First WIP on " Just Makin A Knife "

backtines

backtines

Well-Known Member
Hey Guys ,
I was down in my garage the other night and my son was taking pictures of his bow he wants to sell on Ebay. He left the camera behind just as I was beginning to start on another knife . It was tempting to pick up the camera and start taking pics of the knife I was going to make . Needless to say , I did, and it is what it is .

Im sure a bunch of you guys do things differently then me , but Ive had some good luck with the way I make knives and always open to learn more. Im so open for any suggestions or ways to make things easier too , so feel free to chime in if you see Im doing something wrong or a way to make it easier.

Im also going to be using stainless bolsters and finishing up with a hand rubbed satin finsh( which Im not used to doing ).

Again guys , Im just havin a little fun , and I hope you guys like it .. Here goes ..


I first drew a template of what Im aiming for and transfered onto a piece of 1095 5/32 thick.


Cutting out shape


Profiling blade on TW90 ( Awesome Machine! )


A little more profiling


Profile done.


I then clean up the flats on the 4x36. One of these days Ill convert my Surface grinder over to a belt .


After Sides are cleaned up , I Blue coat ( Dykam) the blade so I can see what Im doing( lines and grinds)


I find center then back off a few thou's and give myself a gauge on where to grind to.


I made this gauge a few years ago and works just fine for me .


I clamp to angle iron support with drilled and tapped bolt holes to hold my angle.



Backside of gauge. disregaurd pins , They are used for other stuff.


Start grinding with 50g and eventually up to 220 and sometimes 400g


Just checkin to see where my lines are


Grinding done..


My sanding jig


I take a piece of micarta and glued a piece of leather to it as may sanding block


Thats it for now ...
 
Start sandinding trying to get out all the verticle lines. I use Windex to keep my paper from clogging up and it will last you a little longer in the long run


Took this up to 400. I feel the better you make a blade look before HT, the easier it is to clean up and finish. ( My two sence)


This is where I am after 400g


Another pic


I then drilled all my pin holes, bolster holes and a few for glue.


At this time Im making the bolsters. Start off with a piece of 416


draw out where you would like the bolsters to sit.


Drilling 1/8 holes through stainless.



Now the other hole. I always drop a pin through the first hole with the fear the blade will move .


After the holes are drilled in first bolster , I cut bolster to size , leaving it a little bigger for clean up.


After both pieces are drilled and cut, I pin them together and clean up my flats.



Test fit.


Drawing in the curve , getting ready to cut


Ill have to catch up later.. stay tuned.
 
You're knockin' it down Mikey. I'm with you on this one. I'd love to see more pictures of your grinder. I couldnt identify it from what I saw. I like the horizontal grinding ability...that's something I cant do right now.
I always drill my holes for scales and bolsters before I grind my bevels, but other than that I do it like you do.
Gonna keep up with this one for sure. I like seeing how others make their knives.
 
Thanks guys , ill get some more pics up in the morning. Hey Eric the grinder is a tw90 made by Travis Wuertz. It's such a nice grinder . It has different options that are really easy to swap out . I love the variable speed on it. It tracks nice and straight and i still use my grizzly for working my scales and other stuff too.
 
Ok, after test fitting the bolsters I noticed that I had to make the lower pin hole bigger cause the bolster wasnt lining up straight .. no biggie, i ovaled it out a bit and it worked fine..

Here Im cutting out the curve in the bolster, and YES, after the pic was taken I used my push stick.


Two bolsters cut , I will detail them when they are mounter to tang.


Countersinking the pin holes..



Put them back together and start shinning up the front to your desire



I sanded this set up to 3000g to give it a nice shine on the fronts, A light buff on the buffing wheel and they're ready to be mounted during assembly..



Now Im pressing in my logo using a press. I still need to make a fixture for holding this thing , cause its a pain to line everything up and press.. Then after I pressed it , I noticed that it wasnt evenly depressed , so I lined it up by hand and wacked it with a hammer and the bit bounced ( as usual ) and scratched the blade. It maybe a better idea to stamp these tangs earlier in the process. I ended up later sanding it down and getting rid of it. You'll see it later.



I figured on this one Id do a little file work using a small chainsaw file.



After your happy with your pattern, Take a piece of welding rod and wrap sandpaper around it starting at 220g and working your way up to your desired finish.. I try to get out as many scratches as possible before HT. It just makes it easier to clean up later.





Ill catch up with you guys a little later, gotta open up shop now..
 
