Bowie 2019 KITH Sean

Finally got into the shop today. Been busy with other things. I finished up the tapered tang on Bowie and experimented with pinning brass to stainless for the guard. Also split the Buckeye burl in half and did some minor prep work on it. Hopefully I will be able to spend all day tomorrow in the shop.

Tapered Tang bottom view.jpgBrass experiment.jpgTapered Tang top view.jpg
 
I've been doing more hand sanding today on this project and also started to work on the bolsters. I've hand sanded the blade up to 800 on one side but not the other. I've never hand sanded to 800 before and I jumped directly from 400 to 800. It's been a bit frustrating and slow so I paused on the sanding to start on the bolsters.

Bolsters.jpg
 
I've been doing more hand sanding today on this project and also started to work on the bolsters. I've hand sanded the blade up to 800 on one side but not the other. I've never hand sanded to 800 before and I jumped directly from 400 to 800. It's been a bit frustrating and slow so I paused on the sanding to start on the bolsters.

View attachment 70521
If it were me I wouldn’t skip the 600 but I could see skipping the 800 and going from 600 to a fine scotch brute pad.
 
If it were me I wouldn’t skip the 600 but I could see skipping the 800 and going from 600 to a fine scotch brute pad.
I don't have any 600 grit on hand. That's why I went from 400 to 800. I've had to back track to 400 once already. I'm going to pick up some 600 grit today and give it another whirl. So on the scotch brite...do you use just a regular pad rather than the scotch brite belts? I've thought about getting one of the belts, but they are expensive.
 
I don't have any 600 grit on hand. That's why I went from 400 to 800. I've had to back track to 400 once already. I'm going to pick up some 600 grit today and give it another whirl. So on the scotch brite...do you use just a regular pad rather than the scotch brite belts? I've thought about getting one of the belts, but they are expensive.
Pops has really good prices on the Rhino wet paper. I use the pads, I pick them up from any of the hardware stores.
 
Well I haven't been in the shop in a week and a half.

Had a bad sinus infection and miscellaneous stuff to deal with.

Now that I'm feeling better it's 10 degrees outside and barely over freezing in my shop. :(

However it will be warming up over the next few days. Plan on getting out and seeing what I can get done.
 
I spent a little bit of time out in the shop yesterday, mostly hand sanding. About 33 degrees in the shop. Nice and toasty :)

Then today I finished sanding the main part of the blade and started on the swedge. I ran into some problems with the swedge. The right and left sides of the swedge aren't even. I attempted to hand sand the left side and it doesn't look too good. So tomorrow I will attempt to get them even. This is more difficult to do than I thought it would be.

Here's the left side.swedge-left-side.jpg


And the right.swedge-right-side.jpg

So hopefully I can get the two sides to match better.

Any suggestions on how I might approach this would be helpful.
 
Sean I put a video up on my KITH on how I grind clips, showing the jig I use. The only other easy way to make them dead even but takes awhile is with a diamond file after heat treat. I have done both. The grinding with the jig is the easiest and quickest way for me.
 
If you don't have an adjustable work rest. Just use the work rest that is square with the platen and cut a 2x4 or something with the angle you want and clamp it to your work rest, if you get what I mean. The angle I usually use is some where between 65 and 70degrees
 
Thanks Jason. I'll have to work on getting my work rest exactly square. After spending time putting together a work rest it didn't turn out as well as I thought. So I used the work rest as a support for my hand and used my bubble jig once again. I think once I get the work rest square I'll clamp a piece wood to it like you suggest and get this puppy finished up.

I really like my bubble jig and I've watched Fred Rowe use it to grind a swedge. But while he uses his work rest as support when he does that, his work rest is much larger and squarer than mine

One more time. :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top