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!)

More from the Grab Bag

These are a few of the little guys I got in the grab bag.  All but the laminate-handled one were pretty much finished.  I'm also getting pretty re-familiar with the belt sander.  It really takes a lot of handwork to take care of what could have been done carefully on the belt. All the transitions between material and all the curves smoothed makes the hand-sanding basically just polishing.

This is just like the one I worked over a couple days ago, except the blade is perfect. It was unfinished, but there was nothing materially wrong with this guy. They took the trouble to grind off the mark, but I can make out Sears.  Well-made, tight, with a nice, sharp blade. This is sanded to #400; a couple of more hours should make it real nice.

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.

Already, I can't wait to get more Steel

You get 10% off on Damascus USA if you get two blanks or more. I want to get these guys next.

Intermission

This was one of the grab bag knives I got from SMKW. It was a well-made, unfinished lockback with the tip broken off. I sanded the blade about 90%, but since it's getting kind of thin, I stopped and sanded the handle and bolster pretty well. Just practice, really. 
I could spend a couple more hours detailing it, but it will never be more than a pretty utility knife. Did I mention that I can use the practice?

I'm starting on the bowie soon. I have a silver ingot I was thinking of using for a guard, but I've never worked with silver; I just know it's harder than brass.  I need to make a real precise rectangular square in it to fit the hilt, so I'm going to practice with some thin brass.  If the brass works well, I'll use it instead of the silver, and get some brass pins. I want to pin it for strength and a way to keep me from sanding off too much wood.  I want the bowie to come out 100%, so it may take awhile.

Boot Knife Done

These are what I've finished so far. The boot knife actually came out better than I thought it would. I gouged it out too far and hit a rivet hole, then compounded the blemish by gouging it out some more until I realized what I was doing. So now it's cut too deep, with a noticeable flaw in the bottom, but I tried to compensate by getting the shaping and sanding as close to perfect as I could.
I also nicked the blade edge almost in the middle with the belt sander. It might be fixed by sharpening, but I don't think I'm that good, so it's done. I'm taking off 5 points for hitting the edge, and 5 more for hitting the pin hole and there is a little too much metal on the belly, which I might be able to correct with the belt sander. The wood turned out almost perfect; I think I'm really getting the hang of it. I'm quicker and more accurate, anyway.
The blade looks good in spite of my clumsiness, so I give this guy about 88 out of 100.

Two Finished

After a whole lot more sanding w/ 600 and 1000 grit. I just noticed in the photo that I missed the front radius on the feather. Oh, well, it's done, and not really a glaring error. I'm taking off a few points for minor wood errors and 4 for the botched finger notch. I give myself a 92 overall for that one. The dagger turned out really well; the lines, fit, and symmetry are good, the front cleaned up well. The wood could have been shaped a little better.

Ugly finger notch and slightly mismatched wood - 92 out of 100. I need a belt sander with a small diameter roller, about two inches.

Only minor blemishes and slight lack of finish (which I could still do, in theory), so I'll take off a couple of points, plus two very small detail flaws for a 96 on this one.

What not to do.

Much Hand-Sanding Later

I'm pretty pleased with the way the dagger is turning out. Although I did sand on the steel, I did much better keeping the original curves.  I'm sanding them with 600 grit now, but I need to do a bit more belt-sanding on two of them.
I should have sanded the fronts before I glued them; the end wood will look raw against the polished parts.  I'm using the edge of the workbench to do the concave radii and work around the handle so all the compound curves will look right. I'm deducting about 5 points for the unsanded bolsters and about 2 points for working the damascus. I think this will finish out about 90 out of 100.
I dug into the steel on the boot knife pretty bad. I need a smaller roller. In trying to  work down to an even curve, I took out too much towards the blade and there's almost no metal where it comes to a point, plus sanding into the steel so deeply heated the blank enough so the scale is loose on one side.  I might be able to skoosh just a little epoxy into the gap and re-clamp it. Frankly, I messed this one up.  Minus about 20 points for gouging in so deeply.  If I can salvage it, it should finish out between 75 and 85.  I need to be more careful with the machine tools; it's too easy to take off too much, but I am improving. 
It looks like the epoxy only works well, but the pins are stronger and the alignment can be more precise.  I'm going to get some 1/8" nickel/silver wire and I need some brass for the bowie, maybe from Dixie Gun Works.

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.

Classic Modified

Two more views of the Classic Modified. Photos not so good; It's hard to show the damascus in indoor light. They're prettier than they appear, not counting my funky grips.

Is it 24 Hours, Yet?

Some closeups of the French folder. It's something like languile. Too nice for the likes of me.

While Waiting for the Epoxy to Set

Here's my knife collection, including the "Cell Block" series.


This is most of the cell block series, good work knives, anyway. Note the two-handled "Mexican Fighting Knife". It may have been my first. Also note pop-rivets and sloppy glue work. Back to the grinder for those two at some point.


The one in the middle could be nice if I wanted to spend a lot of time getting the scratches out of the blade. After I finish the all the damascus.



