WIP: To keep me motivated!

[wolffbite]

Thanks Danny, we all gotta start somewhere!

Thanks james!

You know you may be right... I had this convoluted idea that if I always had some away at heat-treating and some back for finishing I would always have something to do.. I'm not sure if that even makes sense We will see how busy I get in the next week or two, if I have time to finish up a few more to go along I will do that :thumbup:

And I will give the plunge trick a try. Worst case I just have to go fix em with files anyways haha

 

[james terrio]

Look at it this way... with the $$ you save by waiting to send more blades per batch in to HT, you can buy more steel to grind on while the first batch is away.

And I will give the plunge trick a try. Worst case I just have to go fix em with files anyways haha

Exactly!

 

[wolffbite]

Just a little update... I know it's been a while. I've had a more intense last month or so of project after project, and last week 6 midterms, this week a final every day. There is a light at the end of the tunnel however... I get next week off for spring break before finishing off the semester by may. I plan to get a bunch more work done that week, and get some off to heat-treating =)

Stay tuned until next week, I promise I will get there!

 

[jonnymac44]

Thanks for the update Wolffie! Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Nice work so far buddy!

 

[wolffbite]

As promised, here is an update =)

It was a wonderfully snowy and chilly morning. So after shoveling the driveway I got a bit of hand-sanding done.

Here is my current set up, thanks to a Nick-Wheeler type sanding jig from Carl!

I have a piece of kydex laid over top to prevent scratching of the blank when it it clamped down to the jig.

And here is some 120g Rhynowet, trusty sanding stick, and some good old vitamin-WD.

About 20 minutes later we have the majority of the grinder scratches out, with mostly work on the plunge left

I thought it was time I switched from my wooden sanding stick to something a little more square and rigid. I had some scrap PG-O1 barstock, so I decided to grind up a new sanding stick for myself.

This thing worked wonders, getting into the plunges and keeping them sharper than they have ever been. Always improving :thumbup:

About 45 minutes later and we have this! The whole blade finished to 120grit

Here is a little "before and after", showing one sanded and one not-sanded for comparison.

Alright that's all for now guys, I gotta get back out there and sand the other one =)

Thanks for reading!

 

[wolffbite]

Sooo I know I should be sending these things out in batches. But I'm pretty impatient, so a while ago I sent one lonely blade in for heat-treating... What can I say, this design is really doing something for me right now... I just had to see it finished!!!

This guy is getting stainless pins and tubing, and some stabilized curly koa slabs =)

So here is how I like to do my slabs (I don't know if there is a better way... probably is... but this is how I figured it out )

I get them precut into scales by Mark at Burlsales, and end up with a really nice bookmatched set. So to keep the grain all lined up, I throw some blue painters tape around the outside so it is like a block once again. Then I lay my blank over the scales and position it so the grain flows how I like, and then take a centre-punch and mark out where my holes will go.

I drill the first hole undersize with a 7/32" drill bit.

Then ream the hole to 1/4".

Check the pin for fit... and it is perfect. Needs a little tapping with a rubber mallet to go in, just the way I like it!

At this point, I double check the alignment of the other holes. There is NOTHING worse than drilling a second hole, going to check the fit, and finding out that you were just the tiniest bit out of wack... and the scales are junked.

I also always do the front and back holes first. I find it much easier to make sure things stay lined up when I'm doing the middle hole. Doing 3 in a line seems to have a tendency to screw up a lot more easily, and you get much less margin for error.

Thankfully, since I went slow, I didn't foul anything up this time. This is why I always drill tang holes for 1/4" pins at 5/32"

Now to round the front of the scales... all the way up to 400g (120g in the picture I think) Then a quick buff with pink scratchless. This wood has some very 3d characteristics... I'm loving it!

And now finally... cleaning the blade up post-ht. Cleaned up very easily as I left a nice and clean 400g finish pre-ht. This one went up to 800g, then back down to a clean 400g satin.

I was going to etch and glue up the slabs tonight but it was damn cold outside and I'm tired... so that will wait until tomorrow. ALSO, I am planning on using the cutoffs from the scales to make a matching firesteel so this is like a little set. Very excited...

Thanks for reading!

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

Nice looking knives. Keep the pics coming.

Glad to see that jig getting some use. I love mine. Thanks Nick! :thumbup:

 

[wolffbite]

Nice looking knives. Keep the pics coming.

Glad to see that jig getting some use. I love mine. Thanks Nick! :thumbup:

And thank you very much Carl, it will be an even greater tool once I have a permanent place for a vice =)

So I did the logo etch today. I seem to be getting better at it, this one is particularly crisp!

So to attach the scales, I use a 24 hour slow cure epoxy from kmstools. It seems to have plenty of strength, so I will use it all up and then probably go for some west-systems like most of you guys do.

With the intent to make my handles even stronger, I decided to cut slots into my pins with the bandsaw, to give everything a little more surface area to grab onto.

I also drilled out some divots down the middle of the scales like I usually do, more surface area again.

And here we are all epoxied up. Always keeping plenty of acetone around to clean up seepage near the ricasso. I do a major cleaning, then come back in a few minutes to make sure no more has squeezed out (there almost always is some more clean up to do) and repeat a couple of times until I'm satisfied with no epoxy line.

You can also see in the bottom corner of the photo where I have glued up the cutoffs from these scales. It will make a nice handle for a matching firesteel.

Stay tuned, I'll probably be doing a bunch of work on this tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Gottmituns78]

I know it's 3 years later, but I'd really like to see how these knives turned out!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Well, since the OP hasn't been online here in three and a half years, we may never know. Thread closed.

You could PM or email wolf and try to contact him.