Adventures of JJB11B my thread for past projects and WIP’s

[Jon Buescher]

This thread is to catalog my adventure in knife making and my work in progress

 

[Jon Buescher]

My very first knife build,
Home made micarta and the blade is from a 2” ball bearing. This knife was entirely built in Bruce Bump’s shop. He is a very patient man and a great teacher

 

[Jon Buescher]

This is the second complete knife I’ve built, I forged the blade from a large chisel punch and used the same micarta as I did with my first knife, I made the micarta in my garage from canvas and Fiberglass resin. Forging and heat treating were done at Bruce’s house with his help about 2 years ago.

 

[Jon Buescher]

Knife number three is in the works, as posted in another thread. “Making some burlap micarta for this knife, the handle is modeled after the condor blank and the blade profile is scaled up from my last knife build, using O-1 tool steel, gonna wait to drill holes til I find pin stock”

Well the burlap micarta didn’t turn out well, I didn’t use enough resin to impregnate the material, makes sense as burlap has a lot of open space compared to canvas. I have attached a picture of what I got from it, I don’t like it so much so I am about to go make a batch of dark brown and tan micarta in the shop and will post pics of how it looks tomorrow.

 

[Bruce Bump]

I have seen burlap micarta before and it looks really cool. I think they called it barb wire micarta.

 

[C Craft]

Working with Bruce is showing in your quick progress. While most are still trying to figure it out, I think you are working on the each knife better than the last theory! Then again having Bruce to answer questions and show how to well,.............that is priceless!

JJB11B good for you. Might want to work on your handle, (name)! People always asking does anyone know the maker of this knife. Put your name on the piece and there is no doubt who made it!!

 

[Jon Buescher]

I’m trying come up with a makers mark. I don’t think I’ll have a electro etching set up any time soon so I guess it will be a punch

 

[Jon Buescher]

Killing time in the shop today, got bored and decided to see what paper towel micarta looks like. It wasn’t completely ugly so I threw it on a “Condor Woodlaw” blank I had laying around fun little project, good practice for making handles. I didn’t have any pin stock so I drilled 3 3/32” holes and pinned it with stainless nails..

 

[Jon Buescher]

I got my Mill moved today, damned thing is heavy, finally was able to evict the Tundra from my shop, I'll post pics of the shop as soon as I am not embarrassed by the state of things, on a side note, The belt in the background of the previous post is my very first broken belt, 1x30's don't have the dramatic effect the big grinders have when they go haha

 

[Von Gruff]

Planning the workshop layout can make the difference in the days output if everything is in a logical order for minimum waste time and effort between different tooling uses.

 

[Jon Buescher]

The shop is going to be multi use so I may not have the perfect production set up but it will have to work for me

 

[Von Gruff]

The shop is going to be multi use so I may not have the perfect production set up but it will have to work for me

Mine is like that as well but being carefull of where I put the various pieces of equipment has meant a reasonaby coherent layout.

 

[Jon Buescher]

Well I finally got home and had the time to go pick up my new forge yesterday. Designed and built by Bruce Bump. I had about 40 minutes of free time so I played with it this morning. I was just tinkering with a worn out old Nicholson File and a cheap engineers hammer. I set this up just inside my shop door for now, just so happens to be my messy corner.

 

[Kevin Zito]

Nice!!!

 

[Jon Buescher]

as you can see I found a use for my POS Vulcan anvil that lost its entire face. And I really need to go buy a welder and also make or buy some tongs holy crap, my knuckles didn't like grabbing that blade with needle nose pliers. the fan below the door blowing escaping heat up and away is definitely worth its weight in gold. THANK YOU BRUCE!

 

[Jon Buescher]

I was actually purposely trying to do the distal taper. I am going to mess with it more tomorrow

 

[Jon Buescher]

New shop addition getting picked up in the AM here’s a hint:

 

[Jon Buescher]

Some more updates on shop progress

 

[Jon Buescher]

Aaaand now I know what the temp will be in my forge! No more scorched metal

 

[opaul]

Aaaand now I know what the temp will be in my forge! No more scorched metal

Tell me more about this!