Knife #12 WIP - Asian Influence??? - PHOTO HEAVY

Hey folks...
I've been a bit trigger-happy with my camera while working on my most recent knife... and since it has been a few knives since my last WIP, I figured I'd turn this project into one.

Please keep in mind throughout this WIP that I am a novice - I'm probably doing several things wrong... simultaneously - so feel free to give advice on how I can do things better next time.

I suppose it makes sense to give a little background into the design first. My typical method for knife design is to create a sketch on pencil and paper that "works". Then I dig through my stash to come up with materials that fit the design. With this knife, I'm kind of working backwards. I had a block of stabilized green-dyed maple burl that I was consistently avoiding. It just did not seem to "fit" aesthetically with any of the designs I was producing. So... I decided to start with the block of maple and design a knife around it.

Below is a small photo of the block.

Now this a nice block with some cool activity... there's just something about that green color that would not work with any of my previous designs (in my opinion). So I started brainstorming about what type of knife it would work on. The first thing that struck me was how the brown "activity" in the block resembles an active hamon. This started me considering an asian "tanto" aesthetic. With this as a reference, the green color no longer seemed such an odd choice. Further, the green/brown palette of the block got me thinking about incorporating copper into the design. So suddenly I'm thinking about a tanto-esque knife with copper habaki/fuchi/kashira-type fittings. Now I have no experience with Japanese blades, but am suddenly excited about the idea.

As it played out, I finally put pencil to paper during break one day at work. I went through a lot of lead and eraser, but the photo below shows what I came up with.

One thing to note about the design is that I have reversed the cutting edge, placing it on the inside of the curve... no particular reason, just seemed like a good idea.
You'll also notice from the photo how I traced the blade profile onto a piece of Don Hanson W2. :biggrin:

My next step was to begin cutting (on my DeWalt portaband) and grinding (with my 8" wheel on the KMG) the profile. Below you'll see the preliminary blade profile.

One thing that I realized - after nearly destroying my bandsaw blade - was that I would really need to run this chunk of steel through a nice normalizing/annealing routine before I did any more work. :blink:

That process is represented in next couple of photos.


Note: I threw a couple more pieces of W2 in the oven for efficiency's sake.

Once I had made the steel a bit more "workable" I went over to the KMG to clean things up on the flat platen. Here's a photo of some sparks flying.

I'm running a 50-grit blaze belt and using a large welding magnet to hold rough-profiled blade blank. The magnet keeps me from grinding my fingertips off and allows me fewer dips in the water bucket.

This is what the blank looks like after some surface clean-up and a bit more profile cutting/grinding.


At this point I'm ready to start laying down the bevel grinds. For me this starts with some blue layout dye and some cheap HF calipers. For this knife I will start with the false-edge on the convex side of the blade. You can see my scribed line here.


Here I am flat-grinding some bevels. Depending on the shape of the knife, I do much of my flat-grinding with a toolrest. In this case, I have a narrow block of wood clamped to the toolrest to allow the concave side of the blade to glide cleanly across. It's pretty-much impossible to see in the photo, but I am applying pressure to the blade using a push stick in my right hand as I pull the blade across the belt with my left.

You'll also notice the safety glasses and respirator. I generally have a baseball cap on as well go keep grit and sparks out of my hair. I have little to spare. :15: In this case I seem to have forgotten the cap.

The next series of grinding photos are kind of ugly (even uglier than my gut in the last photo). But don't worry, things will work out... I hope. :les:

Roughed-in false-edge bevel.


Roughed-in primary edge bevel.

All of the rough grinding was done with a blaze 50-grit belt.

This next photo shows the blade after drilling some {potential} pin holes through the tang area followed by some bevel clean-up (extending them down the tang). I think this photo was taken at about 120-grit.


Next: Off to HT

There was a thread from Bubba-san a while back that got me excited about adding some activated charcoal to my satanite clay mix for producing a hamon. It took me some time to find activated charcoal, but I eventually found some at Petco... it's used to filter water in fish tanks. The stuff that I bought was pretty course (large granules), so I had my wife pick up a used coffee grinder at Goodwill. It seemed like a good idea... but doggone it was messy. :52: I had fine, black coal dust everywhere. I looked like Ben Stiller from Zoolander. {cough, cough. "I got the black lung Pop"}.


So I applied my clay mix to the blade in a pattern that I hope will be reminiscent of the activity in the handle block. From experience, I know that hamons seldom do what you tell them to... but we'll see what happens. I cut the hamon pattern from a piece of cardboard and used that as a template to help keep the clay symmetrical from side to side.


Then BAM... up to 1470F in the kiln and quenched into room-temp Parks 50. I recently installed a new bench area in my tiny shop for a new small mill and my kiln. It has the added benefit of a nice roll-away hiding place for my quench tank/roaster when it is not in use. :yes:


I can remember whether this next photo was taken after the quench or after the temper. I'm guessing that it was taken after quench but before temper... based on the location of the photo and the color of the blade... but I could be wrong. :les:

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see how the hamon turns out.

Nice WIP Erin. I like what you are doing. It will be interesting to see how the hamon turns out. Waiting for more.

Larry

naifu said:

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see how the hamon turns out.

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LR Adkins said:

It will be interesting to see how the hamon turns out.
Larry

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Yeah... no kidding. I'm curious how it will look myself.:les: I am planning to hit the majority of the handle work before I do much polishing of the blade... so I don't accidentally screw up the finish. I can see hints of the hamon in the right lighting, but it will take a high-grit polish and etch before I'll be able photograph it clearly.