Ok guys , ready for HT. First thing I do is bring my heat up to 5 or 600 degreese , remove tang from oven and coat with PBC Anti Scale Powder.. This stuff really works . I will not HT a blade without it anymore. It makes the clean up after HT sooo easy . This suff falls off after quench and the stuff that doesnt come off , comes off with warm water.. Good Stuff !


Coating blade with Anti Scale Powder


Now you can do your normalization process ,I bring temp up to 1200 degrees and let cool down on its own. I do this twice and havent had any problems . Forging , you may want to go 3 times and different heat ranges, but this has worked for me.

Anyway , while the tang is getting hot ( Im going uo to 1450 for 10 min ) I get my quench tank ready and bring the temp up to 120 degreese before I quench blade.


My quench tank 4x4 square tube . I welded a plate on the bottom , made a handle and a top for it ..



Oil up to 120 degreese


Blade has been soaking at 1450 for 10 min. and into the quench.






This is why I love the Anti Scale Powder. This stuff chips off pretty easy and the blade is left really nice. NO SCALE !



After blade is cleaned up , pop it in the oven at 375-400 for 45min. Let cool down on uits own .. I do this 3 times..



Took blade out of oven after 3 cycles and cleaning it up


Blade has been HT and tempered and cleaned up nice nice ready for bolsters.

Thats it for now , Ill catch up with ya later..
 
Loving the WIP Mike but boy I'd sure like to see ya pick up a set of longer "tongs" :)

Mine are nothing special. Just a pair of Linesmans pliers with 3' handles made from a piece of electrical conduit.

Question on the PCB Powder- Does this stuff melt into liquid when applied to the blade ? I've got the non-powder kind and it helps but I never get the blade with 100% coverage so I was considering trying out the powder kind.

Thanks buddy ! GREAT job with the pics

-Josh
 
Josh Dabney said:
Loving the WIP Mike but boy I'd sure like to see ya pick up a set of longer "tongs" :)

Mine are nothing special. Just a pair of Linesmans pliers with 3' handles made from a piece of electrical conduit.

Question on the PCB Powder- Does this stuff melt into liquid when applied to the blade ? I've got the non-powder kind and it helps but I never get the blade with 100% coverage so I was considering trying out the powder kind.

Thanks buddy ! GREAT job with the pics

-Josh
Click to expand...

Hey Josh , When you apply this stuff it goes from powder to liquid then cooks itself into a crust , which later comes off real easy as you can see from the pics . As far as the tongs ?? I had a pair right beside the darn oven which was 1 foot away , but the pliers were 6 inches away . Im a lazy ***. LOL .
 
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LOL figured that may the case :) I've got no room at all to talk... I quenched one the other day with Vice-Grips :shush: :D

-Josh
 
Mounting the bolsers. peaning the pins over then giving them a good wack !


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


This is the glue I use when gluing in my spacers. This stuff sets real fast and you need a crane to separate the glued pieces .. This stuff works great !


Cutting the spacers ( liners ) Black liners .030 and Stainless same thickness. I cut a few strips and glued them to the back of the bolsters. Sorry I didnt get the pics of me actually gluing them in , but Im sure you get the idea..



Tracing out a piece of Black Inked Rosewood ..


Cutting out the scales..


Clamp scales onto tang , start drilling out pin holes ..



I pop a few pins in along the way just in case the scale wants to run off the tang.. I always have extra pins around at drill press , mill ect.. If they were'nt there I probably wouldnt use them. Thats why I keep them around.


Now that scales have been cut and drilled , its time for cluing them to tang.. I like to rough up the scales a bit just to secure a better gluing surface , I do the same with the tang . Im sure you seen the tang all scratched up too . Using trusty ol dremel ..


This is the Epoxy I use .. Its worked great for me so far..


After scales are epoxied in , I wait 24 hrs before I start working on it again. Im sure you dont have to wait that long with other epoxies , but I feel the little extra you let the epoxy work , the stronger the bond will get.


Next day clamps come off , getting ready to work on the handle .



Thats it for now , gotta go open up shop.
 
The edge of my seat is all worn out because I'm all over it. I like what I am seeing so far. Very interested in the anti-scale stuff. That has to take a lot of time out of the process. This wip is rolling right along...good job so far..!
 
backtines, great WIP! Do you use any adhesive or solder for your bolsters, or do you just attach them "dry"?

Thanks for taking the time to do this and can't wait to see the finished knife.
 
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