Recent content by CDH

Anyone ever use their belt grinder to sharpen carbide tipped lathe bits? I find myself in this situation, all of a sudden, and my standby blaze orange belts aren't getting it done. Are there any belts that will cut carbide or am I stuck doing this by hand with a diamond bench stone?

Another satisfied customer of Ernie's here...2 sets of stencils going strong.

I have a request for a "head turning meat cleaver" for a guy to use in a restaurant as he preps food. Since this is a fully health department inspected facility, anything porous is pretty much out as I understand it. Is stabilized wood okay? I assume Micarta is fine and wood, even well sealed...

Sold pending funds. Thanks for looking!

This is a commissioned blade and the client had to back out for financial reasons by the time I got it finished, so it is offered here. Full tang blade made from CPM154CM, hand ground from barstock by me, professionally heat treated (by our own Gene Martin) with a liquid nitrogen cryo quench...

I use the same method as firecog with the exception that I leave a small gap at the bottom of my welt so it will drain and allow grit and stuff to filter out over time. My logic is that I am trying to preserve the leather. If it all gets wet, no matter what you do it needs to be dried out...

Thanks for the idea! It turned out pretty nice. I was too scared to cut back the welt, so it only got stitched on the sides but the contact cement holds well in my experience.

Thanks guys...I had thought of threading it but figured it would look like the kludge it was. I may rethink that...I'm an engineer, not an artist, so durable is my top priority! I was actually hoping to reinforce the corner making it a dual rivit and stud. I like the look of those with the...

To make a long story short this has been a nightmare build, and this close to finishing yet another problem crops up. The anvil pin for the strap retainers I got to try is waaaaay too short for a built up sheath. I hate snaps. Thoughts and options!?!?!? I'm not getting anywhere and tired...

Darkening==AC Cutting==DC No significant crossover between the two. Cut first with DC, switch to AC and darken. I use the tang of the blade for tests. It will be covered by handle material anyway, and you know it's the exact same material so it'll etch exactly the same.

I've used a few dozen sets of cutlery rivits...and had to hammer 2 off. They hold just fine when properly installed and are pure heck to get apart when you screw up. That's pretty much as you would want since if it came apart easily I would question the holding strength. I have 2 issues with...

Maybe I am reading your original post wrong. How many 10 second cycles are you running on DC? It sounds like you are looking for a fully developed mark after 2-3 cycles and that isn't likely to happen unless you are running very high voltage...and then burning the stencil is likely. It is not...

First off, I asked a PhD chemist with electrochemistry experience and he repeated the advise I already had...make the primary ion in your etchant the same as the primary metal in your steel...iron in our case. when I used table salt in water I got erratic etching, mostly outlining the pattern...

Taz and my girls say HOWDY to the new pup!

I went a little deep on this one, and yes that can tend to round off the edges or leave ghosting around the edges. Here's some testing... All are done with my $20 homemade etcher using a 10% solution of radio shack PCB etch (ferric sulfate) solution. Most of my problem with etching is...