I'm enjoying watching this unfold, I like the design and choice of materials.

Being a beginner, I always like to see how others go about their work and shop pics

Yes man can't wait to see the completed knife

Awesome work there Erin! I to,can't wait to see,how that hamon turns out.
I can hardly wait to see the finished knife.

God bless,Keith

Thanks guys. I hope that the knife doesn't end up disappointing. As a new maker, my skill level is not exactly at the level required for some of the ambitious projects that I take on. It's a learning process, and thanks to this WIP, you get to muddle through it with me. Hah hah.:lol:

As mentioned in my previous post, I did a bit of post HT grinding on the blade - mainly just to remove the scale - but have started work on the handle/fittings. The photo below shows the blade after rough clean-up.

This will be my first knife project since buying the bench-top mill, so I have the opportunity to try some new things and hopefully learn some new tricks.

I figure it makes sense to start making fittings from the habaki and work my way back. Now I know that there is a traditional way to make a habaki that involves bending copper sheet and soldering, but I don't really have any copper sheet thick enough, and my tang wouldn't really work with a traditional habaki anyway... I think. Plus, I hate soldering. So I thought "what the heck", how about milling a "habaki" from a larger chunk of copper. So that's what I'm doing.

This first photo shows me squaring up a small block of copper (cut from a larger piece switchgear buss bar) in my new mill. I'm using a 2" face mill, which I have since decided is not the optimal tool for squaring small blocks of copper. However... in the interest of full disclosure... :9:


The next photo shows me slotting the copper with a small end mill. I forget the exact size... but it's probably 3/32 or 1/8". If I remember correctly, my process was to first mill the minor thickness of the blade/tang, then thicken the slot toward the middle where the tang is thicker. Something like that... make sense?


The next photo shows the one thing that makes it possible for a milling machine newb to even attempt something like this...
... the DRO.
Oh man this baby is nice. I am thankful that I bit-the-bullet and invested in the DRO at the time I bought the mill. This process would have been MISERABLE if I had to count hand-cranks. This DRO display hangs from the ceiling at about my head-height, making it very convenient for me.

At this point I have to apologize for missing some photographs. While most of the habaki slotting was done on the mill, I still had to clean-up the inside of the slot manually using small files to get a clean fit to the semi-diamond cross section of the blade. I didn't get pictures of this. I also used a cut-off wheel on a dremel to cut the slot where the back of the blade fits into the habaki. I did not photograph this either. I am a wiggly worm. Finally, I did not get any photos of me rough-grinding the exterior of the habaki to shape... but I can tell you that copper gets hot quickly and requires frequent dips in the water bucket.:saduch The next photo shows the rough-shaped habaki fit to the blade.

You are doing a great Job I hope it turns out for you , But, as everyone knows hamons have a mind of thier own , they used to talk to me ! but, in my old age I cant hear them like I used to . good luck. Bubba

Lookin good Erin, Real good. Wouldn't having the Bevel on the Tang make fitting the Handle Harder?

stabber said:

Lookin good Erin, Real good. Wouldn't having the Bevel on the Tang make fitting the Handle Harder?

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Touché :3:

Seemed like a good idea at the time.:nothing:

Does anyone know where I can get a small chunk of copper approx. 1/2" x 3/4" x 1" for a reasonable price? I have a piece of buss bar that I'm using for most of the copper fittings, but it is not quite thick enough for the kashira/pommel. Most of the places on-line that I have found want to sell me at least 12" of bar stock... way more than I need.

Thanks in advance.

Erin,as soon as I get back from taking my kids to school,
I will look and see,I have a piece of copper that I think
will work for you(I just need to put my hands on it).
Give me just a little while and I'll let ya know.

God bless,Keith

Tagging to follow along. Looks great man, seeing a build makes me so anxious to get my shop built so I can start trying to make something.

Larry

Here are a couple more photos of building the guard/tsuba and the "fuchi".

This first photo shows the rectangular piece of 1080 guard material after I have done initial milling of the slot. I used the computer to print a few ovals sized to the guard dimensions. The outer oval represents the overall size and shape of the guard, while the inner oval is meant to represent a thin copper "seppa" between the "habaki" and the "tsuba"/guard.

From this point, I have to use files to clean up the slot for a nice fit on the diamond cross-section of the tang.

In this next photo, I have spray-glued one of the paper cut-outs to the guard steel (aligning the center-line with the center of the milled slot). I am grinding up to the lines on the paper to create the oval shape.


Now I am squaring and thinning another block of copper for the "fuchi". You'll notice that I am no longer using the 2" face-mill from earlier. This 1/2" 3-flute end-mill seems to cut with way less vibration/chatter. I do have to make multiple passes, but that's not a big deal.

I next mill and file the slot similar to what I did with the habaki and the guard.

The next photo shows the habaki, seppa, tsuba and rough fuchi block (covered in blue Dykem) all fitted to the knife. You'll notice that they are not "super-tight" in the photo. Things will snug up quite a bit when the handle is fitted.

You'll also notice that I did a bit of stippling on the guard. My plan is to do a two-tone darkening finish on the guard with some cold-blue and some FeCl. I hope it'll end up looking kind of cool. We'll see.

Coming together quite nicely Erin. Keep us posted with the progress.

Friggin' Awesome! That green maple is going to look great on there, rather jade-like, imo.

Can't wait to see it come together. And, I love that quench tank!

Erin, I really like your wip threads.

Great design. Looking forward to seeing it finished.