Wheeler's Steel * Stuck in the metal with you

Makes me want to grab my files and file away!
Preferably a knife, but anything wood/metal/bone would do! :)
Thanks for the inspiration Nick, and Lorien of course!

/Magnus
 
Well, I don't just file away with abandon, it is a good idea to stop, take the knife out of the fixture, and check for feel and symmetry. I am left handed, so it's very important to make the knife completely symmetrical not only for appearance, but if I can make the handle feel good in my left hand AND it's completely symmetrical, then it will feel good to the other 92% of the population's right handers. ;)

It's a good time to go back to the silhouette and check for our progress there too. It's starting to come together now :);

xuIqE77.jpg
 
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Controled filing is allways preferable and more enjoyable! :)
Especially on a knife! :D

/Magnus
 
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Hey Magnus! :)

My caption on that last photo looks like it's a contradiction to your post right before it... but it's just an odd coincidence because I typed that caption hours before your post! LOL :)
 
that is a weird coinkidink^
that's all for today folks!

Wow, Nick, I am getting more and more stoked!!!
 
Lorien said:
I want to thin the guard down a lot more. Now I can say from experience, that it's possible to get ahead of yourself, slip, and end up with the file sliding underneath the guard and scratching the pretty 600grit hand planed surface to hell. That is NOT-so-good! ;) Simple solution, put a piece of micarta under the face of the guard so that can't happen :);
496.jpg
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Nick, I'm disapointed you didn't make a special u-shaped piece of micarta patterned to the guard to slide in front of it, so you could get at it better. :D

Nice job, looking good.
 
Beautiful work my friend! I wish I would have known about the micarta safety plate yesterday. I slipped, with a file, while squaring off the bottom of my guard. The file just touched the bottom of the ricasso and messed up my pretty 600 grit finish.:eek: Plus it couldn't be in a worse place to fix, between the face of the guard and the choil.:grumpy: You need to hurry up with this WIP before I make any more dumb mistakes. lol
 
This brings up an interesting side story. A while back a fella that makes knives came to my shop. He took a look around (this is even before the lathe, mills, and grinders #2 and #3) and said, "Well I get it now!!!" I asked him what he meant, and he replied, "Well shoot, look at all of this equipment!!! I could make knives just like yours if I had all these machines too!!!"

I kind of laughed and said, "Well, you know, there's a lot of hand work involved. I don't know how to make a knife without hand work." He held his position... basically trying to invoke some kind of argument out of me, or admission that I run a knife factory.... so finally I told him "Knock yourself out then. "

"Huh???"

"Feel free to use the machines and show me what you come up with. "

Oddly enough, he chose not to take me up on my offer!
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That story is a bright spot in my day :D

Thanks for doing this nice WIP

John
 
^^^ Now that's clever. I'm glad I'm wrong about my earlier doubts about this jig. What a great idea. I'm embarrassed I ever doubted you Nick. :p
 
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12345678910 said:
You are alot smarter than you look
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AWESOME!!! I was really hoping that after spending over 100 hours making this thread happen and showing every little thing I've compiled after 15 years of serious knife making that I would get at least one back handed compliment/insult. :rolleyes:
 
time to flagellate yourself Stuart. And flagellate 12345678910 while you're at it.
 
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Nick, Just smiling and shaking my head.... Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to demonstrate your acquired knowledge and process... :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
That "Wheeler" handle shape is so perfect, and it's such fun to see Nick lay it out and grind and file it. This is just super. Thanks , Nick.

John
 
Thank You Nick and Lorien for all the great instructions and photographs so far. I am especially fascinated by how you sculpt the handle. Nick, I am especially impressed at your ability to change modes from engineer to artist and back again.

I think if when you finish the knife, you could just turn this thread over to a publisher. With minor editing you would have an excellent knife making book. I would buy one.
 
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I'm sad,:( it's getting close to the end . Then what?


Seriously I'll be rereading this many many times, and have plans for jig making, then put all this info to use.

Overwhelming,

Thanks Lorien and Nick for all your effort, best thread ever.:D
 
I'm sure glad some of you folks like the thread. It has been fun and frustrating all in one package for me. I really had no idea just how time consuming it was going to be. I have a folder on my computer titled "Lorien's knife" that has two thousand photos in it.

While it's been more good than bad in the overall picture, I am glad that the knife is almost done. This thing should have taken about a week start to finish (at most) but when you factor the picture taking, editing, caption writing, and emailing, it quickly grew into a 3 week+ project.

I'd planned for it to be done earlier, but ran into some problems getting it to feel just the way I want it to. I THINK I got that stuff worked out, and it should just be some more finish details.

My current thought is that I'll send the knife to Coop to get a proper photograph after all of this craziness so as to not cap the thread off with my very amateurish light tent photos. :)

Thanks again folks :)
 
Lorien said:
then... I get REAL HAPPY!:D
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.....and then Nick probably gets some much needed sleep!

:yawn:

Thank you Nick and Lorien for taking the time and effort to put into this amazing knife and WIP thread. I appreciate the amount of hard work that's not only gone into the knife, but the documentation process as well. I'm a new member to BF, and this was the first WIP thread I've ever viewed. I've been hooked on it since my first viewing. I wake up everyday excited to see the progress of this beautiful blade.

Nick, your attention to detail and precision shows in the quality of your work. I respect the ingenuity of the jigs and rigs that you utilize to enhance the precision and decrease the chance of making critical mistakes. Definitely takes the work smarter not harder aspect to a whole new level. The amount of time you've put in as a knife maker definitely shows in this thread and your work. I agree with Burl Source, your melding of Engineering and Artisan is admirable. I believe that's close to impossible for most. Most are either geared one way or the other. Your passion for knife making shines in this thread, as well your good character, and dedication to this community. Keep up the excellent work!

Lorien, your passion for custom knives is contagious. People like you are what keeps the blade world turning. I know wholeheartedly after following this thread that you'll appreciate the work of art Nick is creating for you at the level which it should be. It's inspiring to me to see someone that is dedicated to the level of contribution that you have presented here. I feel that the world would be a better place if people had a tenth of the enthusiasm in anything that you do for custom knives. Congratulations man, I know you'll enjoy this knife.

Thank you both again for putting this project together!:thumbup:

Judd
 
NickWheeler said:
AWESOME!!! I was really hoping that after spending over 100 hours making this thread happen and showing every little thing I've compiled after 15 years of serious knife making that I would get at least one back handed compliment/insult. :rolleyes:
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All in fun my boy.

It's a really good solution to keeping things straight.

You usually only get credit for your dreamy good looks.
 
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