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

I finished this guy today. The bolsters are soldered on. I made the bolsters together so they are identical and then fit the wood to the bolsters before soldering by holding them together over a light and carefully grinding down the dark parts, since those are the parts keeping the gaps from closing. It worked very very well, but would not work if there were bottom bolsters too.
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Sean Yaw said:
I finished this guy today. The bolsters are soldered on. I made the bolsters together so they are identical and then fit the wood to the bolsters before soldering by holding them together over a light and carefully grinding down the dark parts, since those are the parts keeping the gaps from closing. It worked very very well, but would not work if there were bottom bolsters too.
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That is a stunning knife. Really beautiful! I admire all of your work that you post here, but you've outdone yourself with this one.
 
Parts of this build were very tedious. I used hard ball bearings for the pin heads and had to grind them flat, then drill into them with a carbide bit. 12 of the 18 stems are on a 30 degree angle to match the handle facets. I made a little fixture to hammer them into to set the angle.
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Lorien said:
ball bearings? You're a madman!
please tell me you annealed them first!
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Nope, I read that they lose corrosion resistance if annealed. My carbide bits got delivered to the wrong address and were lost for a few days. Meanwhile I tried an old trick that Nathan posted years ago, using a soft rod and lapping compound to drill by wearing a hole. 1) it sort of works, 2) it's for the birds. As soon as my carbide bits came I finished quickly. I was worried about breaking them as it was only 1/16" and they are notoriously fragile, but it didn't break. I didn't have to drill all the way through the other side which probably helped.
 
Richard338 said:
Parts of this build were very tedious. I used hard ball bearings for the pin heads and had to grind them flat, then drill into them with a carbide bit. 12 of the 18 stems are on a 30 degree angle to match the handle facets. I made a little fixture to hammer them into to set the angle.
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It looks nice.

Is it comfortable to hold that though? I feel like thats got to be what everyone is wondering (well, at least me).
 
Richard338 said:
Nope, I read that they lose corrosion resistance if annealed. My carbide bits got delivered to the wrong address and were lost for a few days. Meanwhile I tried an old trick that Nathan posted years ago, using a soft rod and lapping compound to drill by wearing a hole. 1) it sort of works, 2) it's for the birds. As soon as my carbide bits came I finished quickly. I was worried about breaking them as it was only 1/16" and they are notoriously fragile, but it didn't break. I didn't have to drill all the way through the other side which probably helped.
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I like to use the super tool carbide tipped bits they sell on amazon. They seem to perform well. Plus having a steel shaft makes it less brittle as a whole.
 
I got mine at Lakeshore Carbide. They seem to be popular with machinists. They cut much better than some carbide tipped glass cutting bits I had.
 
Sean Yaw said:
I finished this guy today. The bolsters are soldered on. I made the bolsters together so they are identical and then fit the wood to the bolsters before soldering by holding them together over a light and carefully grinding down the dark parts, since those are the parts keeping the gaps from closing. It worked very very well, but would not work if there were bottom bolsters too.
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I had to reply to your post - that bolster/scale fit is outstanding! Thanks for the explanation how you did it. I'll try to remember that method and perhaps try that one of these days. Might I ask about the second pin (toward the tail end) in the bolster, did you think it was needed after soldering the bolster on? OR, is that just a "suspenders 'n seat-belt" type of thing?

Just a beautiful piece of craftsmanship - truly the work of an artist.
 
Ken H> said:
I had to reply to your post - that bolster/scale fit is outstanding! Thanks for the explanation how you did it. I'll try to remember that method and perhaps try that one of these days. Might I ask about the second pin (toward the tail end) in the bolster, did you think it was needed after soldering the bolster on? OR, is that just a "suspenders 'n seat-belt" type of thing?

Just a beautiful piece of craftsmanship - truly the work of an artist.
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Thanks for the kind words. I first tried just scribing the shape and carefully grinding to the line, but the fit was not perfect. Then I started holding it up to the light and did that "grind the dark part" trick and that worked amazingly well.

I don't know if that other pin was needed. Probably not. There was just so much space between the pivot pin and that tip of the bolster that I got worried about it. Since I knew I could hide the pin well enough, I did not see any down side to putting it in. It would be nice to have a mechanical attachment on the wood "peninsula", but I don't think putting a pin there would look good, so it is just epoxy. I did drill out some divots under it to really try and get a good epoxy bond.
 
8670 carbon steel slipjoint, nickel silver bolsters, canvas micarta, based on an old barlow
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