WIP working on a Tanto

AVigil

AVigil

Adam Vigil working the grind
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Feb 17, 2009
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This one is for a friend who wanted one of my first knives:rolleyes: He is a customer of mine of other custom things I make so he wants one for his collection.

This is 3/16" 01. It has a 20* chisel grind and a tapered tang. The tang narrows to the rear and the corners have been removed to accomadate the wrap for the handle. There is a shoulder for the Turks Head guard to sit up against "ala Phill Hartsflield":D

It needs to get ready for heat treatment. Pohan Leu was kind enough to give me some tips on how to make a "Hartsfield Style sheath". If the sheath does not get made for this one then it is going to be made for my own personal knife that is on the To Do List.

Thanks for looking

SawTanto003.jpg
 
Man that looks great! Are you going with stingray on this one?
 
Thanks Josh,
I am saving the sting ray skin I have for some future builds. I want to get a few more under my belt before I sacrifice a nice skin to it...lol

BTW I saw the 2 you have for SALE.....I had to close the broswer before I spent my wifes xmas present money on them:)
 
haha! Man I'm always busy, so I'll definitely have some more for you here soon. I have a new wharncliffe pattern that is just off the damn chain.

If Pohan hasn't taught you everything already (what a super great guy btw!) i have some tips for the stingray when you finally use it.

Find a pair of decent scissors for the stingray. It's not real hard to cut your scales with just a simple dollar store pair of scissors. The nodes will make small dents in your scissors, but they'll do just fine, and you wont be out much. A razorblade/x-acto is such a pain in the ass for stingray, and I just quit using them.

trace your handle and pommel hole on the fleshy side of the skin with a sharpie, and just punch around the inside of the circle with one of those "wheel" type leather punches. Or you could just whack it with an appropriate sized hole punch and a mallet. When i do my handles, the stingray goes all the way down. If you terminate the stingray scale just shy of the hole and have bare steel there, the pommel will be/look thin after wrapping. You want something to fill that out and have the pommel wrap to stay tight. I use a pen cap to push the cord through the hole...lol.

If you have excess rayskin around the edges, use some straight toenail clippers....lol. It's the best thing I've found to snip that stuff flush with your tang.
 
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That some good info right there :)
Pohan is a real helpful and nice guy. I am going to pick his brains some more as projects advance.

In case you are interested Phill Hartsfield knives has a new website up http://phillhartsfield.com/ I am going to have to stop by their store front and chat Phil up.
 
Oh yeah i've always liked the Hartsfields. I'll check that out definitely.

Pohan is pretty much the man at this. Believe me, I've picked his brain alot....lol. Very patient guy. He's got the hookup on where to get materials too.
 
To cut a straight line on stingray....i use a paper trimmer with a circular blade made by Fiskars. If the blade is sharp and the stingray pelt not super thick beading..it will slice through stingray with ease. Line up the line with the handle and glue it on. I use DAP contact cement in the red can...don't bother with the green can..it sucks! glue it on (i use a hair dryer to speed up the process...maybe 30 seconds on both surfaces)...then lay the knife down on the stingray side and trim off the excess with a SHARP utility knife. Easy. Don't use an X-ACTO blade..the tip is too pointy and will likely break off and there isn't enough leverage compared to the standard retractable Utility Stanley razor blade...the kind with two tips on one blade. If you can't cut it, then A) your stingray is kinda thick or your doing something wrong.
 
fantastic looking knife for one of your first my first was deffinantly not that good lol.
 
Leu Custom said:
To cut a straight line on stingray....i use a paper trimmer with a circular blade made by Fiskars. If the blade is sharp and the stingray pelt not super thick beading..it will slice through stingray with ease. Line up the line with the handle and glue it on. I use DAP contact cement in the red can...don't bother with the green can..it sucks! glue it on (i use a hair dryer to speed up the process...maybe 30 seconds on both surfaces)...then lay the knife down on the stingray side and trim off the excess with a SHARP utility knife. Easy. Don't use an X-ACTO blade..the tip is too pointy and will likely break off and there isn't enough leverage compared to the standard retractable Utility Stanley razor blade...the kind with two tips on one blade. If you can't cut it, then A) your stingray is kinda thick or your doing something wrong.
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Thanks for taking the time to help us out! Your tips have helped me immensely! :D
 
Great looking knife! It is going to turn out awesome I can tell.
 
I am getting ready to get it wrap. Just gonna run a Gator 400 grit on the bevel. Making the Turks head is kinda a fun thing to learn after all these years. Now even my flashlite has a Turks Head :)

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dude that is freakin awesome looking especially for a tanto style blade those are kind of hard to do i find them harder then drop points. good work!
 
Good work and very clean grinds. I admire your ability to blend in the Plunge

Question for you: Would it be a lot harder to do a V grind, instead of a chisel grind Tanto? I think it would take a bit of math to figure out the perfect angle, so the both sides would match up in the height(primary bevel)

Thank you and keep making knives!
 
I do like chisel grinds on Tantos. That is the "Hartsfield" influence :)

It is not "harder" to do a V grind. It just takes technique. You mark where you want the grind to end. Use the "Bubble Jig" with the clamp on the blade and you can set your angles and grind to the mark.

The nice thing about the bubble jig is it gets you started with equal grinds on both sides of the blade. One you have the grind angle established you just take it off and grind freehand. Since the angle is already established the blade will glide against the platen at the correct angle.

On my next Tanto I am going to try a double V grind with a single edge. I like what Ernie Emerson had to say about it and want to try it for myself.
 
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Right. A bevel on one side and flat on the other. If done right once the tip clears, the rest of the blade slides right in with very little resistant :)
 
AVigil said:
Right. A bevel on one side and flat on the other. If done right once the tip clears, the rest of the blade slides right in with very little resistant :)
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yes and no. If you grind a swedge on the spine of the blade where the yokote starts and grind it back to the plunge line, then yes, otherwise it's still going to be pushing against the entire blade still :)

Also, I would next time, apply your stingray plates on first, then tie a portion of the turks head knot if not the whole thing onto the stingray underplates. It will make your knot more functional as it won't sit almost level to the wrap and when epoxied, has something to stick itself to instead of just the bare tang.

Why is the tang smaller in width compared to the rest of the blade?
 
Pohan,

There is a shoulder for the Turks head to butt up against. I am going to wrap the tang with a nylon crochet cord right up to the shoulder. Then I will tie the Turkshead on top of the cord and butt it up against the shoulder. Then of course the Turkshead will have the shoulder on side and the Wrap on the other while it is epoxied on top of the nylon cord.

Phill did that on the famous blade that got shot and saved the soldiers life.
 
AVigil said:
Pohan,

There is a shoulder for the Turks head to butt up against. I am going to wrap the tang with a nylon crochet cord right up to the shoulder. Then I will tie the Turkshead on top of the cord and butt it up against the shoulder. Then of course the Turkshead will have the shoulder on side and the Wrap on the other while it is epoxied on top of the nylon cord.

Phill did that on the famous blade that got shot and saved the soldiers life.
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Yes, but that El Salvador Tanto had a Tsuba on it and that's the only reason (back then) why there was a shoulder put into that blade at all. Plus, because of the shoulder, the blade broke off from the handle as it was shot. Let me know if you haven't seen the photos of the broken blade (which is attached from handle). I suggest on the next one, leave out the shoulder...(unless it's strictly for aesthetic purposes only). Don't take any of this as criticism to your blade, I am only suggesting to you what I see as someone who has made several hundred blades and atleast 50 that have had turks head knots.
 
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