Yet another progress thread

Grapevine,

I understand what you are asking about. I am not an engineer, and it would seem that there would be potential for problems at the drop of the choil, but I have never seen a knife fail here. I have however seen many blades break at the tang junction. I have broken many of my own thinking I had the area drawn soft enough only to push the issue and have the tang snap off. Most of the time I was trying to adjust the pitch of the tang upor down in relation to the blade profile. Makes for a bad day....

With all of the knives I have bent or seen bent, not one has ever had a problem at the choil. A LOT of had weak tangs where the handle actually splintered off and the tang bent. That is another reason for the healthy tang width.
 
Alright,....gettting closer to wrapping this up. I cut the seat, or shoulders on the ricasso for the ricasso wrap. It is a solid piece of mild steel that will be piereced and hot blued. The guard will butt against it and the ferrule against the guard. I only cut the shoulders .070" deep, with a .002" undercut, so they aren't quite square. This makes life MUCH easier in getting a good fit on the guard. Long square shoulders are a real pain to get a seamless fit, plus it reduces the width of the tang at the critical junction where so much stress can be applied.

The next few photos are making the guard. This will be a long S guard with octagonal ends. I mark a line for the width and the center of the guard, then bandsaw the rough shape. I leave the ends wide so I can forge them and then grind my octogons.
 
At this point I go ahead and make the handle. This one came from the same burl slab as the last pair I posted. It is maidou burl, similar to Amboyna, with a little lighter color. I bought two slabs of this stuff. Enough for about 50 handles. Cast a pretty penny, but almost all of it is presentation grade. Anyway, I do the tang layout, drill the hole, and fit to the tang with the tang pulls.

From here I go ahead and fit the guard and ferrule to the blade, then butt the handle on, scribe the handle's footprint ont he ferrule and grind a little past the lines. I want the wood just a little higher than the metal. I will bullnose the corner of the wood where it meets the ferrule for a smooth transition. Leaving the wood high will facilitate refinishing the wood in years to come, and account for any shrinkage that may occur.

Once I have everything in place and fitted, I shape the guard, make the finial and assemble the knife. This is the final trial fit. Everything mates together nicely and is ready for engraving, finishing and blueing.
 
Nick,

I fit the handle first so I can clearly see it's alighnment to the blade. I also make sure the handle feels right, and make the guard match it. I found if I did it the other way, the handle ended up being made to adjsut to the guard at times, and the knife wasn't right. When I say I make the guard fit the handle, I mean in profile and alighnment. I still fit the handle material to the guard since it is usualy milled or surface ground flat.
 
Thanks Bailey :)

That knife is shaping up beautifully!

Our friend is going to be one big happy camper!!! (even though I don't think he camps ;) ).
 
Well, it's finsihed and ready to fly. This has been a fun knife to make.

I have the first picture through the microscope as I am engraving the ferrule. The pattern has been cut, and the channel for the gold inlaid scroll has been cut. The next pic shows the same panel after the background has been removed, shading cuts complete and the inlay complete. I also did a fine roped edge on the ferrule. From here I completed the engraving on all 8 sides of the ferrule with 22k gold borders and scrolls. All the fittings are hot gun blued very dark so they look black. The blade is blued also ( helps prevent rust and gives top notch contrast. The salts work at 275 degrees, so no effect on teh temper)

Once I blued the ferrule, I mask the edges with fingernail polish ( candy pink with glitter :p ), and french gray the engraving with an acid solution. It produces a matte gray finish while leaving the gold bright polished. Once the nail polish is removed, the piece has a very finished look witht he black edges, bright gold inlays and gray scrolls.

The knife also has gold inlays on the guard and my logo in gold on the ricasso wrap.

A few coats of finish on the maidou burl and assemble the knife. FINITO :D

Let me know what you think...as always.
 
C'mon Bailey-- it's my turn next........


and I don't think that I need to tell you what I think--all the pics you post only make me more impatient.........
 
Fantastic! I love the way you carried the octagonal theme into the tips of the S-guard. And the gold-inlaid maker's mark is oh so cool. This is a stunning blade.

Roger
 
NickWheeler said:
Our friend is going to be one big happy camper!!! (even though I don't think he camps ;) ).
Click to expand...

I am big, I am extremely happy, and I have been known to sleep under the stars (though usually after passing out as a result of too much absinthe :D )!

I really can't wait to get my hands on this ...... Thanks Bailey!

Stephen
 
That is just a spectacular blade!!! I love these types of threads. :thumbup:
 
Stephen F said:
I really can't wait to get my hands on this ......
Click to expand...
WOW. Bailey that is art jacked up a few notches high with this one, wow. Stephen has some great items up for sale on his "garage sale" page, I knew something nice had to be coming in, this is above nice, wow...

Frank H.
 
I'd be interested in seeing what technique you use to make the flats on the handles that you do so well. They always capture my eye.
 
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