and resistant to loading it is.

As for RynoWet, no, I have yet to try that one. I know Nick Wheeler is an ambassador for the product, which is enough for me. I'll give it a go. I like to buy as much of my materials and supplies as I can locally and I haven't seen it stocked anywhere yet. Don't ask me why, but I hate ordering stuff online.
 
I think, somewhere back around page 8 of this thread I posted these after forging to shape, finished them up yesterday. Two patternwelded fillet blades, 8" and 11" cutting edges, the small is a 300ish layer ladder pattern, the longer one is viking style...:)
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They are both 3/32" thick at the ricassos with some serious distal taper, and flex well (I'd call them a medium flex). They both picked up some negative sori in the quench but I'm happy with them even with the recurve. The customer wanted finish bare blades, he'll be putting the handles on them.

Now on to a patternwelded broadsax, my next project...
 
Hey guys,
I ordered a new grinder to replace my NWG and figured I'd build a new bench to hold it and a few other things.
I may have gotten a bit carried away.
I need to get a service providers membership so I can sell the NWG to make room for a LG power hammer.

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