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

[Way-Barney]

I finished an order for a guy - N690@59 HRC, 4 mm thick, 12 cm long blade. Red G10 with black liner accent. Sheath is so long it is almost hard to pull the knife out :/ Let's say it's a safety feature. Really cool mosaic pin - I like these ones with lots of smaller features in them.

Lovely knife, very crisp.

How do you get the bottom of the handle so smooth and even?

 

[pafka]

Lovely knife, very crisp.

How do you get the bottom of the handle so smooth and even?

Thanks. I use a small wheel attachment for the bottom for initial shaping (since at both ends there is an inside curve). But I will get ripples or dimples on the surface due to inevitably stopping at certain places. So after the small wheel attachment I use a regular file (with finer cut) to go over the whole length - that cleans up the low spots. Then I go for few light passes with the small wheel attachment again to clean up the file marks. That happens of course before HT - after HT I sand with a hard backing. That's pretty much it.

 

[Way-Barney]

Thanks. I use a small wheel attachment for the bottom for initial shaping (since at both ends there is an inside curve). But I will get ripples or dimples on the surface due to inevitably stopping at certain places. So after the small wheel attachment I use a regular file (with finer cut) to go over the whole length - that cleans up the low spots. Then I go for few light passes with the small wheel attachment again to clean up the file marks. That happens of course before HT - after HT I sand with a hard backing. That's pretty much it.

Thanks for that, I am at the ripply dimple stage try to sort out the mess after I have fitted the scales and ground them down to the tang.
The symmetry at the front and rear top of the handle is a cool touch as well.

 

[Lorien]

turning down pins today, and some other things and stuff

spent the past 3 days filing taxes, it's nice to be back in the shop!

 

[WValtakis]

Came up with this trippy semi-borderless/negative space idea for my Lee Williams "Crux" ...one layer of the weave on the same plane as the border in kind of an Escher-esque optical illusion

 

[Way-Barney]

Love the signature, took me a while to see that.

 

[Way-Barney]

In my shed space is at a premium, it's 10'x8' and i have in it lathe, milling machine, couple of drills grinders etc. I built all work benches around the machines and they are too low to work on. I have no clear space for marking out or fine detailed work and clearing out a surface that is to low has been giving me lower back pain when "leaning over" all the time. You young guns wont know about that yet.
So made this removable work area, its a simple idea - screw a 2x1 onto a board of your selected dimensions. I have used an old mahogany cupboard door. Batten then can be clamped into the bench vice when needed. Its simple and it works, the extra height is perfect for me to sit comfortably and work. Someone more adventurous than me could make it tilting for drawing etc. I can even clamp a small vice to the new work surface if needed.

 

[Scaniaman]

Water cooled free floating quench plates

 

[Laredian]

Been some time since I've posted on here. Here are some of my recent projects:

80 layer twist pattern Pocket Bowies:

Desert Ironwood:

Bogoak stabilized with copper powder:

Made two massive choppers, which I really enjoy. Both with African Blackwood handles:

And one of my Elysium Bowie design with Magnacut blade, stabilized Pagoda wood handle and mammoth ivory spacer with fluting.

 

[David Mary]

Cut a smaller knife design out of one of my chef blanks for a gentleman and made this from the off cut. It’s nearly 8.5” but weighs under 3 oz.

 

[navman]

Just got a package back from HT. There are more than these 4 in there, to include a personal chef's knife in AEBL. This is 1 of the pronghorn EDC drop points with three new pattern "Bird and trout" or hikers.

 

[MotorCityMike]

 

[navman]

Got a bar of CPM 4V from FEDEX yesterday, wasted no time in making some blanks. 2 x 4" drop point hunters, a 4.5 inch clip point bowie and a 5.25 inch clip point bowie. I don't normally do larger knives, but CPM4V seems to shine on larger blades, so I will continue to use S90V for smaller EDC style knives.

Next up, drill some holes and taper some tangs. Thinking full flat grind for the bowies and high hollow for the hunters.

 

[navman]

and....decided to go ahead and rough grind the bigger bowie: fresh off the grinder at 100 grit, tang tapered, bevels and swedge ground.

 

[AVigil]

 

[Lorien]

handles ready for install

 

[Way-Barney]

I had an hour to spare before work, so made a start on a radius platen.

Put a couple of scratch runs on a 2" MS plate.

Tacked it too an 8x2 plate


Calculating the cord gives a simulated wheel dia of 29"


I might try it out to see if it works.

 

[Cliff Carter Knives]

Got these on the bench right now. Need to grind the handles to profile then start shaping!

https://imgur.com/QQKhYy1

 

[navman]

been using the carbide platen for a bit now, and just bought a 24" radius platen...which leads me to ask...Does anyone make a CARBIDE radius platen?

 

[Contender Machine]

been using the carbide platen for a bit now, and just bought a 24" radius platen...which leads me to ask...Does anyone make a CARBIDE radius platen?

That would likely be very expensive but really cool. I tried getting the glass company I buy my ceramic glass from to make curved ceramic glass for radius platens. They couldn’t guarantee a consistent enough curve for me to be able to easily make backing plates for unfortunately.