What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

ak650 said:
They all look great, but the black with red accents looks really sharp!
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thanks!
that's the 'Bela Lugosi Edition' of the 'Mr. Kotter' modelšŸ¤ØšŸ˜‚
 
Took a break from hand sanding my wife's blade, and got material prepped to make a knife vise. Cobbling together ways to hold the blades was getting irritating, and it's time to build a purpose built vise. Not reinventing the wheel, just a basic pipe in a pipe style. Cut the major pieces to size, and then gave them a bath in good old cleaning vinegar( 30% acetic acid ). Six hours and the mill scale and crap wipes right off. No grinding dust/sparks, ruined flap wheels, etc.....Will hopefully have time to weld it up later in the weekend. Can't wait to put it to use.
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ak650 said:
Took a break from hand sanding my wife's blade, and got material prepped to make a knife vise. Cobbling together ways to hold the blades was getting irritating, and it's time to build a purpose built vise. Not reinventing the wheel, just a basic pipe in a pipe style. Cut the major pieces to size, and then gave them a bath in good old cleaning vinegar( 30% acetic acid ). Six hours and the mill scale and crap wipes right off. No grinding dust/sparks, ruined flap wheels, etc.....Will hopefully have time to weld it up later in the weekend. Can't wait to put it to use.
nqa4ziS.jpeg
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Looks great! I need to make me one of those ... and make me this ... and that ... and that ... the list never ends does it?
 
Ok, some mote shots of my togi dai and some of te work currently in progress.
The sanding blocks range from hardwood to ones that store the sanding strips to hard felt, to ones with a hard leather backing.

The shots of the kissaki being polished are of a shoto-wakizashi. It is done to 220 grit in the photos. The edge gets sharp as you polish these blades. Care must be taken to avoid cutting your fingers. You often end up with a line of skin sliced away. It is hard to get a good photo of the kissaki with my phone. You need good lighting and even a strong spot light to find any scratches.

I put a cork on the end of a blade when polishing the upper parts, and whenever I am changing papers or doing another task. The results of bumping a sharp tip can be severe.

The togi dai is a re-purposed sit-up bench. You can see some of the various arms I have for doing different sanding and filing tasks.

On the bench and on the driveway are the blades I am working on in this sanding and polishing marathon. Ingot all of them done in two days. The wakizashi and tanto blades will be finished later, as they take about 20 hours each to finish. The non-traditional wak is done. It is made from a billet by Delbert Ealy he called Meteor Storm.

The finished dagger is a Frazier blade that I have been restoring. It has MOP scales, sterling silver bolsters and o=pins, and a w-2 blade. The stripes are reflections of the trees above. The blade and bolsters are mirror polished.
I'll add the rest of the photos in a second post.

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I am happy that you decided to share some pictures of your work, Stacy. That's a rare treat.

Here is my contribution: a small hunter in Elmax, 205 mm overall length, blade length about 85 mm. Handle is osage orange, bronze and an offcut of probably cocobolo.


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pafka said:
I am happy that you decided to share some pictures of your work, Stacy. That's a rare treat.

Here is my contribution: a small hunter in Elmax, 205 mm overall length, blade length about 85 mm. Handle is osage orange, bronze and an offcut of probably cocobolo.


ByzjKEw.jpeg

zF3V7d3.jpg

9TSPCRw.jpg
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Well said, it was a treat to see Stacy's work! And yours is beautiful as well, that is super nice work! Are you also a bowyer, by chance? Osage and cocobolo.....those make me think longbows and recurves!
 
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ak650 said:
Well said, it was a treat to see Stacy's work! And your work is beautiful as well, that is super nice work! Are you also a bowyer, by chance? Osage and cocobolo.....those make me think longbows and recurves!
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Thank you so much for your kind words. I wish I was a bowyer! What a beautiful craft. But sadly I have zero experience in that. I just hoard materials and occasionally make a knife from that:)
 
pafka said:
Thank you so much for your kind words. I wish I was a bowyer! What a beautiful craft. But sadly I have zero experience in that. I just hoard materials and occasionally make a knife from that:)
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Both of those woods should make excellent knife handles. I've not made a bow in a number of years, but now that I'm retired would like to do a few more. Still have some Osage that I cut almost 40 years ago, stashed away for "some day". I see you are from the Czech Republic; does Osage grow there, or do you have to import it? Would love to visit there some time. Excellent craftsmen in your country. Firearms, machine tools, you name it. Very well made.
 
ak650 said:
Both of those woods should make excellent knife handles. I've not made a bow in a number of years, but now that I'm retired would like to do a few more. Still have some Osage that I cut almost 40 years ago, stashed away for "some day". I see you are from the Czech Republic; does Osage grow there, or do you have to import it? Would love to visit there some time. Excellent craftsmen in your country. Firearms, machine tools, you name it. Very well made.
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No, it's an import sadly, I don't think that tree would grow well here.
I would love to see some bow making content here too - please share if you do get to it.
If you ever do visit feel free to let me know, we'll grab a beer and probably the healthiest food Czech cuisine has to offer - grilled pork knuckle. It goes downhill from there.
However, if you are into museums and seeing the work of craftsmen from the past, I do have to recommend other countries - recently I went to Vienna, and before that London. Excellent collections of craftsmanship and art. Even a peasant like me can marvel at that. Prague can not beat that. But maybe make it a multi-country visit then!

Some knives from the British museum:
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And from Vienna:
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If this is the image you are referring to, the blades from the left are - damascus wakizashi, O-tanto, shoto-wakizashi. and nikiri.
The MOP dagger, other blades on the bench, the mini-bowie, and the ones on the driveway are Ron Frazier blades I am restoring. I'll post photos of them, when done. The two mini swords - a wakizashi and rapier - and the tiny mini-bowie are mine. They are 10:1 scale.
I finished them last night and will post photos of all the blades I have been working on in this batch.

The three swords are done through shitagi-togi (foundation polishing) and will wait until I have time for shiage-togi (finish polishing and hamon finishing) and making fittings. I don't rush that stage. It is a place where a severe cut is likely if you are trying to work too fast as well as the time invested shows in the results. The O-tanto has been in the polish tray for a good ten years, the shoto-wak about three. I started the damascus wak after one of the Ashokan seminars about 7 years ago. I have probably twenty or more similar blades in the forging bin partially forged or ready to start grinding and then polishing. I never worry about when I will get a job done, just that it is done right. After the smithy gets rebuilt this summer i plan on being out there for a while every day. I really hope to host a shop-day/hammer-in in the spring of '25.togi dai 12.jpg
 
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