WIP - 1st knife looking for feedback

[seionage]

Next pic, shows the scales.

They are green scales. I would like to thank
Mark Farley from It's a Burl
http://burlsales.com/

for supplying them. I actually won them from a drawing he had on KB. Once I got them from him, I started planning out how I was going to do this (fingers crossed).

Here I'm clamping the scale to the tang. I want to draw an outline, and cut it down.

 

[seionage]

I also want to use some spacers. I actually want to use them between the tang and the bolsters. The plan is to scribe a line on the spacer material, and bend it up, so that it's at a 90. It sits between the scales and the bolsters/tang.

I don't know yet if I'm going to end up doing that. You will see why in a bit.

So, I trace out the tang

And start cutting it with some tin snips.

One mistake I made. I cut everything too close. I should have left more over hang, all the way around the outline. This would give me more fudge factor. Trying to be cheap, catches up with me in the end.

 

[seionage]

So, once I have the spacers cut out, I scribe a line. This will be the joint, where the spacer bends up at a 90* angle, against the bolster.

Everything looking good so far

And then I bend it. However, I bend it the wrong direction. I then been it back. Oops.

Now, because I cut the outline too close, I don't have enough material to scribe another line for a 90* bend. I have to cut out a new spacer.

 

[seionage]

Ok, breathe, breathe...take a breather from the stupidity I just did.

I decide to work on the scale. I hit it with a 9/32 drill bit, to rough it up, so the epoxy has more places to grab between the scale and the spacer. Why 9/32? Just what I grabbed out of the box, because it looked good.

 

[seionage]

Ok, I've never cut stabilized wood before. This is tough stuff. So first I try with this saw.

Yeah, that ain't working....time to think about it some more.

 

[seionage]

So, I go back, and cut another spacer out. This time it worked ok. Still, I didn't learn from my last mistake. I still cut the spacer too close. I need to leave a little more room next time.

 

[seionage]

So, back to cutting scales. I decided to try a hacksaw. That worked much, much better. It cuts more like really soft metal, than wood.

Making some cuts down to the outline

Cutting a good sized hunk off

Rough cut outline.

 

[seionage]

ok, then it hit me. I have to sand this stuff. Plus, I can tell from just a little cutting, this isn't fun to breathe. I borrowed a wood rasp from a buddy. That shapes it really nice.

Filed down with the wood rasp. I'm going to have to get one of these for my 2nd knife.

 

[seionage]

ok, moment of truth. Time to clue the spacer to the scales. I don't know if I did this right. I really had to do a lot of juggling to even get this close.

I would appreciate some feedback on if I did this correctly.

It wouldn't have been to bad, but I couldn't get that 90* section tight. If I tighted down 1 clamp, it would move just 1/64, and create a gap somewhere. I was lucky in
that I'm usein 24hr epoxy. When I take these clamps off tomorrow, I'm afraid what I
might see. If it's bad, I'm thinking I might just sand off that little 90* spacer section,
which means the scale would be right up against the bolster.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Dug2]

wow, very impressed.

subscribed

 

[seionage]

Hi Dug,
Thanks! If you need a spacer snapped, send it over. I think I'm getting pretty good at it.

;-)

 

[seionage]

btw, i'm thinking ahead to sanding/contouring the handles.

Any pics, links, tutorials for something like this? I've got an idea of what to do, but would like to find something that works for other people, or to get some ideas.

 

[Matt Brook]

Try this one mate:

http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/cache/articles/nw1/scales1.htm

Matt

 

[Matt Brook]

Try this one mate:

http://www4.gvsu.edu/triert/cache/articles/nw1/scales1.htm

Matt

 

[fast14riot]

the way I do scales is to use hard sanding blocks and rough shape to all flat planes or facets. I find it easier to keep things symmetrical that way. After you get it roughed in then start to round out the hard angles. I know many guys use the slack belt portion of their grinders, but I don't have one, so that's what I figured out to work for me.


-Xander

 

[seionage]

ok, got to spend a few hours on the knife today. I decided I wanted to clean up the bolsters. The last thing I wanted, was to make scales for the bolsters, only to find out something was wrong with the pins.

So, I first started to file down the pins with the B4stard file.

Starting out

A little bit of filing

Some more filing

Almost there

Done.

 

[SBuzek]

Keep it up.This is gonna be one your gonna be proud of.
Stan

 

[GrizzlyBear]

I think it's absolutely amazing that 2 (3 in this case) individual pieces can be mated together and sanded flush and you can't see the transitions at all.

 

[seionage]

flip the knife over.. Time to file on the other side.

starting

A little more

getting flush

flush. But, I don't like that you can see the pin outline

 

[seionage]

Thanks guys!

So, I decide I don't like the pin outline. I figure that when I peened them, I didn't hammer them hard enough.

I decide to try something a little different. I take a punch, and decide, as accurately as possible, I'm going to pound the crap out of the pin. My thinking, is to basically mash that pin, in that hole, as hard as possible.

This is a learning knife after all.

So, after I beat on it for a few times, it looks really crappy. At this point,
I'm holding my breath, saying "ok, what did I just do?!?"

Too late now, time to start filing.

ok, much, much better.