New knives in progress!

Here are two 79M from Rob Charlton's shop in NC that I have put handles on. The first is in Olive wood, the second in stabilized Maple. I have taken the knives down through 300 grit paper on their way to the final 1000.

Knife making and Facebook

Never let it be said that Facebook is simply for people who think that we want to find out what they are having for lunch. I have gotten into contact with knife makers, suppliers and others via FB! I just placed an order for several blocks of wood that will be featured on upcoming knives. The company is Wood Stabilizer and can be found at: http://woodstabilizer.com/

Hidden Tang Knives part 2

Does anyone have any suggestions for working with handles on hidden tang knives. Three times, I have sanded into the tang hole with making one of this style knife.

New Grinders

My 20 year old Delta has broken in a strange way. The adjustment for the belt tracking has broken in a way that even Delta says that they can't find parts to fix it. I have been looking into the Grizzly sanders and have found two that I like. One is a refined version of the Delta. The other has a two inch belt and a six inch disk sander built in. It also has a half horse power! This is twice what the Delta has!

The two inch belts are a strange length at 27 inches. The good part is that several outfits carry this size belt. Grizzly can supply a 10 pack of belts in six different grits for $10! This machine bears some more research.

Hidden Tang Knives

The first thing that I found out about making a knife with a hidden tang is that you don't need to make the hole in the handle wide for the full length of the tang. If you have a blade where the tang tapers, you can make the hole taper as well.

If you make the hole too big, you run the risk of sanding down into the hole when you shape the handle. Yet, you can still come out with a really nice knife even if you fall into the hole.

Hidden Tang Knives

When I started making knives, I kept with the traditional full tang knives. I didn't know anything about making a four inch hole in a piece of wood or stag. I also didn't know about how to fill up the hole when I finally got the depth to hide the tang.

I finally learned about this "new" technology called a wood bore. (Ok, you are now thinking that I didn't spend any time in High School wood shop. Actually, I didn't!) The wood bore differs from a drill in that the bore does not fill up the hole that you are drilling. There is room for the sawdust to either stay in the hole or sit behind the active bit.

I am currently using two V79-M from Damascus USA to make the first hidden tang knives.

The Next Project!

I went shopping at my local hobby shop for some new pin material. This time though, I found an 1/8 inch tube in both brass and copper. To this, I am going to add a 1/16 inch square tube. This should be fun if I can get the tube filled up with epoxy.

More to come!

Ok, sometimes you get lucky!

The last time that I worked with maple, it didn't have much figure. This time however...

Whitetail step 3

If you haven't already, put a new belt on the grinder. The work at this point is to get the scales down to the profile of the tang.

Whitetail step 2

After drilling the holes for the pins, I trimmed the wood on my bandsaw before I started to glue the thing together. Here it is in the clamp.

New Knife (Whitetail)

I have a favorite knife that I have been making with Rob Charlton's Damascus for a while. Designed by Carol Gurganus, it is called the Whitetail. I was able to get LT Wright of Blind Horse Knives to create for me a version in D2. This is a steel that my grinder is too small to do properly. Here is the first step with the knife blank, the Spalted Maple and the rod of mosaic pins that I will make this knife from.

Snow can be such a grind!

While I am sitting here, hoping that the Chantilly show will go on, I have broken out the steel, the epoxy and wood in the hopes of getting a new set of knives done.

Easy cutting

If you want to cut off a piece of steel, instead of using a hack saw, try this. I mounted a cut-off wheel to my Dremel tool. I can now cut part way through the bar and then flex it to finish the cut.

New Knives

I have just about finished the first two knives that I made from a bandsaw blade. The handles are osage orange and purple heart. Together, these two knives don't weigh more than a few ounces.

A new tip

If you happen to find a gap between your handle slabs and the tang, you can fix this by mixing some sawdust into your glue of choice and pushing the stuff into the gap. This will form a nearly invisible filler and hide the problem.

How not to drill wood.

I started to add beech wood liners to a new knife that I was starting. The problem is that wood that thickness (1/32 of an inch) gets brittle, fast.

Now, how to fix it so that I can put a 9/32 hole?