Brute de Forge Full Tang WIP

Good thread. I like the look of the carbon pins on the Thyua burl and then stainless on the ebony. It should be a good contrast. I'm looking forward to the rest.
 
Thank you folks.
JG - The blade is just shy of 6". The OAL to the top edge of the butt is 11 1/8".

-Peter
 
I didn't have a lot of shop time today.

I did get the bevels done to the front bolsters though. Lines were scribed with the micrometer on both faces:


Roughed out by hand with my Dremmel using a large, coarse drum, then refined with a small drum with fine grit sleeve:


Then, further refined down to the scribe lines with files:


Getting there:


I want to maintain nice flat bevels and symmetrical lines, so this is slow and deliberate.


And, finally polished with 400 and 600. Before final fitting I'll take it to 1000.


More coming...

-Peter
 
More done....the blade has been hand sanded, etched, and polished.:thumbup:

This is the second side, starting at 320 and working back up to 1200 the same way as the other side:


I'm pretty careful to maintain a consist angle with my sanding block so not to round off and muddy the sharp lines and angles.


I use a weak brew of Ferric Chloride in distilled H2O:


I'll leave the blade in the solution for about 30-40 seconds, then spray liberally and rub it down real well with Windex,


Then rinse it off in my barrel of pure, virgin, free-range, Cape Breton rain drops:


The blade just after etching and rinsing:


I polish the blade using Blue Magic paste on those fluffy make-up remover pads:




This'll work:






Thanks for watching. More to come...

-Peter
 
Amazing WIP! Where do you get your Ferric Chloride? What is your solution? 3:1 distilled H2O to the Ferric Chloride?
 
Therron - Thank you. I buy it at a bricks-and-mortar chemical supply company in Halifax. My solution is about 8:1.

-Peter
 
The knife is all put together.

The tang and all pins are roughed-up with 220 grit sandpaper, then cleaned well - holes and all- with q-tips and acetone. I also cleaned the glue sides of the handle slabs with acetone to remove any natural oils which will raise the grain a bit as well. The blade is then wrapped with a piece of phone book paper :


I put the knife together just to check the fit one last time. I"ll use G-Flex colored with powdered black ocher.


Just a dab'll do ya. This will turn the epoxy jet black:


I didn't take any shots while in-process, but its all glued up and clamped. The front of the bolsters have been cleaned up with q-tips lightly dampened with acetone. Squeeze out epoxy is also removed around the tang. I've also run an acetone q-tip through the lanyard tube to remove any epoxy from inside.


That's it for the night.

-Peter
 
A bit more:

The handle glued up nicely. I left it clamped to cure for a day and had this:


The top was pretty clean, but the bottom will need some work.


I ground off the extended pins with a fresh 220 grit belt, intermittently, a bit at a time, so the pins didn't get too hot. Then the slabs were lapped with 180 grit on a marble slab to roughly flatten:


Then I began to clean up the profile with a fresh 120 AO belt.


Done with 120 grit:


I later used a spindle grinder to clean up the finger notch area. I'd just make a mess of things if I tried to do this on my grinder, or with hand tools.


Then with an A45 Trizak:


Now I can hand sand the spine using 400, then 600 grit. Same as on the blade, I'll alternate the sanding pattern with each successive grit to reveal and remove previous scratches. I do this now with a wide, flat footprint for the sanding block to ride on. I believe I end up with less rounding of the spine doing it this way, rather than after the handle has been shaped.


I use a variety of wood, brass and copper sanding blocks, both flat and radiused. I also use a variety of round wood dowels.


I'm getting there:


With the spine at 600 grit I'll now use the original template and a micrometer to scribe the bevel lines:




Lines scribed on both faces:


Here we go again with the funky angled blocks. This time 45 degrees:


Top done:




Bottom done. Grinding this one is tough, for me, on my grinder so I just hogged off the meat and I'll clean it up using a Dremmel and files. Thuya is VERY oily wood and it has a habit of clogging sandpaper, files belts, etc, so I used two fresh coarse drums for this job:


I'll also do the bevels on the finger notch with a Dremmel. :


This is good for the Dremmel. The rest I'll do with files.


