Steve Sells Posted February 21, 2013 Share Posted February 21, 2013 Rich Hale Thanks also to the regulars on the chat for letting us intrude First thing on the agenda this evening When we started this we said anyone wanted us to take a look at their work for thoughts we would do that,,only a couple have done that but we still will,,,in the forums or in private, your call. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/31882-knife-by-mike-hr/ Mike made this and you can see the skill he has developed However keep this in mind,,,He is a full time shop owning blacksmith. He has the skills and now he is moving a little of that in blades. and this rr spiks has five layers of steel to make the blade fully worth of being called a knife Steve Sells ok Notice that in Mikes blade, he took the time to add the layers of high carbon so he actually has a usable serviceable edge for cutting too many whip out a RR spike and hammer a knife shaped things and later ask us how to get it hardened, getting mad because it cane be. nothing wrong with having fun but if we want to make good blade take a little time and use good material, OR at least make the existing material better as mike did Rich Hale I avoid posting works in progress on the site However this is a place to see how someone else may do things.. I use almost all Stainless steel, I am buying flat bars I use a silver pencil to ouline wot i want and then bansaw to shape i have three blades laid out,,,and a few more in front...the ones in front have been heat treated and a coupl have the sides polished I am gonna try and fill in with some things you may use if you wish. Drill press vice and a scrap of wood with a slot, you could do this with just the wood I use a rag to cover jaws, I stick blade in it after the guard is fitted shined and soldered, I have extended the tang with threaded rod like we showed earlier And where that one got a threaded butt cap this will be a hidden tang I drill the wood and all spacers to slide over and the hole is deep enough that the tang will reach within half inch of the end of the finished handle Slide all down over the tang, fits nice the back apart for epoxy 'Then back toget like in pic I use rubber bands for clamps, I may use a dozen on each side of wood As the glue squeezes out the handle is squeezed together When it is rubber band clamped I can take from vice and lay in sun shine, well not today, 5starhobo you said something about a threaded rod on the tang? do you have any pictures? Rich Hale I put all of the epoxy info in one of the early lessons, The threaded rod and how it fits is also in an early lesson julian1 rich do you ever do single-pieced handles? if so have you ever tried burn-fitting them and have you will you discussed stabilized handle woods? Rich Hale Yes I do Mike and that usually makes the rubber stick also... Recently I had a little problem with trizac belts, i use them and they are listed in my knife finishing section in the reference part of the forum I had a couple in the house and the lettering on the backs as to wot grit etc was faded off. Yesterday I took new ones from the shipping pkg and marked them with a sharpie, One more item...I have a door that most of the time I can see blue sky I hold blades up to the sky so I can look at the profile. I can see even minute places that need a little work if they are not right,,same with handle, I look at profile in both planes and fell for lumps bumps dents etc, BigCotton89 I'm not quite understanding the purpose of the wood bock you were using Is that just to hold the materials with the rubber bands? Rich Hale Look close at the pics, one of the wood block and the other with the rubber bands on it steve sells Rich was taking about various handles Here is a little different job in there I used 4 sections for the grip semi normal 2 pc handle, but with the front and rear divided by wrought iron spacer I welded the spacer and the pommel onto the tang then glued and hidden pin the wood scales I had to etch after the wood was installed for that I actually use Q tips and ferric chloride. asking off the wood areas to protect them from the acid. had to think of a new way to make the client happy for his order this is a sword grip (handle) I did wiht a few different options requested my the client. like the owner of IFI like to say rather that try to think outside of teh box, Dont put yourself a box in the first place. A member mentioned burning in, For those that do not know about this, we Drill a pilot hoile for the tang to fit, then ar black to red heat force the tang along this predrilled hol;e enl;arging it to fit the tang using lots of water to avoid ruining the handle itself I just dunk in between burnings, I think last one took 3 heats to get it set properly. then after drying add Epoxy and replace blade fro permanent mount. I just dunbk in between burnings, I think lat one took 3 heats to get it set properly. then after drying add Epoxy and replace blade fro permanent mount. Yes it is a mess, and I stabilize my woods also julian1 i mentioned the burn because i know Rich amongst others likes to use wood that is "stabilized". in short its imbued with a resin or epoxy which makes it shine and relatively waterproof. however burning it is a real mess Rich Hale Mike you asked about pressure for gluing The drilled hole in the middle and the threaded tang are plenty of surface area for glue to hold forever. So you can clamp pretty tight Either with the clamps like Garey uses or a bar clamp or rubber bands I like rubber as it continues to shorten the handle as the glue squeezes out, important if glue is not summertime AX hot julian1 something to consider is that you don't want to crush the handle and squeeze out ALL the glue so Rich's rubber bands provide an ample amount of compression garey i tighten the wood clamp up till the glues stops oozing out Rich and leave it to set up. Rich Hale Yep and I bet it does just that Garey A big key is to make sure the handle is copressed so there are not any gaps around spacers,,,they will show mike-hr We tried to make denim micarta, used the H-press, got a wee bit too much pressure, and squeezed out all the glue steve sells I have a drawer of over 40 2 inch C clamps, as well as larger sizes too, for clamping incluiding two 48 inch long pipe vises to put end pressure Rich Hale One more item is I get powedered black pigment from knfe suppliers and dy the epoxy black,,,little dab does it, any little imperfection onthe wood at where it meets spacers will be hidden garey i sometimes grind up what ever materials i am useing for handles and add to the the epoxy for filler to blend in better. Steve Sells One thing I wish to add: Rich and I are Not getting down on people making rough blades, what we are doing is attempting to he3lp you all get the most out of y our blades, this includes making them more valuable for the market as well as improving your pwersonal skills. Do not be afraid to send us rough photos we will NOT mention your name without your permission. we want to help you get better. Mike is the one that allowed us t post but there has only been one other blades I have been show (not for sharing) and thats it I am supprised there were not more julian1 i suppose to throw out another example of how critical the handle/guard gluing step is; here's a blade that you can see there is some play between the guard and handle, so although it's structurally sound it is pretty obvious in terms of aesthetics. justin11045 this is a personal knife i made. you can see the areas where i neglected proper fitment http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/31818-kitchen-knife-project/?hl=%2Bkitchen+%2Bknife Rich Hale Fit and finish is a big thing to improving your skills,,,it takes long to get right and improvements are small at each step However the one he showed with the really nice satin finish bevels works well Satin finish is not an easy task,,,i will cover it in the future julian1 i dont mind at all. also i'd like to point out that that copper guard was forged and I didn't grind it down flat enough before fitting the handle since I usually use unworked stock Rich Hale That would be tough to fit to wood We have a couple of minutes left. Julian can you post one of your nice knives Julian started making knives about 6 years ago give or take,,,and has started and finished at the university julian1 Sure i only have a few ones i dont think ive posted let me look heres another view of that previous one to illustrate handle finish and geometry ,that one in particular was requested to not have a guard, and something I'm working on improving is the handle-ricasso transition that will prevent you from slipping into the blade in the absence of a guard. the answer lays in the profile of the blade and i'll figure it out soon Rich Hale It is my guess that he has not had as much reference material to work with as wot Steve and I have posted on this series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.