The one on the right is the small-tang "Classic Modified" which I'll rehandle, the next is a french damascus folder that I was given. It's really nice. I could never do it. The next is a thrower blank I couldn't finish, because stainless is too hard to drill, I learned the hard way. I might put some sides on it if the glue holds on the damascus blanks.  On the left is my injun knife, or might have been if Indians had large, ugly copper rivets, a grinder and a drill press.

Forward Motion (a little, maybe)

I went nuts with the glue gun today. After I finally got the hang of making scales to rough fit, I made sides for two more of the damascus blades, "bolster dagger" that looks like a thrower, and "lum's boot", a simple curving skinner. The one on top is called a "classic modified", which I must have gotten previously, probably from SMKW, and had put a quickey handle on, after ruining a big block of ebony while I was teaching myself how to make scales. I was smart enough not to glue it so now that I'm getting a little better, I can put it in the project pile. I don't know yet how to use the less-than-full tang design, so I need to do some googling for ideas. I saw where one guy drills out antler and just glues it on, which I may try.

I had my first knife ready to pin and glue, but I couldn't find anything nice so I used welding rod for the pins. It only took about a half hour to make a pair of sides for the boot knife, (I'm getting pretty good with the router and bandsaw) and about an hour for the dagger. I wanted to try it without pins, so I glued the sides with 5-min epoxy (you're supposed to use the longer-setting kind, but they only had about 10 varieties of the quick-set), and just pushed the pieces to look right with the vise loosely clamped, and clamped harder after the epoxy started to set. I can't hardly wait to see if it worked, but if it didn't I can whip up another PDQ

Feather - Day 2

Much hard-stolen time away from what I'm supposed to be doing (landscaping) wasted, trying to make scales. I am getting better, though; I can make one in about a half-hour, now, after about ten attempts. The next-to-the-last one I was just putting the teensiest of touch-ups on the finger relief and caught the wrong edge on the router and tore the bottom out. My technique is now to cut and rough sand the top and bottom edges to closely match the steel, using four 1/8 drill bits for pins, and then routing out the finger notch and using the roller on the belt-sander to notch the front to match curve of the blade. then I CAREFULLY saw the piece in half and and sand the sawn side flat. this ordinarily wouldn't work because I don't have two matching scales, but the wood is so fine grained it doesn't seem to show.

I broke my own rule and fine-sanded to match with the blank in place, because I had already nicked the steel on the bottom. Since this is as basic as possible, I'm going to pin w/ brass (I think I have some brazing rod, if not I have lots of old welding rod) or (horrors) buy something shiny if they have it at the Home Depot. Charlton recommends epoxy without pins, so if I can get the scales close enough to the steel without drilling to pin, I'm going to build the next one with just glue. He claims it's as strong as solder, and if it doesn't stick, I can drill and pin it later without damaging the blank.

1-M Feather Modified

This is the blank I'm currently working on; simple, straight back and bottom, except for the finger notch. I have been labeling this knife1. New label will be feather.

knife1 will be just another sour memory

No Progress

As I may have mentioned, the missus is not too crazy about me "sittin' around on the internet all day" or "wastin' a lot of time out in that 'shop'", so you can imagine how much she enjoys my "sittin' around bloggin' about whatever you're doin' out there", which turns out to be doodley; hence, no pictures of the slabs (third pair, so far on k1.2) which I'm rough sanding to be just a hair oversize. I have to route out one finger notch (which I don't know how I'm going to do, yet), then just fine sand to final fit, pin and glue, with a minimum of freehand sanding, bevels, radiusing, etc. As basic as possible. If I can't do basic I'm not going to be able to do anything fancy, obviously. I've seen where some guys make all-wood knives for practice, so I'm going to, at some point. I've certainly got enough pieces to practice on. Meanwhile, here's my dog, taking time to smell the roses.

I feel kind of bad for all the wood I've wasted over the years, including a really nice piece of ebony that I ruined with a router trying to freehand something or other. The good news is I'm using scraps from furniture projects, of wood that was originally the crates that epay comes in. The crate wood is harder and denser and darker than (almost) any domestic hardwood. I know it will make good handle material, but plain. And simple. Like me, only more patient and careful.

Knife #1 - day2 - Shot!

I expect to have problems, I'd I know I'm prone to cutting corners and rushing things. Today's effort was textbook screwup. Couldn't quite get the wood scales to match the inside radii in the brass. the first picture shows how many attempts before I got a pair to almost work. The second picture shows how gnarly the bottom the bottom turned out. Bailout time. I'm going to just start over. The crack in the brass is too sloppy even for me. The blank is still almost untouched which is what's making this so difficult. All my practice knives were just slabbed oversize and sanded to match the steel. I'm finding it much harder to disassemble, sand, and reassemble repeatedly, but I'm finding shortcuts like making one fat slab to fit and then carefully sawing in half to make two matching pieces, and drilling from the good side to have any splintering show on the bad side. Now that I know I don't have any junk I can use, I'm going to go as basic as I can. A well made simple knife is better than a crappy fancy one.
I like well made and fancy, like the kind I could buy from Charlton right now, but then what would I blog about? At least I appreciate why they're expensive; this ain't like making wallets at summer camp.