Wheeler's Steel * Stuck in the metal with you

This next post underscores the value of taking time from your work to enjoy life. Mental health requires this nourishment, and improves productivity!


*****


This is the Astoria-Megler Bridge, and it spans across the Columbia River from Washington to Oregon. This pic isn't to show how cool the bridge is, it's to show how very little you could see of it on Saturday! The bridge is 4.1 miles long!!!

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Angi dancing around in the rain on Canon Beach, OR, with Haystack Rock in the background;

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It was pretty windy!

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Angi trying to not get blown off the beach! lol

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Haystack Rock- Canon Beach, Oregon;

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Ecola state park- This is what this area looks like on a Sunny day--- BEAUTIFUL!!! :)

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(that last shot is beautiful, in so many ways!):D
 
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I think the next bit of photos are more detail oriented. I really don't know how to explain what's going on without explaining too much, lol.... so, it is what it is! ;) :)

This diagram is how I approach the first steps of hand sanding. I usually start with the spine of the blade. If the direction of sanding changes as you go up in grit, then you'll make sure you get rid of all the previous grit marks;

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Sanding the spine of the blade;

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This is the spine sanded to 500 grit. It's also easier for me to make sure there are no divots in the surface this way;

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The spine sanded up to 800 grit, in line with the blade;

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Sanding into the choil with a chisel edged sanding block;

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This pic shows why the chisel edge block is needed... I can get right into that tight corner with it;

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This sketch shows my approach to sanding the ricasso. It's been surface ground FLAT, and I don't want to mess that up. I very carefully sand the ricasso at an angle;

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Sanding the ricasso;

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The ricasso sanded to 800 grit. The area not sanded will be where the guard and handle are fitted to the blade;

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Here's a stainless steel fixture I built for hand sanding blades;

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Ok, enough warm fuzzy stuff- Back to work!


****



This shows the sanding fixture mounted in the vise. There's a reason for everything you see. The T-shape of the fixture makes it very rigid, and makes it easy to clamp a blade down securely. The symmetrical shape on the end of it allows me to put the curve of a blade's belly right near the edge of the fixture, but still keep ME protected from the knife point sticking out;

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The tapped holes are for screws that can be turned up to push a piece of 1/4" thick micarta up against the blade. There's not much point to a rigid set-up, if the distal taper in a blade allows it to flex all over the place;

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This pic shows how the entire blade is supported from underneath, yet none of it is sticking out to where I'll stab myself. And I have done that, so I needed to make it idiot proof! ;) :)

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This little sketch shows what the machine finish is currently like on the blade;

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This sketch shows how I'll progress through the grits so that I can end up at a very clean 800X finish. I was going to do 600X, but I decided to try this and see how it goes;

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Here's a big sanding block I made from some James Todd G11 :) Burt Foster told me about this sandpaper trick (Rhynowet paper) He sprays it with adhesive, lets it sit for a minute, and then can apply it to a sanding block;

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Going to town with the big sanding block;

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Took a step back from sanding for a second to take this pic;

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I also sand with a different block that I pinch the paper around;

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Working to get all those scratches out!

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I don't know if this will show at all in the pic, but what I'm trying to show is that you need to hold the blade up and check for a nice and smooth bevel. It's easy to think you have everything flat, smooth, etc... but when you look at a blade this way, it's easy to find flaws;

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Same as the previous pic, just from a different perspective;

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The blade hand sanded to 500 grit;

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******


Now, I received all these photos from Nick around 4 am. I think it's safe to say that he is part Owl.
 
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It's nearly a pity to waste all that nice handsanding with a damascus etch...
 
Somebody asked me about the clip being uneven. It IS right now. ;)

I like to get my blades hand-sanded to a "dirty" finish of 600 or 800 grit before finish grinding the clip/false-edge. It's just how I prefer to do it. :)

EDITED to add: When I say a "dirty" finish, I mean that the blade is all at ONE grit, like, for example, the 500 grit finish in the last photo. There are NO scratches that are more coarse than 500X at that point, but I have NOT tried to make the 500 grit scratch pattern completely uniform. It has j-hooks, back & forths, etc. So when I say "dirty" finish, I don't mean crappy... it's just not all done with smooth, straight, continuous pulls.

*****And again, for the record!!! I don't think that these steps/photos are anything new for the makers on this forum... I just don't know how many collectors/buyers know about all of them and that is where the heart of this thread is. Lorien is my friend/customer, and so this is customer education.*****

It may be crappy, but hey... IT'S FREE!!! ;) :p :D


I know Lorien and I are both completely open to thoughts, questions, criticisms.... Feel free to fire away folks :)
 
I also wanted to say that in post #122, photo number 9, it looks like the plunge cut is not straight. That's a pet-peeve of mine, but I assure you it's just something going on with the photo. If you look at the last photo posted you can see that the plunge cut is clean and straight.
 
