Wheeler's Steel * Stuck in the metal with you

Mike Krall said:
Should have used my words better, Nick... would the 1-degree disc get the handle face flat enough?

Mike
Click to expand...

As long as you were at center height, and on one side or the other of center, Nick probably couldn't even tell if it was off. ;)
 
st8yd said:
As long as you were at center height, and on one side or the other of center, Nick probably couldn't even tell if it was off. ;)
Click to expand...

I guess this is some sort of dig since you're the same guy that said my mark was off-center, but since it's within a few thousandths side to side... I'm really not sure what you're getting at.
 
Ok, so did I miss something here? I don't recall seeing pics of the entire finished knife. ???
 
Danbo said:
Ok, so did I miss something here? I don't recall seeing pics of the entire finished knife. ???
Click to expand...

It's shown in the youtube vids - probably blocked out while you're at work.

Check it out when you get home - it's pretty freakin' awesome.

Roger
 
RogerP said:
It's shown in the youtube vids - probably blocked out while you're at work.

Check it out when you get home - it's pretty freakin' awesome.

Roger
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I can't save the pic for my new screen background that way, Rog. ;)
 
Nick - I'll add my thank you to the long list of those before me. I feel I should refer to you as Professor Wheeler as this thread provides me the most complete and "my-world-applicable" education I have been exposed to. I'm in the process of turning out a variety of knives right now and I keep returning to this thread to see how you did this or that specific task..... guard shaping, pin drilling, hand sanding,.... whatever. I can already see improvement in my process and final product and this is directly attributed to the generous sharing of your time and talents.

I have a question: You did a fair amount of shaping this guard on your belt grinder after the knife was assembled and you didn't seem to worried about excessive heat building up and destroying epoxied bonds. How do you avoid this issue..... is it the belt choice, epoxy type, just fast work....??

Thank you again.

Peter
 
Hi Peter, thanks... that's very flattering to hear. I'm glad it's helping! :)

I'm not real sure on your question though, because I did almost no shaping of the guard on the belt grinder after it was assembled. I made the template and shaped the guard very close to its final profile, as well as cut a large chunk of the finger cut-out off before gluing up the handle.

The transition had a fair amount of metal removed after glue-up, but that's done with files and just cleaned up with a 320X j-flex belt. The only belt grinder work that gets done on the sides of the guard after glue-up is finish work... taking it up to a fine finish... no heavy stock removal.

Hope that clears things up a bit! :)
 
Last edited:
Nick - I should be a bit clearer, sorry. I guess I was referring to shaping the handle directly adjacent to the guard, including the spacers. You have nearly a whole post of photos showing this process and all I could think of was.... If I did that, I'd generate to much heat.
 
Last edited:
Hang on, hang on - I'm ready to give a big standing ovation for this WIP here but I'm still waiting for the final step. Unless I missed it, I don't recall ever seeing an edge put on this thing. And frankly, until it's sharpened, pretty tho it may be, it ain't yet a knife. ;)

Now I KNOW Nick would send the knife out until it could split a strand of spider's silk lengthwise, and I would love to learn about his sharpening process as well... What say you Nick, may I impose upon you to describe that final step? Pretty please? :)
 
Wulf said:
Hang on, hang on - I'm ready to give a big standing ovation for this WIP here but I'm still waiting for the final step. Unless I missed it, I don't recall ever seeing an edge put on this thing. And frankly, until it's sharpened, pretty tho it may be, it ain't yet a knife. ;)

Now I KNOW Nick would send the knife out until it could split a strand of spider's silk lengthwise, and I would love to learn about his sharpening process as well... What say you Nick, may I impose upon you to describe that final step? Pretty please? :)
Click to expand...

+1

Roger
 
check post #95;)
 
^^^ - yeah, but that's in the testing phase when the knife had a belt finish and didn't even have a handle yet. The blade is clearly NOT sharp in the video - Nick says so, and we would have been watching his fingers dropping on the floor if it had been. Did he take this pretty etched / polished / blued dmascus blade back to a belt, or just go straight to the stone?

We will not rest until this thread hits 100,000 views! :D

Roger
 
Haha.... :D

I do go back to stones. A belt works very fast, but there are two big negatives to using the belt (IMHO).

1.) It sharpens fast, but it will screw things up fast too! I've nicked the plunge cut shoulder that way... and there's no fixing that... the knife goes into the hidden drawer.

2.) Even though it works great for me, in my shop... I figure most folks don't have access to a $3k belt grinder. If I end up putting some funky geometry on the cutting edge because of the belt, then it will make for a very frustrated customer later on. If I use stones...which I feel many users/collectors have some sort of... then they can just touch the knife up without a lot of distress.

But that's just my take on it. I KNOW many others disagree. :)

The only thing I ever do different than in post #95 (which was like page #5 with the forum default display settings BTW) for final sharpening is I often use an extra fine diamond stone on the final few passes.
 
I visit with a master smith friend of mine about once every 2 weeks. I draw alot of inspiration from his work and attention to detail. My hat is off to you Nick! Between this thread and your hamon thread WOW, it's like system over load and not enough time in the day to do all I want to try now. My wife asked me why are you buying all that W2 steel don't you have enough steel in your shop for 1000s of knives? I said yeah but do you see that hamon that Nick did! I need it. Sorry to ramble but thanks again Nick for all your info. Jay Hendrickson said to say hi if I posted.
 
NickWheeler said:
I guess this is some sort of dig since you're the same guy that said my mark was off-center, but since it's within a few thousandths side to side... I'm really not sure what you're getting at.
Click to expand...

No dig on either post just sarcasm. My point was with your eye for detail carefully done on the tapered disc would be unoticeable.;)
 
Thanks Nick. I am now officially giving you a standing O. Seriously. I am standing up in front of my computer clapping. And typing. Not at the same time though that would be impossible.

Best WIP ever. :)
 
Wow! That is one amazing piece of wood! The knife is OK too:D Lorien is very lucky to get such an amazing knife.

I gotta say man, everytime I see you post up a new knife it makes me want to quit but also inspires me to do better at the same time.

This WIP thread shows the same attention to detail and care that goes into every one of your knives(and probably even more time) with just a little more writing it really would make a great book. I'd buy one.

Anyway I just wanted to thank you for the inspiration and for all the great tips. I've really learned a lot from you over the years. Thanks.


Oh, and one more thing...Where's the sheath?
 
What an amazing journey,thanks so much for sharing it with us!!Words cannot describe how impressive that blade turned out!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
GRIM 62 said:
What an amazing journey,thanks so much for sharing it with us!!Words cannot describe how impressive that blade turned out!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Click to expand...

+1 I could not have said it any better than this! +1 :thumbup::thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top