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

Taz said:
Curly Mango looks beautiful, but can be very toxic! It was the wood that got me out of knifemaking back in 2014/2015 due to severe allergies, even when wearing a respirator while working it. It was stabilized, too!
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Oh good to know. If there is one thing this hobby has taught me it is to assume everything is toxic when ground into dust!
 
I started my allergies with cocobolo, then ziricote, rosewoods, etc. If I didn't work with them, I was fine. Stabilized woods and walnut, cherry, maple, and other less oily woods were fine. I used other woods, especially blackwood, which I later learned was a sensitizer. A few months later, I used stabilized Curly Mango on 2 handles and hunted for a few days after I did the handles. One of those days was warm and I was sweating in my hunting clothes and later, had a itchy rash around my neck, armpits, elbows, behind my knees, etc (all areas where I often sweat). I thought I got into some poison ivy or something; took around a week to go away. I had used some butterscotch paper micarta for ferrules on the handles, but I noticed cracks in the butterscotch pieces, so I made 2 new handles with other ferrule material a couple weeks later. The next day, even without going hunting, I got the same rash. This time, along with the itches, when I got hot, sweaty or took a warm shower, my fingers and arms would puff up and feel tight and itchy and would go back to normal when I put cold water on those areas. I looked up the wood toxicity and learned about toxic woods, sensitizers and all of that stuff. Any dust set off a skin reaction, especially near where the respirator straps were or sweaty areas, or areas like my arms and hands that had the dust on them. I wore a respirator all of the time, so it was the dust on the skin that set it off. After that, even sanding a pine board and getting dust on my hand would start a reaction. I shut down my shop and sold off a lot of my wood and KMG grinder (Matt Parkinson from FiF bought it after they aired his episode!). Even going into my shed where I used to work and coming in contact with the dust a few years later would give me a mild reaction for a couple days (itchy and puffy arms/fingers/eyes). Now I can work with stabilized woods and ironwood, but I also rigged up a better dust collection system and shower immediately after working with wood handles.
 
I'm starting to like micarta more and more.
The darkness on the outside and the lighter colour deeper in the material gives it character I think.

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Hengelo_77 said:
I'm starting to like micarta more and more.
The darkness on the outside and the lighter colour deeper in the material gives it character I think.

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Nice shaping, but personally I like to get rid of the lacquered outer layer.

Its so easy to say if your work is simetrical, the layer lines dont lie :)
 
Finishing up my first Damasteel knife and I'm absolutely in love so far, despite how ridiculously long it took me to hand sand! I etched with muriatic acid mixed 50:50 with distilled water, heated to around 140 deg F for 3 cycles of 5:00 min each, scrubbing with 00000 steel wool between rounds. I could probably go darker with an instant coffee soak, but I like it as is. Also, I like how the pattern reveals the convex grind.
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Field testing some product. AEB-L and Suretouch. This was ground to 0.15 mm before sharpening, slightly convex towards the end. It gutted, skinned and cut through all the ribs, the spine and knee joints on a moose. No egde damage whatsoever. I was actually a little surprised. AEB-L can be a tough one for sure.
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This is knife i make for my brother some years ago... It is 2.2mm 1.2519 steel and somewhere around 63-64 hrc , survived quenching in brine but he did not survive the cutting of the New Year's tree..........my brother's wife try that :mad:
I will make him new one , this one I will keep for me , I pay 58 euro or it was 68 euro for that stabilized walnut burl !!!
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The San Mai (410/52100) set is coming along. I resanded and re-etched the two smaller ones, but got the blackwood handle on this one glued up. Still more polishing to do, but it’s almost ready. It looks washed out in the pics. Much better in person.


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Sean Yaw said:
I finished my first slipjoint with bolsters and wood (rosewood) scales. It turned out well.
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That's fantastic, Sean! How did you get the shield in there? How did you get the wood to be perfectly flush with the bolster?

Was that from a kit? Did you design it yourself? The shape looks perfect. How is the pull?

I'd sooooo like to be able to get a bunch of springs, blades, and bolsters from someone and then I'd finish it off.

I am learning to make slipjoints and seem to be making every mistake possible....
 
I am curious, how many knives do y'all work on at one time? I have four "cooking" right now. I usually do one or two.
 
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