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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.
What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!
- Thread starter WillSwift
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Working on a saya for this bunka.
I had to take the tape off the blade to make sure I'm getting a proper fit, so it needs to be cleaned up a final time after the saya is finishes.
The wood is crazy. It's from a tree that was torn down in my yard. Water oak, but it's highly figured and spalted! If I would have known what I was looking at at the time I would have done absolutely everything I could to keep any piece that looked similar on the outside to this one.
I had to take the tape off the blade to make sure I'm getting a proper fit, so it needs to be cleaned up a final time after the saya is finishes.
The wood is crazy. It's from a tree that was torn down in my yard. Water oak, but it's highly figured and spalted! If I would have known what I was looking at at the time I would have done absolutely everything I could to keep any piece that looked similar on the outside to this one.
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- Feb 16, 2022
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Also this keeps happening.
Definitely slows things down a bit.
Definitely slows things down a bit.
ScarFoot
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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- Sep 16, 2021
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I started making in May and this is my fifth knife. I had to re-quench which is why the hammon is weird and the walnut I used for the handles started doing something weird while I was hand sanding it which is where the little notch in the handle came from. All in all I’m pretty happy with it. I learned A LOT on this one.
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I'm guessing it's just an imperfection that was in the wood?
Also is that hamon just from where you stuck the blade in the quenchant? It did you use clay to get an exact area that you wanted softer?
ScarFoot
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2021
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I used clay but it came off the blade after the first quench. The original line should have been midway up the blade and followed the profile. It didn’t pass the file test so I went straight back to the heat with it.
On the handle I assume it was just a little void or something in the wood. It was weird because it really didn’t follow the grain and showed up while I was hand sanding. My dad bought that walnut about 35 years ago. I’d like to get some of it stabilized at some point. I’m going to play with some cherry we cut next.
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I really like this design. It makes a very satisfying "click".
I posted these pictures elsewhere, but i"m not a knife maker and not even a pro toolmaker. they are 26c3 chisels, hardened to 63/64 (tempered just under 400F). They are differentially hardened, a slightly softer hardness starting around 2/3rds of the way to the shoulder and then the shoulder to the tang goes from that to untreated.
handles are cocobolo. the chisels are forge shaped (lower heat), thermally cycled after that, and then finish ground - everything is freehand on a contact wheel and a belt sander with a flat platen (like an inexpensive one) with care to not heat the steel hot enough to fizz water at any time.
bolsters are mild steel forge welded to the chisel.
Chisels never really were made to a pristine aesthetic like custom knives are now. Even though these are paring chisels, I test every chisel with a pare, hammer, pare test - pounding the chisel into something harder than is usually worked - usually hard maple or rosewood - and confirming that the paring after the malleting still feels the same, and I occasionally confirm the complete absence of post test damage with a microscope.
chisels 1
chisels 2
chisels 3
I use a forge, but have done my due diligence with O1 and 26c3 and make tools only in those two steels. it's pleasure work and not for profit, but for reference as to why I don't work professionally, it would be hard to get more than $125 each for chisels like these, so I only generally make them for professional users (so they'll get used), never charging more than the cost of materials.
Chisels like this were common in England about 150 years ago, but because they have some flex and are not conducive to fast making, there is nothing in production now that is close in quality to either the old ones or these.
if they can't pass the pare/mallet/pare test, then I either keep them for me and reheat them, or I put them aside or throw them away. I used to have to toss one of every four or so, but haven't had a bad outcome in a while unless venturing to make test tools out of other alloys.
handles are cocobolo. the chisels are forge shaped (lower heat), thermally cycled after that, and then finish ground - everything is freehand on a contact wheel and a belt sander with a flat platen (like an inexpensive one) with care to not heat the steel hot enough to fizz water at any time.
bolsters are mild steel forge welded to the chisel.
Chisels never really were made to a pristine aesthetic like custom knives are now. Even though these are paring chisels, I test every chisel with a pare, hammer, pare test - pounding the chisel into something harder than is usually worked - usually hard maple or rosewood - and confirming that the paring after the malleting still feels the same, and I occasionally confirm the complete absence of post test damage with a microscope.
chisels 1
chisels 2
chisels 3
I use a forge, but have done my due diligence with O1 and 26c3 and make tools only in those two steels. it's pleasure work and not for profit, but for reference as to why I don't work professionally, it would be hard to get more than $125 each for chisels like these, so I only generally make them for professional users (so they'll get used), never charging more than the cost of materials.
Chisels like this were common in England about 150 years ago, but because they have some flex and are not conducive to fast making, there is nothing in production now that is close in quality to either the old ones or these.
if they can't pass the pare/mallet/pare test, then I either keep them for me and reheat them, or I put them aside or throw them away. I used to have to toss one of every four or so, but haven't had a bad outcome in a while unless venturing to make test tools out of other alloys.
You can embed the images directly using the image icon on the tool bar. On imgur, right-click the image and select "Copy image address", then paste that into the link field that pops up when you press the image icon.
Nice looking chisels!
You can embed the images directly using the image icon on the tool bar. On imgur, right-click the image and select "Copy image address", then paste that into the link field that pops up when you press the image icon.
Nice looking chisels!
Thanks for the tip - I'll do that next time. I guess i'm too reliant on imgur's shortcuts and embedding with at least one of theirs makes the pictures look like a garish advertisement for imgur.
There's an easter egg in these that I just noticed. After making these, the user (I gave them to the recipient, so I can't say buyer, etc) looks like he removed some or all of the handle finish. the one in the middle was sent later to add to the other two, so it still has the "factory" finish. I'm guessing in the world of nice knives, most users don't touch anything. With tools, you kind of expect the buyer to know what they're getting and send the stuff along with "do whatever you want to the handles, they have ___ for finish to start".
Most experienced or professional users prefer either bare wood or a sheer shellac/wax finish. I'm learning pretty quickly how culturally different everything is with knives, what people want to get in specs, vs. use, etc. With tools, people just want to get them, have them be in proportion to what they want and have no flaws in use. If you don' charge anything, nobody complains that you test the tools before you send them.
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Yeah. You're definitely right there. I know for pretty much any tool I have, I tend to take a cabinet scraper, and get rid of any kind of slick finish that comes on the handle. Then put either pastewax, or linseed oil on instead. Seems to just feel better while working.
Compared to custom knives, there's so little in the market for margin for most of the commodity toolmakers. A good quality forged carving gouge made of what's probably about 0.9% carbon CV steel with a handle wholesales around $30. Consequently, nothing really has a great finish - it bobs back and forth between near nothing and a dipped handle in some kind of clear that takes no labor.
I finished (as in the level of finish work) a chisel for a guy a little more highly than would've been done in the last 200 years and did a really close shellac finish (the guy who got the cocobolo handles likes japanese tools - the good ones never have any significant finish thickness) over pore filled with CA and sanded back. A very sheer gloss finish of shellac - only two or three drops and this is the result.
Felt terrible. Looked nice. I would've sanded off but figured it would look nice coming out of the package and that's what the guy said "looked great, sanded it off".
there's probably room for knife makers to get into the toolmaking market, but it would have to be with a nod toward the vintage stuff (forged with a tang and not socket), and some understanding of the properties of the steel - more emphasis on the high side of the tempered hardness for most steels).