The End of Act 1

I need to get new belts and my friend said he would give me a small belt sander, so I'm not grinding any metal right now, but worn belts work pretty well on wood, especially the #80/100 grit is much more forgiving. I managed to do most of this with the coarse belt. It's the same unknown wood I'm using for scales; this was a roughly wedge shaped piece of waste wood. Cut the kerf with the edge of the sander and used a lot of my new-found inner radius "talent".

Good practice, plus I'll be set if I get any letters on the other side of the metal detectors.

My friend gave me two sheathe knives that had gotten rusty on one side from being in the sheathes for at least twenty years. One is a big fat Pakistani bowie that's thick enough to grind the rust off, which I'm in the process of.  I'll post photos when I'm done.  This one is kind of cool: tight stag handle, hard, thin and very flexible blade and only light rust, which I'm taking off by hand because the blade is so thin. Too bad it looks like a bread knife, but it would be quel formidable in a between the ribs application.  Think I'll stick with bread.

My next project, which I didn't put handles on before because it's too hard to drill stainless. But now that the epoxy only knives are holding up well, I'm just going to glue it and grind it. Then I have the last damascus blank, that I still haven't figured out how to handle.

The first four Damascus USA knives, done for now.  Time to order more steel.

First Four Finished

Improving...

Bowie Day 3

It actually turned out better than I expected. The good points; didn't mar the blade, the components all seem strongly attached, wood fit is very close and the tang as close to perfect as the oversize guard will let me. I tried to make up for the flaws by polishing the daylights out of it with #220 and #320.  There's a few smudges and scratches on the metal that I could get out starting over with #100 grit, but I unfortunately cracked one of the scales when I tried to pin it, because I hadn't fine-tuned the holes.  Next time I'll only use three pins for the glue-up and drill and fit the rest before sanding.

The guard was made from a scrap of a door hanger. It's kind of thin, but solid brass and feels good against my hand and extends past my fingers enough to function as a guard, plus the pointy tip of the heart on the bottom has good potential for pokin' and gougin'. If I couldn't get to my .357, this is what I would want.

I'm deducting 3 points for wayward solder, 3 points for the cracked handle, 2 for misfit wood, 1 for a somewhat wavy line on the tang. and 1 for small scratches. I could spend a couple of hours to sand out the last two flaws, which would bring it up to a 92, but my arm is tired so it's a 90. I think it's fair to give it a B+.

Bowie - Day Two

It took a couple of hours to drill and file the hole in the guard, I made it a little too long but just about right side-to-side. It didn't fit on tight, but didn't wobble. I did okay soldering it, at least for a first try, and I think it's pretty strong and I didn't get any excess on the front of the guard or the tang. I didn't get it perfectly perpendicular, but I did reheat it once and straighten it better than it came out the first try. I might try again, but I'm not feelin' lucky.

The front of the guard looks reasonably good. I have to detail the edges that got sharpened when I sanded the back flat.

The back is a little messy, but I think I can polish or cover up most of it.  I'm thinking of trying something tricky with the scales to cover the back of the guard, somehow, or put a flat piece on it, (again, somehow I don't know yet, but I can bring it into existence. the power of creation!)

Bowie: Day One

I'm thinking of using that piece of brass as a guard. It's a cheap and thin casting, but it has a large, flat back. The slot I think I can do pretty easily by drilling and careful filing. The problem will be to make a flat on the uneven front where it meets the back of the blade. If I had a 1/4" belt sander, I could knock it right out. Then we'll find out if I can solder it on there without making a mess of it.

A Rainy Day's Work

These are the results of yesterday's glue-up. I spent most of today belt-sanding with a couple of hours hand-sanding the feather using dry 360 and 400 grit sandpaper. I don't have anything between 400 and 1000, so this is done for now, but I'm going to round that v-notch out. I couldn't figure out how to polish the inside radii, so I used the edge of the bench with newspaper under the sandpaper. Learn as I go, I suppose.
The long parts of the back and bottom are pretty scratch free and the back radius worked out pretty well. the scales are only short in one small area and I dug the excess epoxy out of the front grooves without scratching the blank. You have to be careful not to sand the damascus because the contrast goes real fast. I'm only using 1000 on the blanks, but I couldn't avoid sanding the tang. It's real shiny but no contrast. I'd take off about 5 points for working the blank. I should be able to make a 100% job on the classic small tang, because I'm sure I'll have to make whatever kind of handle before I install it. Possibly the bowie, too. 
The finger guard is not satisfactory, it might even be sort of dangerous as there is no sharp transition to warn the user that he's getting near the sharp part, but I might be able to sand the radius a little better. that takes off a couple more points, say 8 and a couple more for the bit where the scale doesn't quite reach. If I can pretty it up a skosh, I'd rate it between 85-90 out of a hundred (for a really simple handle). It's the nicest I've made, so far.
These are the five damascus blanks as they are. tomorrow, wife and weather co-operating, it's hand sanding the two glued-only knives to finish. I think they'll sand real fast without the pins. The fine sanding with pins darkens the wood. I like it, which is good because I'm not going to re-do it.

Bowie - Spit and Polish

Actually wd-40 and 1000 grit paper. This was just to remove any surface rust or dirt, which was negligible, and bring out the contrast. I coated it lightly with gun grease, because I couldn't find any hard wax. I don't know if these photos are much good - just trying to show off the grain really. Tomorrow I polish whichever blank I'm going to use and grind the scales to roughly match the handle, but now I'm thinking I might not grind the excess off the thick part of the slabs on the front to make a thumb guard. If I just partially temporarily pin it together, I should be able to tell if it will work looks-wise or whether the open gaps will look bogus. Improvising...