My First Knife WIP

[Lorien]

I hate it, believe it or not I like the busy season with the 12-16+ hour days. there is so much work to be done that the time flys by. In the winter you can only build so many Norco Pinacles, Giant Boulders, and Trek 3700s before you start to go bonkers. Yeah we get some nice bikes in too, but the bread and butter bikes out number then about 5 to 1:grumpy:

You're making knives, aren't you?

 

[unky_gumbi]

Yes but I have to work my regular shift at the shop before playing with the knives, the boss looks at me a little weird whan I pull them out and start sanding on my lunch break

 

[Lorien]

bike shop owners are often a-holes

 

[unky_gumbi]

bike shop owners are often a-holes

Ah Phil isn't an a-hole, just not sure about the knife thing. He keeps asking if its going to be a full time thing. Not sure if he wants me to leave or scared I am going to. I am the goto guy when it comes to putting hours when we are busy

 

[JTknives]

your work up to this point looks great. i really admire people that get into knifemaking with a file a hack saw. i think alot of new knife makers want all the fancy stuff and miss out on all the knolege that comes from doing knives by hand. keep up the good work.

 

[gordonquixote]

Cool thread! The file jig is awesome as well.

I'm not a big fan of big/busy makers marks. Just a suggestion here....maybe just 'Mason' but have the 'o' be a maple leaf?

 

[unky_gumbi]

your work up to this point looks great. i really admire people that get into knifemaking with a file a hack saw. i think alot of new knife makers want all the fancy stuff and miss out on all the knolege that comes from doing knives by hand. keep up the good work.

Thanks a lot, I still want the fancy tools and all, I just can't afford them yet. I am planning on coming up with a KMG clone design I just need to learn a bit more about them. I need to get a drill press first though.

I think that I will stick with the files and hand tools though even if I get some of the nicer tool, just because its satisfying to make something fully by hand.

Maybe I can get to the point that I would feel comfortable entering the KITH next year

 

[unky_gumbi]

here is as simple as I have gotten yet still saying the knives are canadian made

I am going to play around with the font a bit more to streamline it even more and still look attractive to me.

So just did some internet searching and found out there is a SG knives and a Mason knives so I need something to sepperate myself from them. I could go with knives by George, but then someone might confuse me with Indian George and I wouldn't want to bring his good name down.

Not serious with any of that, I think I will stay close to the last one just move things around a bit and play with the fonts. Can't wait to get the first 2 back from heat treat and start playing with them again.

 

[unky_gumbi]

Well just so that people don't think I am just sitting around waiting for the first two to come back, this is what I have been up to.

This is the first of a pair of bowie inspired knives I am working on. I still have a bit of sanding to do on the first one to clean up a few small scratches.

And this is the sister knife, I have one side beveled and as you can see I am close to haveing this side done as well. I take the edge down to 1.5mm with a flat bastard fill then switch over to a mill bastard to clean it up then sand it out to 400 grit. |By the time I finish the clen up and sanding the edge is at 1mm or the thickness of a dime

 

[Mungo Park]

Wow, looking mighty fine their, you are really zooming along with those.
The tang looks a little wide for me, makes for lots of tang hole cutting in the handle, but a minor point, as the pointy part is looking really good and that is the part that shows. Cheers Ron.

 

[unky_gumbi]

Thanks Ron. I decided to error on the thick side with tang, as I get more confident I am sure that I will be thining those out my next one will have a blade about the size of a scalple and a much smaller tang though. I should be an interesting knife being that it will be made from that scraps from the other kinves, its 13/64 5160. It will be my box cutter at work when its done

 

[Lorien]

George Mason
*maple leaf*
handmade knives

 

[Mungo Park]

I have made quiet a few small knives, they are right handy to have around and great for give aways. Once you make a few you might find they are fun to make. keep up the great work, it should come out a great knife.
Come by in the spring and give forging a try.
Cheers Ron.

 

[unky_gumbi]

Well I knew it would happen, and it was just a matter of time. I finally had my first knife making related injury. Nothing serious, I just poked myself on the end of my thumb yesterday, managed to stick it in about 1/4" while sanding. I guess the that means my tip works I was lucky enough to have just washed theknife down to see the scratches better so it was a clean one with no danger of infection.

Once again another learning experiance, what did I learn? Don't be an idiot and sand with your thumbs hanging over the edge of your sanding block

 

[unky_gumbi]

OK a small up date, the knives have reached Knifemaker.ca, well atleast they are waiting for them to pick them up at the drop off point but the paypal e-check doesn't clear till the end of this week or early next

I have been thinking of giving a gun blue treatment to one of the knives useing the Perma Blue Liquid Gun Blue Kit. just wondering has anyone here tried this and how well do they think it will work on my 5160 blades


its now in the hands of Knifemaker.ca as of 11:55, just a thing of the e-check clearing, HT, and return delivery. then I am back at the original WIP

 

[unky_gumbi]

OK I just got an email from Rob, blades were on their aecond tamper with one more to go. Says they were looking good with a Rockwell of about 58. I am so excited right now that I don't think I am going to be able to sleep, prety bad for a 45 year old man

He says they are doing NDT to look for micro cracks on oil quenched blades. Good info to have, I have my fingers crossed that everything turns out good, but it will be nice to know right from the start if they will be lessons learnd from mistakes or success

 

[Rob!]

OK, 3 tempers done - still showing RHC58, but I suspect that will come up a bit and you sand down to clean steel. This was the first NDT work we've done. The blade is not shiney or anything - that's just the developer that looks kind of like a powdercoat. The dye shows bright red and as you can see, I cleaned the surface of the blade but did not clean out holes. Anyhow, no cracks showing.

This is visible dye penetrant and we intend to also try the UV version which is more sensitive as well as mag particle. There will be a learning curve I'm sure, but I have some help from a friend who does NDT for the aircraft industry for a living.

Your blades are on the way back.

Rob!

 

[unky_gumbi]

Righ on:thumbup: I can't wait. There is a reason you get such praise on here, good products and great service can't ask for anything more.

 

[unky_gumbi]

So in anticipation oftheblades getting back to me and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I have turned my eyes to handle finishes. I do not have any stablized wood kicking around, but I do have the redwood burl I got from Marekz and that is what I will be using on the the WIP knife. I will be using Gorilla Glue as an adhesive and 3 1/4" brass pins, my question is what would be the best way to finish the scales? I have some 100% pure tung oil that Iam testing on a scrape piece. I like the wayit looks, would like a bit more gloss though, but I am thinking that it maymake the handle slippery in the long run. I read the thread about CA finishing, not sure if I am up to that. Is there anything else available to get a nice semi gloss tough non slip finish on a wood handle? Will the straight tung oil work? I have been told by cabinet make that around 10 coats of pure tung oil will make a tough handle, but I am at a loss though.

 

[bjtiger75]

What about Tru Oil? It is used in gun stock work and usually can be had at any local gun shop.