I WILL completely finish this one!

You certainly have a lot of drive, and I believe it takes a lot to make knives. the other thing it takes is patience, be careful not to get ahead of yourself, that makes making mistakes a lot easier.

Makes a lot of sense. I struggle with patience. But I'm noticing now that I stop myself because I know that I'm gonna have to either throw the piece away or do a ton of extra work to fix foolishness. That gets old. I'm painfully learning lessons, but loving every minute of it.


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This is what I refer to as "gettin' it". Sweatin' to pandora (Zac Brown Ban) channel. Burning calories and lowering blood sugar, almost got all the 80's (scratches) out.


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looking good! what are you using for your hand sanding? Looks from the photo like you are wrapping your paper around that metal bar. That's a good start, but there's a trick. tip: a strip of leather for a backer between your sanding stick and the paper will speed the process up exponentially. The only time you don't want a backer of some kind is when you are trying to keep square edges or keep from blending your grind angles. But even doubling your sandpaper (put your last strip of worn out paper under the new strip) will get the new paper to bite so much better and get a smoother finish when you don't want the leather backer strip.
 
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looking good! what are you using for your hand sanding? Looks from the photo like you are wrapping your paper around that metal bar. That's a good start, but there's a trick. tip: a strip of leather for a backer between your sanding stick and the paper will speed the process up exponentially. The only time you don't want a backer of some kind is when you are trying to keep square edges or keep from blending your grind angles. But even doubling your sandpaper (put your last strip of worn out paper under the new strip) will get the new paper to bite so much better and get a smoother finish when you don't want the leather backer strip.

Thanks!!! I will try this asap. In the nick wheeler video I saw him use a backer for some things, but I was afraid of messing the squareness up. I'll just get a thin piece of leather and try it out. Is it a good idea to dry fit everything before hardening?
 
When hand sanding with 320grit or higher, you really aren't removing much metal. As you know, it takes quite a bit of sanding just to remove the previous grit scratches. The one thing you can do is round square edges if you aren't careful. However, if you have swoopy plunge lines (the way I make mine) it is hard to get those scratches out of the swoop. This is where a leather backer is worth its weight in gold. I put a lot of emphasis on the corner of the leather so that the sandpaper is working off the corner and I can really get in there and rock back and forth. On the flats, the leather really pays off because the sandpaper bites and it will reduce your sanding time by at least 50%. It's that dramatic. Just be careful around transition or lines you don't want to round off / smooth out. That's when I drop the leather backer and go to the doubled up sandpaper.

Nick Wheeler's vids are awesome. I don't glue my leather to the sanding stick, though. It wears out, so I never saw the point. The sandpaper going around it holds the leather in place well enough for my needs.

BTW, it doesn't have to be leather. I use leather because I have loads of leather scrap laying around and it works. Anything that is rather stiff but has some tiny bit of give will work fine. Hard rubber would work, too. A strip of wood like a paint stick would probably work great, too. I know when you're just starting out you don't have tons of scrap anything laying around. A year from now you'll have buckets full of scraps to choose from.

For my sanding stick, I have a piece of 1 inch x 1/4" brass, about a foot long. Why do I use that? It was scrap. I bought it way back when to make guards out of. I made one brass guard and never used it again, so there is was. I'd be better off with a hardened piece of steel, but I'm so used to it that I keep using it. When it takes a little bow ever few months I straighten it back out. So I'm living proof that you can learn to use substandard crap once you know how it acts, LOL.


another tip: I don't know if you've learned this yet, either. Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil for your hand sanding. Yes- it's that different. Yes- it works that much better. Yes-get some. Like everyone else I'd tried everything under the sun: windex, wd40, regular motor oil... Mobil 1 synthetic is freaking magical. I use 5w-30 or 0w-30. I started running it in my cars, too, after seeing how well it suspends metal particles during hand sanding.
 
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When hand sanding with 320grit or higher, you really aren't removing much metal. As you know, it takes quite a bit of sanding just to remove the previous grit scratches. The one thing you can do is round square edges if you aren't careful. However, if you have swoopy plunge lines (the way I make mine) it is hard to get those scratches out of the swoop. This is where a leather backer is worth its weight in gold. I put a lot of emphasis on the corner of the leather so that the sandpaper is working off the corner and I can really get in there and rock back and forth. On the flats, the leather really pays off because the sandpaper bites and it will reduce your sanding time by at least 50%. It's that dramatic. Just be careful around transition or lines you don't want to round off / smooth out. That's when I drop the leather backer and go to the doubled up sandpaper.

Nick Wheeler's vids are awesome. I don't glue my leather to the sanding stick, though. It wears out, so I never saw the point. The sandpaper going around it holds the leather in place well enough for my needs.

BTW, it doesn't have to be leather. I use leather because I have loads of leather scrap laying around and it works. Anything that is rather stiff but has some tiny bit of give will work fine. Hard rubber would work, too. A strip of wood like a paint stick would probably work great, too. I know when you're just starting out you don't have tons of scrap anything laying around. A year from now you'll have buckets full of scraps to choose from.

