Wsk wip

james terrio

james terrio

Sharpest Knife in the Light Socket
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
22,618
Recently a fellow came to BladeForums looking for someone to make him a WSK/Tracker style knife and sheath, with some of his own design features and preferred materials. My pal Richard J saw the thread and was kind enough to point the gentleman in my direction. He checked out my website, liked what he saw, and after a couple emails, we agreed on all the details. This knife is quite different from anything I've made before, and I'm really looking forward to the challenges it presents.

Quite naturally, the client is eager to see what progress is being made, so I thought this would be a good time to do my first WIP thread. This way, I can keep him informed of how it's going, and hopefully get some tips from y'all to improve my processes.

It's extremely helpful when a client provides you with a clear, detailed drawing to work from:
WSKWIP000.jpg


He wanted a corrosion-resistant steel with high toughness and good edge-holding, so we decided to use Elmax. I have heard excellent reports about this steel from other makers, and I'm excited about working with it for the first time. I ordered a bar from one of my favorite suppliers, Tracy Mickley at USAKnifemaker.com. As always, it arrived exactly as described, in a timely manner. :thumbup:
WSKWIP000a.jpg


My first step is to chop off a suitable length of steel, draw the basic profile on it and commence drilling holes. I like to leave a strong 1/16" around the final dimensions to allow for goofs and tweaking later. I wear safety glasses and a respirator whenever I use power tools or do any work involving impact, and do my best to work safely. Danger never sleeps!
WSKWIP001.jpg


Not having a good metal-cutting bandsaw, I generally drill, grind a thin notch between each hole with a rotary tool, then finish the cutting with a cold chisel. This profile is so complex that I couldn't do it all with a bandsaw, anyway:
WSKWIP002.jpg


My main bench is quite heavy and rigid, but I still like to use a piece of 1/4" mild steel as an anvil of sorts whenever I use a punch, rivet-setter or cold chisel. The idea is to make sure all your energy goes into the work, not into rattling the bench around. Pay attention to the direction of force, cutting this way can send waste pieces flying!
WSKWIP003.jpg

WSKWIP004.jpg


Mill scale is very hard, and tough to grind off. I buy precision-ground steel whenever possible to avoid this, but sadly that option wasn't available for this project. So I pickled the roughly-cut blank in weak acetic acid (common white vinegar). It really does help:
WSKWIP005.jpg


I forgot to take a picture, but at the same time I put the blank in the vinegar, I took one of the small scrap pieces and ground one side to a clean 160-grit, and the other to a clean 400-grit finish. Then I plopped it into a small glass jar and filled the jar part-way with salt-water. Half the sample piece is submerged, half isn't.

I used a ratio of 4 Tablespoons of normal, iodized table salt to one quart tap water; I believe this approximates seawater, but don't quote me on that.

The idea was to test the corrosion-resistance of annealed Elmax. My limited understanding of metallurgy tells me that annealed steel of any type is at it's least corrosion-resistant state. I'm trying to establish a baseline and compare it to a fully hardened and tempered sample later.

The upshot is that my annealed sample still shows ZERO signs of corrosion after 72 hours in my salt-water bath.

Anyhow, I've cleaned up the blank and have begun to bring the profile to final dimension on the belt grinder.
WSKWIP006.jpg


I'm fresh out of 2x42 belts, so I'm kind of stuck now. The good news is, I have the materials I need to convert my 2x42 to use 2x72 belts! Luckily, both the Raiders and Packers have a bye this week, so I have time to work on that today :D
 
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I have been wanting to try the Elmax too, I will be interested to hear your thoughts on it. I'm a little curious to see how this design comes out too, thanks for sharing!
 
Justin, all I can say so far is that Elmax has very good corrosion-resistance, and is not difficult to cut, drill or grind. It feels about the same as CPM-154, D2, etc. I will make a test piece from this same bar, have it HT'ed the same way and then beat the snot out of it to get a feel for its toughness and edge-holding.
 
Defenitely some ER in there, some FOX elements too. What's the handle material going to be? :)
 
t1mpani said:
Defenitely some ER in there, some FOX elements too. What's the handle material going to be? :)
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I am not familiar with either of those brands/models; this is a custom order and I'm working based on the drawing the client provided me. I thank you and Rick for pointing out the similarities. I hope I don't get sued! :eek: :D

The client has requested black canvas micarta for the handle scales. It will be fun and challenging to mill them in the manner he has described.
DerekH said:
Very cool! Subscribed!
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Thank you for your interest!
 
I thank you sincerely for your input and advice, my friend. I was truly unaware of those knives until today.

None of that changes the fact that I've accepted a custom order, and will endeavor to complete it. That's what I do. :)
 
I don't think there is any issue there, regardless of similarities.

In any event, let's see more pics of the knife in progress! I am crazy curious as to how you are going to go about making this thing with the modern shapes and style it has. Also want to see how you manage those serrations.
 
That it takes some inspiration from a particular brand wouldn't bother me a bit. One thing I notice, when looking at their designs is they're very clean and mechanical looking, which makes sense when you consider they're made on CNC equipment. I think it will be challenging to achieve that mechanical clean precision look with hand-made construction methodology. I couldn't do it. By hand, anyway...
 
james terrio said:
Is that a dare? :D
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Yes. Yes it is.

Y'all, can we quit talking about what knives it resembles? Yes, it resembles some other things that are out there, who cares, not relevant to the WIP. Lets keep James first WIP here on track. :thumbup:
 
Hey, I have knives by ER and Fox, and he said it his first post that it was a customer drawing, so I wasn't even thinking "plagiarism" or anything like, more along the lines of his customer sitting and looking at the Michiganknives website and bouncing back and forth between pictures: "Well, I like the blade from that one and the handle from that one..." I've designed some of my favorite knives that way. :D

I will say that most people (including me) find the transition from the fat part of the handle to the "finger groove" up front on ER models to be a little...strange. Nice thing about micarta, of course, is that you can work it until it's comfortable, where molded rubber is, well, molded rubber.

Look forward to seeing more!
 
I didn't post the ER knives as a "look its been done, before" type thing. I have made many knives that were inspired by existing blades. The reason why I posted the pics is so James could see what was out there and make descisions based on that info. I hope that folks would do the same for me. Not that this particular knife is the case... but there is nothing worse than following a customer's design to find out its a copy of a production. Like I said, THIS is not the case. The fact is that James did NOT know about ER or Fox knives and now he does... I personally think that is a good thing and takes nothing away from his WIP. We are here to help eachother. I'll change the images to links to save bandwidth.
 
James, you should really get yourself a portaband. I have a Dewalt myself and I love it. Not that expensive and it would save you a boatload of time.

Thanks for sharing a WIP. Always interesting.
 
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