My "Patriot" table knives

Von Gruff

Von Gruff

KNIFE MAKER
I got the first pair of the standard offering "Patriot" table knives done now so these will become a standard offering with each having the red and blue on opposite sides.. 3mm white G10 liners with 5mm red and blue G10 handles on the 4 1/4 inch 12C27 stainless blades. Have a Sgian Dubh, a JT Ranger and a dagger finished and in the drying rack for now.
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Your welcome in Florida too, but I don't think you'd like where I live now, it's a tourist area packed with people, on the other hand, I got 30 acres of woodland I'm moving to in two years-{or less} I can set you up on a whitetail....and no, these aren't the Key deer known in Florida. the average buck up there goes 170# or better.
As far as a trip to the U.S. though....there ain't a whole lot to see up there...Ha ha.

From your stories and hunting trip photos, I'd say you got it pretty good where you are though..:D
 
Thanks for the kind words and the invites but apart from the inconvenience of a small population causing a limited local supply of knifemaking necessities, which I can easily get from AU or the US, the place I live is about as good as it gets for so many different reasons with 365 days a year hunting opportunities just being one of them.
In essence we live the same way here in the south as we did in the 60's with the obvious technological improvements that are common throughout the western world.
 
New
When I showed the "patriot" table knives on the Bladesmiths forum it was suggested that I should do a fork to go with them so this morning I got a piece of 1/8 in stainless (from an old riving knife off the bench saw) and made up a pattern from one of our english silver ones to see if I could get the prongs cut evenly. Getting the curve to the fork will be a simple procedure as I will make the shape on a piece of 1 1/2 square stock for both top and bottom and press the shape in before HT. It was the cleaning up of the prongs after cutting them that caused a bit of head scratching but with the slack belt I think I can get it about right. My grinder is running with a belt speed at over 3000 sfpm and it is very easy to get the fork caught and flung away as it did when I was trying it but I have the 2 HP 3 ph motor to be wired in soon with a VFD so I can slow the belt speed right down to about hand sanding pace so the catching effect will be eliminated.​

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Spent a couple of hours getting the bottom die done for the forks from a length of 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 mid steel, so just have to make the top die now and I can see if they will be a success or whether I have spent time to no effect.
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Got the handles all shaped up on 8 of the knives today and the ninth one I found a flaw in the wood that was too big to fix or fill so cut the handle of and fitted another one to it so it will get done tomorrow. Meanwhile al the rest are in the rack with coats of finish on them so I spent the last couple of hours today and ground the top die for the fork press. Still have to shorten the front and do something with the back so that I can hinge it which will keep it all in line for pressing the forks to shape before heat treating. I may wed a 3 inch bar to top and bottom so a heavy duty hinge will have wide support to keep it all in allignment
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bladegrinder said:
That things awesome Vonn, a fork press. how the heck did you think that up?
Click to expand...

It just seemed the only way to get them all the same and as I have done a little bit of laminating and bending wood in a similar type of press (larger of course) it was no big shift in thinking to make the form in steel. It was just a bit more time consuming though with about 2 hours for each die. Anther hour should see it ready for a test run next week or very soon afterward.
 
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