Now I'll clamp the blade into this contraption so I can work the sides a bit easier:


Now, the tough part. This bevel has a twisted, warped, bent plane and its a chore to get it right.... and, keep a straight bevel line along the spine. This bevel took me about 2 1/2 hours. First few swipes:


Almost there. The butt end is a pain....


This bevel and side is just about there with files only - a bit more to do on that corner of the butt. I'll get that and the other side done tonight.


Still a bunch more shaping yet to come.

I would REALLY like to have any input at all on my tools, technique, design, materials, hair style..... anything!
I'd like to know how others would approach this job. :thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks,

-Peter
 
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Hair looks good Peter :D. Nice to watch is come along :thumbup: I can't offer much comments I'm not super seasoned to begin with but seeing how it's coming along it looks like what you're doing is working. There's plenty of ways to skin a cat when it comes to making a knife. If it gets the job done that's all that matters.
 
It's a lot to keep track of, all the bevels cutting into fixed point like the second pin and the lanyard hole.

I really like the colors on this knife. Keep up the photos. I know many of us are eating this up. Thanks
 
I think your attention to detail is superb. Not many people show such detail in a wip either and its a great way for new guys to learn .

I'm no way near your level so for me its a learning session to see you do such a fine job, and I can't see any faults or anything! Just a very capable man making one damn fine knife!
 
What did you use for the powdery dye in the epoxy? Where did you get it?
This is looking cool!
Daniel
 
Thank you folks.

Daniel - I used powdered black ochre to color the epoxy. I have black, brown, red, and yellow, although I haven't yet figured out how to use the yellow on a knife. I bought that little jar, along with the other colors, from an art supply store in Amherst, MA looooooong ago.

-Peter
 
I was under the weather for a few days, then Thanksgiving, but I'm now back at it.

The basic sculpting has been done, now I need to round off the sharp edges. I'm using thin strips of 180 grit. Thuya is very oily/waxy wood so I only get a few strokes per strip before it gets clogged and useless:


Top and bottom edges are rounded, including the finger notch(PITA!!):


The lanyard tube needs to be trimmed up. I'm using a Dremmel with a small AO grinding stone bit:


The whole handle is sanded to 320, then I fill any voids and cracks with CA glue. I'll then re-sand to smooth the surface paying particular attention to the s.s. pins. I use a brass bar to back my sandpaper to keep wood and pin flush. All the lines will be trued-up... little stuff like the butt end.


Finally, the handle needs to be sanded to 600-800. Then I need to final sand the steel tang to 1000. And finally buffed to a natural sheen. But, that will wait till I make the sheath. I'm just playing with an idea here for fully lined pouch sheath with a Thuya inlay.... we'll see(I initially draw stuff in reverse for some weird reason, this will be a righty sheath):


more later......

-Peter
 
i like the way you work!! That is a super nice blade, i'm following up with interest :thumbup:
 
After a couple days repairing a knife handle I spent some time on the sheath. This will be an inlaid, pouch-style sheath with horizontal/vertical carry belt loop. I tend to spend A LOT of time getting this part right which seems to help minimize mistakes when I start cutting into the expensive leather.

I've drawn out a template(on the right) for the pouch and cut out a test version using crappy leather just to test the fit:


Then cut out the shape of the inlay. This will be a one-piece inlay.


The design on then traced onto a 1/4" thick piece of Thuya burl. These lines were then slightly modified after realizing I needed a bit more space in the upper corner for the stitching shelf.


Once I was happy with it I went back over those lines with a scribe. The profile will be trimmed quite a bit down to the pencil lines giving me a narrow shelf into which the stitching holes will be drilled:


more coming.....
 
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