What's going on in your shop?

Daniel,

This is the second time I've clayed this blade. On the first quench, it developed a crack and the hamon was a failure, so I figured I'd try it again as the blade is ruined. My experience with hamons is limited to 3 at this point, but I've had the opposite experience with them. When I've used furnace cement, the hamon is almost exactly where I've put the clay. On the first round with this blade, I used satanite and I had a hamon that only covered about a 1/4" of the spine in a straight line. It was clayed very similar the the picture of it now.
 
GeneK said:
Daniel,

This is the second time I've clayed this blade. On the first quench, it developed a crack and the hamon was a failure, so I figured I'd try it again as the blade is ruined. My experience with hamons is limited to 3 at this point, but I've had the opposite experience with them. When I've used furnace cement, the hamon is almost exactly where I've put the clay. On the first round with this blade, I used satanite and I had a hamon that only covered about a 1/4" of the spine in a straight line. It was clayed very similar the the picture of it now.
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Gotcha! Thanks for the info!
 
Pulled this out of the reject drawer and finished it. It's a blade that I had ground awhile back that had a lot of problems. Got it mostly straightened out. Not perfect but it will make a good user.

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Glued this one up tonight. I'll finish it tomorrow. Double dyed black ash burl. It's got a lot of color going on. :)

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luciusx5 said:
Pulled this out of the reject drawer and finished it.
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I'm still new but I do want to comment that is one of the nicest handle materials I've seen since I got into this. Glad you were able to save it.

Just out of curiosity are those mosaic pins 1/4"? I always thought that sounded too big, but those look just right. I like that mosaic style, too.

Edit: just because that second handle material is awesome, too.
 
soundmind said:
Just out of curiosity are those mosaic pins 1/4"?
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Hi soundmind. The handle material is some spalted maple that I purchased at the Arkansas Knife show almost a year ago. The pins are 1/4". On a "hunter" sized knife I don't think 1/4" pins are too big but I probably wouldn't go any larger. I should be able to post the finished second knife tomorrow unless my wife interrupts my plans. :). Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated.
 
a little file work today to square up the shoulders and the plunge lines.
I have some wood picked out for the handle. These traditionally had round handles so I bought a HF wood lathe on sale with a 20% off coupon. I haven't turned any wood on a lathe since 8th grade. It should come right back. lol..

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Profiled and drilled holes today in a Bird and Trout knife. This is the one I posted the design of in the design critique thread. I need to tweak a couple small spots, but over all I'm satisfied with it. One possible problem is one pin hole for the bolster is a little close to the edge. I hope it doesn't cause problems.
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I began to grind in the bevels, but one side started to get away from me. I decided to stop for the night and will take it up again in the morning.
 
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spent a little time on my gladious today. I didn't have a wood chisel that would fit into the tang slot on some wood so I had to make one quick and dirty. It worked fine.
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Good use for the height gage. I had milled and then hand filed the slot to go over the ricasso. This brass piece will be inlayed on the wooden guard shown above. These gages don't get used a lot but when you need one they rock.
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spent a little time today on my Gladious.
I trimmed down the front brass guard fixture and inlaid it into the front guard wood. This is still all pretty rough at this point and this wood (thuya burl) really chips out easily. I will definitely pick a more sturdy wood for the next one. This one is just a practice run.

I turned down a block on our new HF wood lathe. I haven't turned anything since 8th grade. I'll need more practice on this. Anyway, progress. I still haven't settled on how to fasten it all up on the rear pommel yet. I'm pretty sure I'll weld some thread onto the back of the tang and make it long enough to use a pommel nut.


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Did a batch of heat treating today. Need to get stuff done so my table isn't empty at the spirit of the blade show in Troy, OH March 1st and 2nd....got about a month lol. 5 wa handled gyutos, 4 santokus, 5 American chef knives,5 steak knives, 2 bird and trout and 1 wharncliffe neck knife...all of those to finish along with a 32" crusader sword....wish me luck hahaIMG_20190121_001510.jpg
 
JeremyBartlett said:
Did a batch of heat treating today. Need to get stuff done so my table isn't empty at the spirit of the blade show in Troy, OH March 1st and 2nd....got about a month lol. 5 wa handled gyutos, 4 santokus, 5 American chef knives,5 steak knives, 2 bird and trout and 1 wharncliffe neck knife...all of those to finish along with a 32" crusader sword....wish me luck hahaView attachment 67209
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Good luck.
 
I'm still a newb at the anvil, but as I get more into forging, I am curious about trying an integral from round stock. I bought some 52100 round stock from Ray Kirk, but thought I'd practice on some free metal first. I've got a good sized coil spring from a hay baler, not as big as a truck coil spring, but decent sized. I forged it out last night and ground the scale off. Not even sure if I'll finish it, mainly just hammer practice. For the next one, I've got to make a guillotine tool or a spring fuller to isolate that blade, kind of messy with just a hammer. Any advice welcome.
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Way too much hand sanding. If I could grind the lines better free hand or even with a work rest I could have saved some time. Anyway, ready for heat treat. Handle is turned, end pommel is roughed out, front guard is fitted but all need finish work. I'm going to weld a bolt on the end of the tang and then tap and turn a pommel nut of some sort. This is ready for heat treat.

With all the hand sanding, I finally broke out the machinist stones I have been sitting on and gave them a try. I'm really pleased how well they worked and will be definitely using more them in the future. I got a couple different cheap sets on Amazon to try. One set came marked with grits, the other didn't. Look for one with grits or you have to guess a lot. I don't know that the grits in the stone line up exactly like sandpaper but it does seem close enough. For stubborn spots, they are several times faster than sandpaper. I only had the small sticks in different shapes so I can't be sure how well they work on large areas but I'm got to see if I can find some and give it a try.
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