mcraigl Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 I had put this in the other thread, but I think everyone's tired of looking at it.... It's kinda "cute", not real sure if it's useful, but I like the way it came out. It's tiny. That's my cell phone in the background, the blade's about 1 1/4" long, the handle is about three inches long. I ended up going with a brass guard. I used the tip off an elk antler that a buddy brought back from Glacier Nat. Park this summer when he went up there on a wildfire assignment. I basically whittled the tang down to about 1 1/2" long by 1/8 by 1/4, then milled a slot that size in the guard and then drilled a 1/4" hole 1 1/2" deep in the antler. then I "nicked" the tang with a slitter wheel to give a mechanical lock in addition to the adhesive and then filled the hole with epoxy and crammed it all together. Then once it was cured I ground the guard to be flush with the antler on my 1x42 belt grinder. Let me know what y'all think. One issue I found is that it's not easy to get the shoulders on the backside of the blade exactly even, so there's a tiny gap top and bottom between the blade and guard/bolster. Also, the area I left for the partial tang was somewhat tapered so if you look at the knife end on, you can see a small gap on each side of the blade. I wish I'd have read Rich's suggestion before I got to this point, JB would've been just the think to hide that. Oh well, it is what it is. My second knife and a vast improvement over the first one. Now back to other endeavors. Sorry for the poor pic quality. No good light in the house at night. McL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 MC, looks good. it takes lots of practice to get those SEAMLESS PERFECT fits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 After reading your post I expected quite a gap at the front of the guard..It looks pretty good in the pics. One thing you might try if you wish is to put to pieces of angle iron in the vise to act as smooth face jaws so you do not put jaw marks on the blade. put the blade in with the tang up and use a flat file to file the ends of the blade even on both sides of the tang. You did a real nice job on shaping the guard to the antler and blending it all together. Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcraigl Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 Thanks Rich. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I like you're idea of using angle iron file guides. Kind of like the guides a gunsmith uses to stone a sear. How do you keep the two pieces of angle iron perfectly aligned? My old vise is well used, so I'll probably have to come up with a system that keeps the top surfaces of the angle irons aligned. I'll have to think about that and come up with something for next time. I'd really like to come up with some more L-6 and some 5160 and try a "ladder pattern". I really like the look of that pattern. The forgewelding for this blade went so well that it really boosted my confidence in my forgewelding, and I'm eager to try some more soon. Though I have heard that cable is THE easiest thing to forgeweld... ML Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 L-6 is great but I would use a metal that has more carbon the mix it with, 1084 or 1095 is great with L-6 I don't use a vises for filing the shoulders I use a homdae jig of irf I am doing a batch I use the mill, I thought about what you maight have around the shopIf you put a bolt through the angle iron,,or bar stock or whatever you wish,,one bolt on each end you can clamp it on the blade square it up and file away..Some guides are hardened,,I think that dulls a file,,,when my guide gets ragged from the file I bolt it together and grind it smooth again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcraigl Posted October 10, 2007 Author Share Posted October 10, 2007 Urgh.... THE MILL!!! Sheesh... As Homer would say DOH! As for the 5160 / L-6... +I took a pattern welding class from Mark Aspery a year and a half or so ago. He talked about transformation this, heat of that...(Have to go through my notes to find all the right terms etc.). Basically though he talked about for a performance blade you want to get two steels that have similar transformation temps and similar heat treating temps and that L-6 and 5160 were one very compatible combination from that standpoint and that they had good contrast when etched. I'm not "set" on 5160, and I'm currently out of L-6. I'll let y'all know what I end up coming up with though. I do have to finish a couple of other projects before I take on another knife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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