The "WIP" Thread - What was your project today?

[REK Knives]

I know there's a lot of threads out there for completed projects, but I think a lot of people (myself included) would like to see the mods in progress and see updates as your projects are coming along

Doesn't have to only be "pimpers", if you personally are modding your knife or just sharpening something for the day would love to hear how it went and see some pics :thumbup:

So what did you work on today??

 

[blade dude]

My project today was digging steel slivers out of my hands after "reprofiling" an edger blade into a blade for Mother's Day. My project tomorrow will be bonding the handles and Thursday will be starting to shape them


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[wiredbeans]

Following this thread with great anticipation!


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[REK Knives]

My project today was digging steel slivers out of my hands after "reprofiling" an edger blade into a blade for Mother's Day. My project tomorrow will be bonding the handles and Thursday will be starting to shape them


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pics or it didn't happen!

 

[blade dude]

pics or it didn't happen!

bonding the handles

 

[REK Knives]

Nice! Have you bonded the scales to the tang yet?

 

[blade dude]

Nice! Have you bonded the scales to the tang yet?

Huh? I meant the handles are being glued to the knife.

did more grinding on the handle area.

edger blade I started with. Now you all gotta wait until Mother's Day to see it finished because it's a gift to my mom for food prep when camping.

 

[inkynate]

This is kind of silly, but here goes. I have a big old ~$5 machete that is terrible and I decided see if I could mod it into something moderately more useful. Have been working on it slowly over the past couple of weeks as I get some down time here and there.

Original (too big, too long, too much forward weight, 2mm stock felt "floppy" at this length):

Cut down tip into a golok shape, used my 1311 as a general reference:

Made another cut on the tang to improvise a forward grip:

Slapped on the most budget handle imaginable, paracord over napkin, lol. Then carved up the front of the plastic handle to make a reasonably comfotable transition. I was originally going to cut the existing handle off completely and take the new grip right up to the cutting edge, but then went in this direction b/c I thought the handling and grip options might be interesting:

Reprofiled the edge at 15° per side on my 1x30:

Hoping to get out this weekend to do some testing on it. Want to see how the steel holds up and also test the handling in various grips. If it all goes well I will eventually remove the original plastic handle slabs, do some additional shaping on the tang, and put some proper wood or micarta slabs on it. On the blade, there is a very rough 3° per side primary grind that I will regrind to thin out the edge bevel, which is currently ~.055" at the shoulder, to ~.03". :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[REK Knives]

Hoping to get out this weekend to do some testing on it. Want to see how the steel holds up and also test the handling in various grips. If it all goes well I will eventually remove the original plastic handle slabs, do some additional shaping on the tang, and put some proper wood or micarta slabs on it. On the blade, there is a very rough 3° per side primary grind that I will regrind to thin out the edge bevel, which is currently ~.055" at the shoulder, to ~.03". :thumbup::thumbup:

Nice work man! Love to see that come together!!

 

[Howieee]

This is what I started with. O1 5/16x3x11

Need to get more pics to continue. First time posting pics and was mainly seeing if it would work.

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[REK Knives]

nice! looks like you got it figured out =)

 

[Howieee]

So trying to make some cleavers.

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[Howieee]

I cut them out last week and started grinding this week.

This is my third attempt at making a blade and am really excited to see how they turn out.
I am using a homemade belt sander for my grinding.

More to come as I work the steel.


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[Howieee]

Only able to put in a few minuets today. Hope to be able to get more time in Monday. I did however get some of the handle grinding in.

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[inkynate]

Looking forward to seeing how those cleavers come out.

Nice work man! Love to see that come together!!

Thanks Josh! Big fan of your work.

 

[REK Knives]

^^ great work on the cleavers!! And that belt sander is just ingenious, way to go making do w/ what you have! It's way better than files I'm sure! And is it variable speed?!

Looking forward to seeing how those cleavers come out.
Thanks Josh! Big fan of your work.

Looking forward to seeing the final product and feedback! I thinned out a Gerber parang (not sure on steel) to 10 dps light convex grind and the edge suffered severe damage, but you don't know until you push it!

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Well this has been an on-going WIP for months now lol... finally finished it up yesterday, and it is a relief to have it done!!

So I got a Sniper Bladeworks LPC in as a replacement for a customer who I though I had lost his knife (ended up finding it). Purchased this on Ebay from a guy in canada. So it became my blade, to do with as I wished, so I turned it into my "fun" project knife =)

This is the condition when I received it.

First up, I couldn't stand the thumb stud... it was way too square and hurt my thumb when opening and closing. So I fixed that!

Next I found the pivot would spin freely when trying to tighten/loosen because of the smooth female side, so I drilled/tapped in a torx bit into the smooth side!

Next I sculpted and rounded the scales, now they became WAY more comfortable!! And the fun part... file work to the g10 backspacer!

And now for the blade work... the edge was rounded somewhat and the entire edge was very thick and the grind very uneven (see original pics above). I was debating what type of grind but in the end went w/ a 220 grit hollow grind thinned out to about .013-.014" thick at the shoulders of the edge, which I set to 15 dps.

Then I decided to go for it... why not?! File work to the spine to match the back spacer!

One thing I noticed was that the hump at the point where the scales transitioned to the spine was annoying for my thumb and not thought out well, so I fixed that!

And did you notice that super SQUARE finger choil?! I HAD to do something w/ that =)

Finally... all prepped for Cerakote! At this point it is imperative to not touch w/ bare hands or gloves that have been contaminated w/ finger oil as it would adversely affect the adhesion of the Cerakote.

Initially I went w/ a snakeskin pattern on the entire knife as I was playing around w/ something new I figured why not?!

But then I noticed this... AFTER I coated it... UGH!!! The point is sitting out of the scales!!

So I drilled out the detent hole, pressed in a hardened steel insert, ground everything flush again, installed a ceramic detent ball, got the seating depth in the scales corrected, and re-drilled the detent hole.

FINALLY! Ready for the final coating! But at this point I decided to black out certain parts of the knife as before I found that pattern "too much". Here is the final product!!

 

[Howieee]

WOW very nice work on that sniper. I really like the look of the black blade against the snake skin scales. I didn't realize I was in a thread with such pros.

Ya so that sander is variable speed harbor freight special. Bought it just to sand the deck then ended up getting in to knife making. It is working for now.


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[Jason B.]

Very nice work, Josh.

Here is some sharpening work I have for tonight/tomorrow.

Gyuto all the way to the right,

Gyuto on wooden saya,

 

[inkynate]

Looking forward to seeing the final product and feedback! I thinned out a Gerber parang (not sure on steel) to 10 dps light convex grind and the edge suffered severe damage, but you don't know until you push it!...

Tell me about it, lol. This 1111 was reground below .02" and I pushed it too hard, also rippled the primary prior:

..The transformation on that Sniper is totally insane dude.
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Jason B,

I sure hope we get to see after pics on those gyutos, savagery!!

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Might have to look at one of those varible speed Harbor Freight sanders to compliment my 1x30. I made a thread a few weeks ago about the mod I did on it for water cooled grinding here. To put the bevel on the machete above, I actually used a waterstone +base to shim the rear feet of my grinder at 15° (phone app to set angles), so all I had to do was keep the blade vertical.

 

[blade dude]

just a little more blade grinding maybe little more handle sharpening


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