Novelty and Experiments

A month or three ago I picked up a product called Gunkote by Brownells, as a result of conversations with a couple of clients, and some research. The product is supposed to protect metal (from rust, scratches, general yuck, etc…), and make it look, well, that depends on the color you buy, but in this case, Matte Black. And it is supposed to stick to stainless, which ordinary bluing chemicals will not. Not paying attention when I purchased it, it calls for sand blasting the parts with 120grit al-ox prior to a matte gray before coating. I don’t have a sand blaster.

I’ve also recently picked up some fancy schmancy CPM S35-VN stainless steel from Crucible (through www.usaknifemaker.com) which is supposed to be the sh**, as they used to say back when I swore more. It is a lot thinner stock than I usually work with, but that should play to the strengths of the steel (ie toughness).

Thirdly, once upon a time I bought some Black Canvas Micarta. Generally I use exotic hardwoods, but I thought it might be interesting at some point.

And lastly, I decided that I should be carrying one of my own knives a little more often. I had been carrying Folder 3, but got sick of stabbing myself on its poorly closed blade when I went for my keys. Right now, I am carrying Folder 2, which is a nice little (blade is under 2”) knife that turned out ok, but not really nice enough to sell. I’m not really in the mood to do Folder 4 yet, so a fixed blade it is.

And a fine time to try out all of the above.

The forging, shaping, grinding, or the 35VN went pretty well and I like the shape it turned out. The quenching and tempering seemed to go well, so I decided to move on…

I brought the blade to about 120 grit, then went back and scoured it with 80 in circles, then soaked it in some acid for a little while to etch the groves a little deeper and get rid of any polished bits that might make the Gunkote flake off. Coated liberally with baking powder and scrubbed with that for a bit to make sure all the acid was gone. Washed with soap and water, washed again with degreaser, and more soap and water. Then put it down and sprayed it. With a little too much vigor apparently, since it started dripping. So I scrubbed it off again, cleaned it again, grabbed it with the vice-grip, and gently sprayed both sides, and set it to dry with any dripping headed for the handle, which will be a hidden tang.

After waiting the indicated 30+ minutes for the blade to dry, I stuck it in the pre-heated kitchen oven, and baked at 310F for 60 minutes-ish. Then took it out and let it cool in the shop. Looks pretty (if you like matte black), and all of those 80/120 grit scratches are gone too!

Can’t tell yet how it holds up, but so far so good for the first two experiments.

Experiment three… Micarta. It grinds very easily, smells bad, is very dusty, seems to glue very well. The canvas pattern is interesting, and it feels pretty good in the hand.

I put it all together with a copper guard, a couple of copper acorn nuts and some black epoxy.

It looks very military to me. Not my usual style at all. If I worked in Kydex, I might be tempted to

make that sort of sheath, but I don’t and don’t like it either. So leather it will be, probably with copper fixin’s. I haven’t quite decided yet if I want to do a horizontal or vertical carry sheath. We’ll see.

Late August Bench Update

Updates and progress for late August…

This isn’t really ALL that’s on the bench, but most at least. The picture below has the new Kukri/machete, which isn’t above, and its missing the three oyster/toffee knives, and the Blackthorn blade, which will get its own post soon I think, I think that there are a couple other ones missing too, hard to keep track.

Obviously there are a couple of knives that are almost done. From the top … Paring knife with bocote handle – which is undergoing kitchen testing; Wood carving knife with tulip handle; Revised Santoku with redheart handle (requenching a thin factory blade didn’t well, so it will do kitchen duty at home as well); Odd kitchen chopper with Coccobolo handle; and a smattering of others which aren’t quite as done.

If these don’t look quite the same as the blades on the right side of the first picture, it’s because they evolved a little between the two pictures, under the grindstone. From the top: 1080 Kukri/Machete; CPM 154 Bowie; S35VN Hunter; (right) Small File steel knife; and a pair of utility knives, and they have moved on since this picture too. One of the utility knives is going to be Tanto style now. And the Bowie is looking pretty sweet (if I do say so myself J).

The Blackthorn Knife is progressing well, as are the toffee knives – and I hope to finish them very soon.

More soon...I hope :)

Perfect Knife

You’d think that as a knife maker, it would be my goal to make the perfect knife. Or at least the perfect knife for me. But what is that? Do I have the skills?

Problem 1: I like the function of folding knives and generally prefer the appearance of a fixed blade. OK, so that isn’t too big a deal, I can certainly work the ideas together from a design standpoint.

Problem 2: Folding knives are a pain in the butt to make. My shop is pretty basic, and precision machining is not really within my repertoire. I’ve made 3 folders so far, and the first one turned out the best. Isn’t that backwards? 1 and 3 are liner locks, and 2 is a lock back, so it was a different mechanism. I like the solidity of a lock back, but liner locks are easier to make. 3 is my carry knife at the moment, and it doesn’t snap closed right. Reaching into a pocket for a wallet and coming out bloody from a partially opened knife is not a good thing. Otherwise the knife is pretty good. But not perfect.

Problem 3. I like assisted opening knives. And don’t know how to make one. I had a great little knife from SOG , a Flash II (http://sogknives.com/store/TFSA-98.html) ($84), and lost it a year or two ago. It had a few issues. A: Partially serrated, some people like it, I don’t; B: The lock wasn’t in the right place to make the assisted opening useful. Grab knife, try to flick open, locked, use other hand to unlock, flick. Not good; C: Not hard enough, so lost its edge too soon; D: Not the most ergonomic handle. Pretty much everything else was awesome, the assisted opening mechanism, the low clip, the TiNi coating, the size. I was sad to loose it, but I never replaced it either.

