Well let's start! Hand Tool Knife WIP Thingy

Fletch Helical said:
Yeah I learned that up at Aldo's that 1084 can actually harden if you heat it up too much with a drill bit. You can cut it with a hacksaw, I cut my first blank out like that. Just have a good blade and take your time, don't do like I did and try and rush it, make a dumb move and put the blade into your finger.
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Ah, OK, I am impatient. What speed should the drill press run at? I'm just running it at whatever it came set to. I guess I was expecting it to punch right through more-or-less instantly. :eek:

I did start a cut with the old hacksaw but it needs a new blade. I do have a sawzall I could try, as well as an angle grinder. Anyway, I'll tackle it again tomorrow.
 
The slowest you can make it. Angle grinder would be the best bet, iirc Silver Pilate (Nathan) used to cut out all his blanks with one. It's the fastest of all your options just take your time and be careful it can be fairly easy to shatter the discs.
 
Fletch Helical said:
The slowest you can make it. Angle grinder would be the best bet, iirc Silver Pilate (Nathan) used to cut out all his blanks with one. It's the fastest of all your options just take your time and be careful it can be fairly easy to shatter the discs.
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Thanks for the advice--I'll def. give the grinder a go. I'm also stopping by the local gas & tool store this afternoon for some new cobalt drill bits. The guy there said they should punch right through but to make sure to run them slow. I will report back with any progress. :p
 
Anyone making progress? Anyone heard from our Fearless Leader?

I picked up some cobalt drill bits and a cut-off wheel for my angle grinder--some sparks are going to fly tomorrow. Will post some pix ASAP!
 
I've got mine pretty well shaped and the holes drilled for pins and lanyard.
Probably try to get the bevel going this weekend.
 
No more progress here other than the patern has been drawn on the steel and theres a light cut in it. Ive been doing nothing but trying to fix things that seemingly want to keep breaking on me 24/7 and plowing the snow that dosent want to stop coming. Last sat 26", tuesday 8", wensday 4" thursday 4" and its snowing again today. And to top all that odd its supposed to snow at least 5 out of 7 days in the extended forecast. Got to love ohio.
 
That sucks about all the snow--we've hardly any here in Maine (not that I'm complaining at all!)

Anyway, progress had been made. I know have my first KSO. Wow, this is much harder than I thought. Here is a picture of progress thus far. This is going to be one heavy little prybar--I didn't realize .25" stock was so heavy!

NSO1.jpg


I'll finish the profile tomorrow. Then I'll need help with the next step.
 
Mr. Bad Example said:
Wow, this is much harder than I thought. Here is a picture of progress thus far. This is going to be one heavy little prybar--I didn't realize .25" stock was so heavy!
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You ain't seen nothing yet :p.

It'll lighten up some after you drill a bunch of holes in it and take some of the weight out of it, plus what you'll take away for the bevels. Plus it's going to shrink up a bit because you cut exactly on the line. Next time cut it out a little bigger than what you draw on the steel. You can always take away, you can't add. BELIEVE me I know on that one ;)
 
Some more progress: We have learned that cobalt bits run at 650 rpm go through 1084 like it was buttah. Here is my KSO now:

NSO2.jpg


What is the next step? I do want to do some more shaping--should I do it now or later? I think the finger notch needs to be deeper and the grip feel wide, even w/o scales. When do the plunge cuts happen?

And, most importantly, has anyone heard from Will? Two weeks w/o a login is very worrisome.
 
Bear in mind my experience making knives but... I would do whatever shaping you need to do on the overall appearance now. Which is your profiling process. If you want the finger notch deeper and the handle narrower I would do that now. Get that all to about where you want it, go slow remember from here on out you can't add anything you take away. So file a bit, fondle the blank, file, fondle, etc, etc :p.

Make sure when you're coming in with the file, around the edges you are as square to the metal as you can be. Otherwise you'll have a bit of a bevel around the edges. You can sand it out but the less work you'll have to do sanding the happier you'll likely be.

When playing with the handle width, if you have any Play-Dough or modeling clay you can put it on there to get a feel for how it might feel with scales if you want to play around with that.

After that I'd lay out where your pin holes and lanyard hole (if you're putting one in) are going to be with a Sharpie marker.
 
Rough blank is cut out here, i'll take the grinder to it to get it closer to the lines. After that its all by file and sand paper. I did cheat and use the drill press too to get the finger guard roughed in also. It still needs another 1/8" taken off of it all around.
 
Here's an updated pic of mine.
Going to do some final profile tweaks, smooth down the sides and get ready to bevel.
wlk3.3.jpg
 
Nothing in particular. Not sure I like them either.
I may ad more, or just use the forward one and the lanyard hole.
 
Is there any rule of thumb about pin placement? IE x amount of pins for this length, or 2 pins fora guard thats x wide etc?
 
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