Finally found so time to get back into my shop.

Scott Hanson

Scott Hanson

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Sep 6, 2014
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I had a really bust spring, summer and fall, I had multiple home improvement projects the needed immediate attention. I also had a couple family members pass away this spring, 2022 was not a good year. But it's on the up swing now and I was a able to get into my shop and finish a bunch of blades and grind a bunch more. I have 5 blades of 5160, the Bowie knives and daggers already at the heat treater and seven AEB-L blades rough ground and just about ready for heat treating. I won't be able to stamp the chef knife blade, its a little too thin and would bend during stamping, at some point in time I'm going to have to start etching the blades.

The blades are a bit oily in the pics, but they're ground to about 220 grit, ready for stamping and cleaning up to about 400 grit.
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Sorry for your loss Scott. These last few months haven't been great here either...hoping 2023 is better for everyone.
 
Thanks everyone, I had urgent issues with my house with a back porch starting to rot and fall apart, and a leaky set of Bilco doors that were leaking and letting water into my basement. I still have some things on the inside of my house to do, but those can wait for now, hopefully I'll be spending the winter in the shop working on knives.
 
I might make a new thread on this but I have pretty much decided to build a new shop for myself, hopefully starting this spring. The old shop just isn't cutting it anymore for me. it's a 13' x 21' mini-barn with a small loft on top, located behind a rental property, ( I really want to get out of the rental property side of things also ). I heat the shop with a propane space heater and have a small window A/C unit for the summer. The space heater thermostat fluctuates about 5-7 degrees so I'm either too hot or too cold now, plus I have to carry 100# LP tanks out too it to heat it in the winter. I would also like to expand my machines as well. This is going to be two maybe a three year project, I'm thinking 24' x 36' with 12' x 24' back portion walled off as a tool shed and cold storage area. I probably will start with getting the slab poured the spring or summer. This project will slow my knife making down some because now I will be putting in some extra over time shifts.

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.
 
Got the guards soldered this weekend now it's time to head back to work, been putting in quite a few extra shifts to get some money together for the new shop, so knife making will be a bit slow for a while.

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Got all the knives glued up and this one pretty much rough finished, still needs to sanded out, buffed, sharpened and a sheath made. This is one of my favorite patterns, it's the same pattern I used for a knife I made as a gift for a friend that was going through cancer a while back.IMG_5873.jpeg
 
Got two more handles shaped, I have three more to do, the on to the sheaths. One of these is a 4" drop point hunter with a Randall #27 style handle with Red Stag which I still have to polish out yet. The spacers on this are red paper Micarta and white G-10, the G-10 has to be cleaned and re-buffed to get rid of the smudges on it. It likes to pickup buffing compound turn a little grayish in color. The next knife was kind of an experimental one I went back and revisited using the old vulcanized fiber spacer material which tends to clean up really nice and keep it white appearance better. The fiber spacer material is more color fast so it also looks a bit brighter, with the G-10 spacers you can see the fiberglass weave in it, which I really don't care for.

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Scott Hanson said:
Got two more handles shaped, I have three more to do, the on to the sheaths. One of these is a 4" drop point hunter with a Randall #27 style handle with Red Stag which I still have to polish out yet. The spacers on this are red paper Micarta and white G-10, the G-10 has to be cleaned and re-buffed to get rid of the smudges on it. It likes to pickup buffing compound turn a little grayish in color. The next knife was kind of an experimental one I went back and revisited using the old vulcanized fiber spacer material which tends to clean up really nice and keep it white appearance better. The fiber spacer material is more color fast so it also looks a bit brighter, with the G-10 spacers you can see the fiberglass weave in it, which I really don't care for.

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Beautiful color combos on that deep red blade!
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
Beautiful color combos on that deep red blade!
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Thank you, the wide spacers on the one with the Randall style handle is red paper Micarta, all of the red linen Micarta I bought was always more brown in color than actual red for some reason.
 
Scott Hanson said:
Thank you, the wide spacers on the one with the Randall style handle is red paper Micarta, all of the red linen Micarta I bought was always more brown in color than actual red for some reason.
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Reds always go well with golds and browns, it's that old english color scheme. Beautiful work.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
Reds always go well with golds and browns, it's that old english color scheme. Beautiful work.
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Thank you, I appreciate it, one of the other knives I'm making has some brown and natural canvas Micarta in the handle. I have to work tonight but I should be able to get some more handles on the other ones finished this weekend.

Your comment just gave me an idea, I think I will work on some red, brown and gold handle patterns, I'm glad you mentioned that here.
 
I got another handle finished last night in the shop, things will be a little slow going for a while yet. I'm putting in lots of overtime in a t work saving up for the new shop I plan on starting this summer. But here is the latest one, with all vulcanized fiber and brass spacers, ( No G-10 ). I think I will start using more of the fiber spacers when I can, I know a lot of people frown upon fiber spacers, but I have knives 20+ years old with them and they still pretty much look the same now as they did when I made them. I probably offer them as an option.

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Finished the last drop point hunter last night, just have the Randall replica to finish then on to the sheaths. This knife has some materials I haven't work with before, natural canvas and brown canvas micarta. When grinding them on a coarse grit belt they seem to get fuzzy, almost like a velvet texture to them, then as you get into finer belts and sand paper they start to smooth out and seems to polish up pretty nice. The brown canvas micarta looks almost the same color as the leather in the photos but the natural micarta has an un-uniform kind of color pattern to it, I'm not sure if I like that just yet, but we'll see.

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Mack said:
I like that. A lot. It gives the knife a rustic but classy look.
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Thanks Mack I've been putting in quite a bit of OT at work to get a head start on my new shop build. I'll get the last knife, the Randall replica, finished this weekend and get a start on the sheaths.
 
Finished up the last of the six last night, aside from a bit of finish buffing I'm ready to start on the sheaths.

This last on was a another replica or the first knife Bo Randall made in 1937, I've post several of these here before, but a long upswept saber ground blade with a crown stag handle never seems to get old for me.lol

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