WIP a bowie-ish thingy-pic heavy

Tony Mont

Tony Mont

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
Messages
1,489
Hello everybody!

As the title says, I decided to do another WIP thread! Personally I'm a big fan of those because it gives me the chance to get feedback on my work as I go along. Also, this WIP is going to be on going since the knife is not completed like my last few WIPs.

The main focus of this build is fit and finish. For this reason, I've kept the design simple.

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As you can see, nothing crazy going on, 7.5" blade with a hidden tang constructiion. The only "fancy" stuff going on is the shape of the guard. More likely I will change the shape of the handle once the time comes, this one looks way too simple.

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With the design at hand and my fuel ready to go, I transfer the design to a piece of cooking paper and then onto the steel. This allows me to keep my paper design for later reference.

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With my trusty angle grinder, I cut off anything that it is not a knife. I would love to forge this piece out but my current workshop does not allow for heavy forging. If everything goes as planned, in ~2 months I will have a new space and forge as I please!
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With the profile out of the way, I flatten the ricasso. This always takes some back and forth to ensure a flat and parallel ricasso. This might be one of the most important steps of the build, the whole knife is referenced of the ricasso area. With that out of the way, I scribe and grind my center line.
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With a fresh 60 grit belt I do my pre heat treatment grind.
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I drilled and chamfered my future pin hole. The hole will not stay this big, it's just a step to make my life easier down the line.
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Since I'm using c130, I will go for a hamon. I love doing them even though I still have a lot to learn about them.
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The blade is clayed up and ready for thermal cycling and then quenching.
This is a far as I have gone. I'm going to do the heat treatment today and hope for the best on the hamon.

All comments and feedback are welcome!
To be continued soon!
 
Thank you for thanking all the extra time to do this for us, much appreciated.

I’ve been a fan and a Customer for a number of years and your work was always very nice but has improved dramatically….that Trio you know. 😎
 
"More likely I will change the shape of the handle once the time comes, this one looks way too simple."

Nice design. It has nice proportions and flow. Don't confuse streamlined or refined with "simple". The handle you've drawn is attractive and practical. Many times coming up with a handle like that is NOT simple. More is not always better. Looking forward to seeing more.
 
i4Marc said:
"More likely I will change the shape of the handle once the time comes, this one looks way too simple."

Nice design. It has nice proportions and flow. Don't confuse streamlined or refined with "simple". The handle you've drawn is attractive and practical. Many times coming up with a handle like that is NOT simple. More is not always better. Looking forward to seeing more.
Click to expand...
Exactly!
 
i4Marc said:
"More likely I will change the shape of the handle once the time comes, this one looks way too simple."

Nice design. It has nice proportions and flow. Don't confuse streamlined or refined with "simple". The handle you've drawn is attractive and practical. Many times coming up with a handle like that is NOT simple. More is not always better. Looking forward to seeing more.
Click to expand...
Now that's some food for thought! Your work has always been an inspiration of mine and will definately will follow your advice.

Also a quick teaser on the knife, currently I hold in my hands a boomerang. I will update later with pictures once I have completed organising the photos etc.
 
Sooooo, as I said on my last message, the knife took a big warp. Luckily, it was just a long bend to the left, no bacon edge or twisting.

The straightening process was done in 3 steps.

First step, take as much as possible right after the quench.
Step two, shim temper to further move the blade.
Step three, peen to achieve straightness.

Here is the knife right after the tempering was done.
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Prior checking how straight my blade is, I like to sand the flats a bit to ensure there is no left over clay that could mess my flatness on the ricasso.
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And here it is, a nice long bend towards left.
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This is my kinda failed attempt to show it on a flat surface, notice where the tip lands on the colum.
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Laying the knife on the anvil, I started pinning with a ball peen hammer. This technique works like magic! Ideally, a carbide hammer is used for this task but since the knife has been differentially heat treat, a normal hammer was more than enough.
It doesn't take a lot of force, light taps are more than enough.
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This is a pretty straght forward task, peen and check until satisfied with the result.
If you look closely on the colum this time, there are a couple of shiny marks, the tip is spot on!
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To be continued on the next post to upload more pictures.
 
With a now straight piece to work with, I started by establishing my center line and doing a couple of passes to remove the peening marks.

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Sometimes when removing the peening marks the blade might bend a bit again, some more peening and grind might be required. I was lucky enough that I didn't have such a problem.
With the blade ground to 20 thousands, I convexed it and sharpened it to do some testing.

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As you can see, I also made a lovely duct tape handle for better grip.
I didn't have any 2x4s at hand therefore I went to town on a bone dry 3.5" diameter olive tree branch, this shit is much much harder to cut through.
Halfway break for "action" picture.
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This is the end result, the edge after the branch was fine and with that out of the way, the knife may be completed.

I did some 60grit grinding and called it a day. There is much more final grinding to be done starting tomorrow.
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To close this update, I took an awful picture teasing the hamon a bit.
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Looking forward to your feedback!
 