For my sanding stick, I have a piece of 1 inch x 1/4" brass, about a foot long. Why do I use that? It was scrap. I bought it way back when to make guards out of. I made one brass guard and never used it again, so there is was. I'd be better off with a hardened piece of steel, but I'm so used to it that I keep using it. When it takes a little bow ever few months I straighten it back out. So I'm living proof that you can learn to use substandard crap once you know how it acts, LOL.


another tip: I don't know if you've learned this yet, either. Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil for your hand sanding. Yes- it's that different. Yes- it works that much better. Yes-get some. Like everyone else I'd tried everything under the sun: windex, wd40, regular motor oil... Mobil 1 synthetic is freaking magical. I use 5w-30 or 0w-30. I started running it in my cars, too, after seeing how well it suspends metal particles during hand sanding.

Will get the mobile 1 in a few minutes.... wife is at store now. The leather trick is AMAZING!!! 10 times faster. I have already seen how it gets in the tight places much better. Here is my Sanford and son setup lol.

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I'm telling you, man. Knifemaking is all about learning the little things. It's not rocket science- it's hard work and a thousand little "and now you know" moments.
 
Just doing a quick check (blade not even hardened yet) to see if everything still matches up lol. Thought I'd post a few update pics. Please point out any and all potential disasters. My hands hurt. Lol.
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Looking good man you are on the right track.
So is the blade not hardened or handle material epoxyed yet?

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Looking good man you are on the right track.
So is the blade not hardened or handle material epoxyed yet?

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Correct ,sir, no glue yet. You are also right for not putting it past me... lol. I still have a ton of work to do on the blade before I even harden it.... I think I may actually send it off for HT too. I can get it really hard but not like they can.

I've decided that my next knife will be a simpler one . I'm gonna make one of those things janitors use to pick up trash.... a broomstick (Osage orange) with a nail
(ats 34) in the end. Lol.


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Ok just checking, don't get to ahead of yourself on shaping and sanding the handle and pins flush...you want to leave your handle pins a bit long to give you some room to work with.

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Ok just checking, don't get to ahead of yourself on shaping and sanding the handle and pins flush...you want to leave your handle pins a bit long to give you some room to work with.

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That brings up a question that I have. What should I use to "fake pin" a knife for a mock fit, and while I'm shaping and sanding? I've been using regular pins. But that can't be right, right?


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it depends on the knife. I do my shaping and sanding after it's all glued up, so the pins are the pins that are glued in there.

on a Loveless style knife i suspect you'd do the same since he used Loveless bolts (corbys) and ground the heads flush with the scales.

On a knife that has pre-fit, finished scales you could use sacrificial pins. I don't do this, so someone else may have a better answer.


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it depends on the knife. I do my shaping and sanding after it's all glued up, so the pins are the pins that are glued in there.

on a Loveless style knife i suspect you'd do the same since he used Loveless bolts (corbys) and ground the heads flush with the scales.

On a knife that has pre-fit, finished scales you could use sacrificial pins. I don't do this, so someone else may have a better answer.


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Thanks, John. Mainly I like doing it because I get to see what it looks like. I know it's wasteful, but I get excited like a kid lol.


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Just another pic. When I get the blade to 220, I'm thinking, I'll harden it? But it will be a while as I'm finding errors all the time... easily fixable pre hardening. I know I can't make it perfect, but if I know there is a problem, and I don't fix it.... well that's just not gonna happen. I have to fix what I know is not right. So I guess I'll be a while lol.
b13025d6ba8bc7c3891915b997b89c81.png


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Will D2 polish like the guard?

Edit: I found out lol.
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When hand sanding with 320grit or higher, you really aren't removing much metal. As you know, it takes quite a bit of sanding just to remove the previous grit scratches. The one thing you can do is round square edges if you aren't careful. However, if you have swoopy plunge lines (the way I make mine) it is hard to get those scratches out of the swoop. This is where a leather backer is worth its weight in gold. I put a lot of emphasis on the corner of the leather so that the sandpaper is working off the corner and I can really get in there and rock back and forth. On the flats, the leather really pays off because the sandpaper bites and it will reduce your sanding time by at least 50%. It's that dramatic. Just be careful around transition or lines you don't want to round off / smooth out. That's when I drop the leather backer and go to the doubled up sandpaper.

Nick Wheeler's vids are awesome. I don't glue my leather to the sanding stick, though. It wears out, so I never saw the point. The sandpaper going around it holds the leather in place well enough for my needs.

BTW, it doesn't have to be leather. I use leather because I have loads of leather scrap laying around and it works. Anything that is rather stiff but has some tiny bit of give will work fine. Hard rubber would work, too. A strip of wood like a paint stick would probably work great, too. I know when you're just starting out you don't have tons of scrap anything laying around. A year from now you'll have buckets full of scraps to choose from.

For my sanding stick, I have a piece of 1 inch x 1/4" brass, about a foot long. Why do I use that? It was scrap. I bought it way back when to make guards out of. I made one brass guard and never used it again, so there is was. I'd be better off with a hardened piece of steel, but I'm so used to it that I keep using it. When it takes a little bow ever few months I straighten it back out. So I'm living proof that you can learn to use substandard crap once you know how it acts, LOL.


another tip: I don't know if you've learned this yet, either. Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil for your hand sanding. Yes- it's that different. Yes- it works that much better. Yes-get some. Like everyone else I'd tried everything under the sun: windex, wd40, regular motor oil... Mobil 1 synthetic is freaking magical. I use 5w-30 or 0w-30. I started running it in my cars, too, after seeing how well it suspends metal particles during hand sanding.

Mobile1+ leather strip= sanding awesomeness!!


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