Guys
Thanks so much for putting this WIP together. It is one of the best Ive seen. Very clear photos and explanations. I really like the way you used the white board to explain the hand sanding.

Sean

EDIT:
BTW I just noticed the name of the thread. "clowns to the left of me, jokers too the right...here I am stuck in the "metal" with you". I love that song. :)
 
Thanks for taking the time to do this as a WIP. The beginning explained a bunch about forge work. Looking forward to seeing the finished blade.
 
Nick, you are a great inspiration! Lorien, you are a lucky man :)! Amazing WIP thread,makes me want to get to the grinder asap! Great pics, and again...amazing work. Sometime soon Nick, i will have you create me a work of art like this!
Thanks guys for the great thread!
Mike
 
Yesterday was spent on a couple of appointments I had, and then upgrading some more things in the shop. In my past, I have busted my left arm and wrist (I'm left handed) three times, and one of those times my hand was crushed.

It's pretty humbling when you feel strong at the gym, but then something like hand-sanding a blade makes you feel like a cripple... which is what happened with sanding this blade. I KNEW better too. I made that stainless steel hand-sanding fixture for the way the shop USED to be set-up, but the new bench is almost a foot higher. For most things that's much more comfortable for me, but for hand sanding it puts me in a VERY AWKWARD position from wrist to shoulder.

I let the "this is real time, where are all the new photos?!?!" stuff push me and moved forward with blade finishing when I should have been setting up a different sanding station. Especially since it had already been started :rolleyes: :eek:.

I got the new set-up finished last night, as well as a new Halogen light fixture for the bench and can now move forward with Lorien's whopper again. It's a double plus because it won't mess up my wrist and I'll be able to sand faster too.


EDITED to add: Sorry, I missed the post about sanding lubricant. I've tried every fancy thing you can think of, but after talking with Russ Andrews last summer, I have gone back to good 'ol WD-40. I add a couple drops of a cleaner/lubricant called Ballistol and it seems to work even better. :)




Also, I posted the following in the thread over on Shop-talk, but I think it's worth adding here :)


<<<<< Thanks guys, it's definitely adding a ridiculous amount of time to the project. You set the camera up and then try to do whatever task you're doing and get it in the shot with the 10 second timer. Biggest problem with that, is you end up having to take 5 or 6 pictures of each step to come up with 1 that actually shows whatever it is you're doing. So something that normally takes 10 minutes suddenly takes 30 because you're taking a pic, looking at it, figuring out if it will work, moving the tripod around and taking another one, etc.

I have a lot of pics where my hands were moving too fast, which makes the whole shot blurry. Editing and attaching them to emails to send to Lorien is a big time crusher too.

I made a comment in the thread about it being "free education" but it's actually costing me about three times what the knife is worth- :eek: But it's been fun, and fun is rarely REALLY free. ;) :) >>>>>
 
Glad you got the sanding fixture sorted out!

And I, for one, really appreciate the time and effort that you're putting into this WIP thread. It has been an enormous education for me, and as a newbie to knife making, I am earning an incredible amount. Thank you again!
 
Great thread!

Nick, set the camera up and pose where you want it for 10 sec, then carry on.
 
Nick, my friend, I can only imagine. I've done simple WIP's in the past with 1/10th the number of pictures this one has in it so far, and it can really take time. Especially the process of wading through all the pictures, deleting the bad ones and then figuring out what to use from the remainder and then editing/emailing.

You're doing a service to both the maker and the collector end of this pursuit with this post, Nick. Kudos and three cheers for you.

You know, in all seriousness, if you organized all these pictures with a bit more written detail and tips/info/data in between, this would make one hell of a great "here's how I do it book.". It's something I would buy and something that, with a bit more text, could really help a newcomer understand the processes involved in making quality knives. If you could get it published, it may even pay you back for some of the time that went into it.

Sorry everyone, I just gave Nick a new side project that further cut into his time to make knives :D. Seriously, though, you should consider it. A book of this detail would have helped sooo much when I first started making beyond the go-to books everybody seems to refer newbies to when starting out.

--Nathan
 
Nick
I dont think anyone will ever accuse you of doing anything half-assed, knives or WIPs. I have learned alot from this one. Thank you for taking the time to do it.

Sean
 
I'm getting a little antsy waiting for the next batch of pics! Can't wait to see what will happen next.

Nick, I'm sorry to hear about your wrist. Man, that sucks!:(
 
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