Great job and thank you for for taking the time to photo and explain the steps you take….this will be another fine example of your work my friend. 😎
 
Today's update is big, it will be 3 posts because I can't upload all the pictures on one.

Sooooo, prior the final grind, I like to clean my choil+spine to avoid scratching up a finished blade while sanding and square up my shoulders.
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Both will be hand sanded later on, I just take out the major scratches on the grinder.

Using a square on the spine, I scribe a square line on the ricasso for reference.
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The file guide is a hair out of square tilting forward, that's intentional. I took the advice from Kyle Royer. A guard that is 100% square to the spine can look a bit weird sometimes. Tilting it forward ever so slightly ensures that the knife looks "fast".

Checking with a square that my shoulders are flat.
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And now I'm ready to do the final grind!
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My belt progression is the following:
60 grit ceramic
120 grit ceramic
A65 gator (~280 grit)
A45 gator (~400 grit)
A30 gator (~800 grit).

Everytime I move up grits, I grind at a 45 degree orientation. This way, I can easily see the scratches from the previous belt. In the following picture it's pretty clear that I have some leftover scratches near the tip.
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To be continued...
 
A little tip I picked up by reading here is to dress up the gator belts. I use a cheap diamond file and do a quick pass prior grinding. I like my belts to be super fresh and I do that quite often. The belts last less in the long run but always cut at their peak. (I still get 20+ knives out of them).

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Sneak peek at A65.

And a little A30 action.

A plunge shot, that's right of the grinder.
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When doing a full flat grind, it's importang to keep this little transition on the flats. Makes for a much better looking bevel.
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Since the blade is final ground and the flats sanded to a high enough grit that they will not change dimentionally, I can start fitting the guard.

These are my drill bit progression.
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Usually, I drill 80% from the back side to a larger size, this makes for an easier fit. Today was not the case though, since I want to curve the front of the guard, I can't recess the guard that deep (otherwise it will show later on).

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These carbide burrs are a MUST! They make fitting the guard soooooo much easier. I highly suggest buying a set. This complete set was bought from bangood for 17$ shipped. Are they going to be the same quality as pferd etc? I highly doubt it. Do they eat through mild steel like butter? Oh yeah! and cost literally 10 times less.

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To be continued...
 
Filling filling filling...

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Aaaaalmost there.
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In the next steps I didn't take many pictures, I was way too focused and forgot. What happened was that I completely fit the guard and then ground the curves in the front of the guard.

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Super tiny gaps. To remove them, I lightly peen the sides and re grind. The guard needs a hammer sit properly, what you see in the sides are not gaps, it's a wire edge raised from fitting. The wire edge will be gone once I hand sand it.

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Aaaand this is the result. I'm toying with the idea of curving the back of the guard as well, what do you guys think?
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Also, I can't decide which handle material to use.
These are my options:
1) ivory micarta
2) ebony
3) bocote
4) curly maple ( I will dye it)
5) black and green

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My plan for tomorrow is to start the handle.

Looking forward to your feedback!
 
I love following WIPs just to see how others do things. I was reminded of a trick or two that I know but don't always remember.
I won't suggest a handle, but look forward to seeing what you choose.
 
Thank you guys for your kind words!

Today's update is going to be three parts as well.

My plan was to do a bocote handle with a scale finish on the guard. I really like the combination bocote+black.
I traced my tang lines as a good lad and oooooh shit, this piece of bocote is useless...

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There is a chance these cracks don't go far but I would rather change course now that I haven't invested time in it.
My second choice? Curly maple of course. It's one of my favourite handle materials.

I've noticed some people do tiny tangs to avoid drilling the tang slot. Sure, it can be intimidating at first but it comes down to simple tracing, marking the angle, punching and drilling.
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Also, DO NOT forget to check squareness on both orientations! Usually that's the reason the tang slot is exposed while shaping.
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Same deal for the second hole.
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And finally a lit bit of wiggling to remove the webbing.

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This is my slot straight from the drill press.
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to be continued...
 
With my trusty-custom made broach, I square up the slot.

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On woods like maple, it's easy to see where I must remove more material. Simple slide the handle to the tang and check for marks.
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Also, I'd like to point out about my drill bit thickness. My tang is ~5.5mm/ 0.216" and the drill bit 8mm/0.314". Even though the slot looks enormous os some pictures, it actually has some good clearance for the epoxy to bind.
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With the handle all the way home, I roughly shape up the guard. It's much easier to do a clean fit up without having all this guard surface (that it's going to be ground of anyway).
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A little g10 spacer and some layout fluid to give me the general shape.

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to be continued...
 
And the guard is roughly shaped. Also cleaned it up a bit on the slack belt.

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Now it's time to check my handle fit up. It's easy to see any gaps against a bright light.

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A little bit of sanding on a flat surface and the handle is properly sitting on the guard. Again, check BOTH orientations!

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Squared up and roughly shaped the handle. That's where I called it a day. I've left the bottom of the handle square on purpose, it makes for an easier glue up later on.
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Tomorrow's plan is to start hand sanding the blade, I hope at least.

Thank you guys for reading!
Looking forward to your feedback!
 
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