Yet another progress thread

Bailey Bradshaw

Bailey Bradshaw

Joined
Sep 13, 2001
Messages
816
I had two customers in a row who requested a thread showing their knife being made. I was able to start shooting pics a little earlier on this one.

The first pic shows the blade (10.5" blade length) after forgeing, profile grinding and the first anneal cycle. I do three anneals to refine the grain and free the blade from forging stress. I have started to grind the blades after the first anneal as I was still getting a few blades that warped if I ground them before heat treating. It saves belts to grind before hand, so I anneal, grind and do two more anneals. Obviously the grinding puts some stress in the steel as well.

Before grinding, I surface grind the tang/ricasso. The surface grinder pictured isn't precise, but it gets the ricasso flat enough to center the edge. After heat treating I will surface grind again on my precision surface grinder. I also taper the tang just a little so everything will slide on and find a seat on the taper when I assemble the knife.

From there it is the same old grind :D Flat of course, but I leave the edge at least 1/16" thick before heat treating. Last picture is the blade in rough grind. There is a forging mark close to the spine, but it will come out after the second surface grinding, and isn't deep at all.

This blade is 500 layer damascus in a laddered edge pattern. The higher layer count will give a lot of shimmer on the edge half where the ladder cuts were made, and settle out on the top half where it is random pattern.

The knife will be pretty decked out, with an S guard, burl handle, ricasso wrap and copious amounts of engraving. More tomorrow. It's in the furnace annealing right now.
 
I love the straight spine! It almost has some sabre flair to it. You better get that forge mark out of there or else people will think I made that blade :eek: :rolleyes: :yawn: .

Your surface grinder looks like it really does the job, I guess that's another piece of equipment I need to add to the line up :).

Keep the pics coming, bud.

~By the way, that had better be a grinder profiled blade. You're my idol if that's right out of the forge :).
 
Matt,

I picked up the parts to make that surface grinder for less than $300.00. It is an old tool post grinder with second hand magnetic chuck and motor, a wheel from a hollow grinding attatchment ( I don't hollow grind but once every 5 years :p ), an idler wheel from an old 2/48 grinder and a tracking wheel that many knife suppliers sell. It isn't precise ( +- .005), but for hogging off scale and cleaning up damascus billets or any other heavy surfacing, it is the bees knees.

BTW, I did clean up the profile a little on the grinder. I tend not to worry my damascus blades with refining the profile as much. It's too easy to shear a weld if those thin sections get too cool. I can still be your idol though :D
 
You should have lied to me, you totally let me down :D . I don't have the brain pan to build something like that, maybe if I get a little smarter (or dumber :)) I'll give one a try.
 
I have always loved these types of threads. It is very educational to see what goes into the making of a knife from start to finish.
 
OK, today I heat treated the blade, tempered it and did the finish grind. It is ready to hand rub and etch. I will do that tomorrow along with the begining stages of the handle work.

First pic shows the quench, then onto the surface grinder to get the ricasso truly flat. This machine is one of my favorite tools beacause it is so easy to get really precision flatness and parallelism.

Next is onto the work of finish grinding. I begin with the spine. I am grinding a ridge down the middle, and this will drop the edge of the spine a little. If I ground the flats first, I would risk over grinding and erase the little radius at the top of my grind lines. Last pic is of the blade after I completed grinding.

Matt,

Sorry to disappoint you. Building this machine was really easy....just remember the sing along from Kgarten...the wheel on the grinder goes round and round.... :D

You may not think you could build one, but I KNOW I can't write a legal disclaimer for it's use, so let your talents fall where they may ;)
 
One's got to be really good to make it seem easy, you're really good... 'cause I know that ain't easy.

Quick question on that final step you mentioned, etching the damascus:

What would you advise for owners, who like 10 years 20 years down the line, after many wax rubbings and brother-in-law grubbings and some in and out of sheaths etc, if they want to "update" or touch up the damascus contrast? Best to just don't attempt any re-etch, or do you have advice on that?

I know that will vary with what metals were used etc, and might vary depending on what the guard is made out of and how it was surfaced etc, but do you have any general words of wisdom re: long long term care of damascus (and also, come to think of it, heat blued parts)?

Can't wait to see the photos as this one goes through it's final stages, and Roger P.'s set wow those were nice!

Frank H.
 
He said, "brain pan," heeheeheeheehee :p

VERY cool Bailey!

BTW- I modified my surface grinder to run on belts and/or stones. If I can do it, anybody dumb enough to stick their thumb in a fan or slightly smarter, should be able to do it. :)

Bailey, are you grinding the spine bevel with a disc sander? I've always loved the look it gives your blades.

Keep 'em coming buddy! :D
 
Like everyone else, I just love these progression threads. This one sounds like it is going to really be something special and everything I have seen to this point confirms that. I think I might know who this one is destined for, and if I am right, he is going to be one grinning fool when he gets his hands on it. I'm STILL grinning over mine - heck, I have hardly put them down. Though my wife correctly pointed out that it is damned dangerous for me to be watching NFL football with a razor sharp blade in each hand - too much spontaneous jumping up and down and yelling and waving of arms and such. :o

Roger
 
Great Thread Bailey, you make it look so easy :D.

That belt surface grinding machine of yours is not getting out of my thoughts, could you maybe snap a pic or two of the whole machine ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Regards Marcus
 
Results of todays efforts. I cleaned the flats of the ricasso, the spine and blade bevels on the disk sander. I take the blade to 400 grit on the disk while it is flooded with WD-40. It is a messy operation, but saves SOOOOOO much elbow grease in hand sanding. It also gets the blade bevels so flat you can see your image in them and not look like Quazimoto :p

Next I clean the transition from ricasso to tang on my home made radius belt sander. I LOVE this machine, and will make another similar to the LeBlanc that sells for close to 2K. Anyway, having the radius there is very important to prevent stress risers. Most blades get this after forging, but I forgot to do it then. I don't harden this area, and if it does go into the quench, I draw it back to a very soft spring hardness. I hate to see blades filed square here. I have seen some break, and there is no need for it.

From here it is onto the hand sanding. I finished this blade to 800 before the etch. I amnot trying for a uniform satin finish like a carbon steelblade, but do want a true 800 finish. After this is complete, I clean the blade, etch it for 30 min. and lightly buff. The fittings and blade will all be blued....very dark..... With the nickle for the bright lines, it will really be wonderfull contrast.

Tomorrow I will make the fittings and handle.
 
I love the blade shape on the penultimate pic. I think this piece would have looked awesome in plain steel (of course, the damascus is great too, but there's something particular to such a large blade, flat ground, in plain steel).
 
"penultimate" Hey, I learned a new $20 word today!

It's looking great Bailey!

I love the blade, and the pattern compliments it perfectly :D
 
Roger, I was wondering if anyone would notice that. It's a good thing I work alone, as I would get VERY nervous if someone was behind me at this point.

Seriously, it is dangerous to have a blade in a vise. As you could imagine, it is easy to impale yourself. The nice thing about my tilt vise is I can move the blade over the bench and out of a dangerous position. I did stab my arm on a small folder blade that was mounted in my engraving ball. Went into my forearm about 1". I grabbed it imediately, super glued the wound shut, and never bled a drop :D Luckily the blade was just cleaned and degreased :eek:
 
Very cool thread and I love that blade shape.

Can I ask a dumb question though? I understand the radiusing of the tang to prevent stress risers, but what about the drop that's right at the plunge cut? That's a sharp corner is it not? Is there some engineering principle at work on this part that differs from an angle being at the tang?
 
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