- Joined
- Mar 7, 2009
- Messages
- 254
I've had this mockup made for a few weeks. (I'd been wondering for a while if this design would sit in my hand. The 45th time I read a thread where somebody recommended making a model, the lights went on.)
Here's the model:
I'm finally getting around to doing it in W2. I'll probably use black G10 or black linen micarta for the scales.
As usual, my design didn't fit any of my materials. It's almost 2" wide and the bar stock I have is all 1.5-1.75" wide. So the other night I drew out a bit of the W2 bar stock I have, "mushed" it off the bar, and annealed it. Then last night I knocked off the high spots with the angle grinder and surfaced it mostly flat on the belt grinder. It's about 1.265" at the butt and 1.25" at the tip end. The last knife I thinned the stock the same way, and was able to get within 0.005" from the thickest corner to the thinnest. What I learned from that is that getting the blank perfect is a waste of time and steel.
You can see my hammer technique is a work in progress itself.
Lesson the first: Next time I make a model in wood, I'll either screw the scales on or use rubber layout cement. The model's much more useful if it comes apart.... I thought I was going to split the whole thing, but I was able to slice the scale off my model with a boning knife to get an accurate pattern:
Traced that, cut it out, and rubber-cemented it to the steel:
And roughed it out with my flexshaft this morning.
It took about an hour to do that with the flexshaft. I really need to get that bandsaw working!
You can see a little oopsie where I slipped with the cutoff wheel:
And also what I meant about grinding the blank "mostly flat". The distal taper will take out those remaining hammer dimples and the flat-grind blade bevel will erase the oopsie. (I can't find the praying hands icon...)
The corners that I left on will easily hog out on the grinder.
Another thing I learned with the first knife is that post-HT cleanup makes things a LOT smaller than I expected. This time I left lots of meat all around.
Since my pattern was penciled on plain art paper, I had to be very careful with cooling while cutting this out. Even just wetting the backside, the water on my fingers and the splash from the cut grooves had almost erased the pattern before I finished.
Next time I want to seal the paper with clear nail polish or maybe plain tape. Any suggestions about that are very welcome.
Tonight I'll finish profiling, mark and drill the finger hole, and maybe grind the blade.
Comments, suggestions, and catcalls are all welcome!
Here's the model:
I'm finally getting around to doing it in W2. I'll probably use black G10 or black linen micarta for the scales.
As usual, my design didn't fit any of my materials. It's almost 2" wide and the bar stock I have is all 1.5-1.75" wide. So the other night I drew out a bit of the W2 bar stock I have, "mushed" it off the bar, and annealed it. Then last night I knocked off the high spots with the angle grinder and surfaced it mostly flat on the belt grinder. It's about 1.265" at the butt and 1.25" at the tip end. The last knife I thinned the stock the same way, and was able to get within 0.005" from the thickest corner to the thinnest. What I learned from that is that getting the blank perfect is a waste of time and steel.
You can see my hammer technique is a work in progress itself.
Lesson the first: Next time I make a model in wood, I'll either screw the scales on or use rubber layout cement. The model's much more useful if it comes apart.... I thought I was going to split the whole thing, but I was able to slice the scale off my model with a boning knife to get an accurate pattern:
Traced that, cut it out, and rubber-cemented it to the steel:
And roughed it out with my flexshaft this morning.
It took about an hour to do that with the flexshaft. I really need to get that bandsaw working!
You can see a little oopsie where I slipped with the cutoff wheel:
And also what I meant about grinding the blank "mostly flat". The distal taper will take out those remaining hammer dimples and the flat-grind blade bevel will erase the oopsie. (I can't find the praying hands icon...)
The corners that I left on will easily hog out on the grinder.
Another thing I learned with the first knife is that post-HT cleanup makes things a LOT smaller than I expected. This time I left lots of meat all around.
Since my pattern was penciled on plain art paper, I had to be very careful with cooling while cutting this out. Even just wetting the backside, the water on my fingers and the splash from the cut grooves had almost erased the pattern before I finished.
Next time I want to seal the paper with clear nail polish or maybe plain tape. Any suggestions about that are very welcome.
Tonight I'll finish profiling, mark and drill the finger hole, and maybe grind the blade.
Comments, suggestions, and catcalls are all welcome!
Can't say I wouldn't want more purchase than just two fingers on a knife, but this design looks like it would be a very cool blade to EDC. :thumbup: on the finger hole, looks wicked 