I think the next step up in a factory knife for me would be a Benchmade 585BK MiniBarrage, an assisted opening, plain edge, harder/better steel, Benchmades Proprietary BK coated knife. $140. (http://www.benchmade.com/products/585)

I’ve thought about buying either a kit knife or a new assisted opening knife, ransacking it for parts, and making my own blade, but that seems like cheating. I did pick up a lockback knife kit, and plan on doing some part mimicking, despite the cheating aspect.

Problem 4. I don’t really know what I want it to look like. That’s really a big problem. I can figure out the blade shape I think, since I like drop points. And I like a relatively short blade – I don’t usually do a lot of big cutting jobs. Should feel substantial, but not heavy. I like natural materials for a handle, but there are so many!

I can usually figure out what I don’t want it to look like. For example, I love the technology behind the diamond blade friction forging

http://www.diamondbladeknives.com/productList.aspx, and the function seems spectacular – superhard edge but not brittle, effectively stainless. But I don’t like the appearance of ANY of them. No offense guys – just not my style. I also can’t afford them (this one is $495).

Maybe the real problem is that there is no perfect knife, even for one person, but I think that I might just be approaching the time when I am ready to start trying for it. And, successful or not, sometimes it is the journey, not the finish line that is the real benefit.

Temper Temper

I've just learned that it is hard to take pictures of hamons (or temper lines). When they do show up on my knives they are usually pretty hard to see, but this one jumped out at me when I was still down at 120 grit. The blade is made of an old file, so is probably W1 or W2, which are supposed to make pretty nice hamons. It seems to be true in this case at least.

The pictures are a little out of focus, but at least the lines are visible. They did fade for a while at around 800 grit, and then disappeared when I ran the fine polish buffing wheel on the blade. The lines didn't show up again with 1000, 1500 grit or flitz polish, but I remembered reading something about dipping in acid to bring it out. I tried it, and surprisingly out it popped.

I like the lines, they add some interest to an otherwise simple blade. I guess I'll have to try harder to get them to pop out.

Just thought I'd like to share.

A

On the Bench update

It's been a few months since I've had an on the bench update. I think that pretty much all of the ones from last time have moved on to some form of completion. Of the new pieces, some obviously need a lot of work, and some are pretty close.

From the top: New machete - although the old one didn't end up quenching or tempering properly, there was enough interest that I'm trying again. This time with 1080 carbon steel. Not quite as cool as using a old leaf spring, but at least a known material.

Future Bowie - This will be my first bowie, a slightly more advanced version is in the picture below, currently a 6 3/4" blade of CPM 154 stainless steel. It'll be a pretty big knife.

4" Dagger (on the left) - have I mentioned that daggers are a pain? This one is made of CPM S35VN stainless. It is coming along better than expected. I anticipate a slightly more elaborate version of the larger of the two daggers below. (It is the same dagger as in the next picture down).

Light Hunter, backup knife (also see top knife in pic below) - this is also CPM S35VN stainless, which turns out to be pretty good to work with, but still not as easy as high carbon. I understand the desire for stainless stuff though. Anyway, I think that this will be a very pretty piece in the end.

Small Paring knife - This one has been around for a little while, but now it is quenched and tempered. File steel - probably W1 or W2.

Small Utility knife - I decided to turn this little scrap of O1 into a blade also, I think it will make a pretty nice chip carving knife or for art projects or something.

Oyster Knives 1 and 2 - Making slow progress on these, it took a while to draw out the extra steel, but they are getting close, and the handles are making progress too, even if you don't get to see those yet :) One is obviously more polished than the other. They have both been quenched and tempered.

Mushroom knife? CM154 (not CPM) NRJJ suggested this idea, and it is making slow progress, its been quenched and tempered, but needs some grinder work before moving on to next stage.

And finally, the leaf spring fighter - version 3 of the LOR machete, and the last try before I give up on this leaf spring. I left it a little thicker this time, but only time will tell.

I actually made a little more progress after taking the top pic, so here are the backup hunter, 4" dagger, and Bowie as of July 12.

The blackthorn knife inspired by NRJJ and Sgian Dubh scottish knives has made a little progress, Water buffalo horn and nickel silver for the bolster, and the future handle material of blackthorn.

And I'm just putting the last coats of finish on the upper dagger (O1 steel), and working on a neck sheath for the smaller (file steel dagger).

There is certainly more in the shop than those, and I still need to make a lot more sheaths for some of the older knives, and knife blocks, and maybe a presentation box or three. But you get the idea.

Take care all!

Stuff for men

I don't usually do treasuries on etsy, but I thought I should do one that was all guy stuff. Enjoy!

Adam

Stuff for Men selected by man

• 

  hand forged purple hear...

  thesmARTaleck

  $125.00 USD

• 

  Sparrow Bird Skull Neck...

  BlackSparrowJ...

  $55.00 USD

• 

  6 oz Distressed Flask

  kbratcher

  $40.00 USD

• 

  Pretty Little Obsidian ...

  richmo90

  $50.00 USD

• 

  Afzelia Burl Majestic F...

  76Winger

  $161.96 USD

• 

  Tory Brown Leather Wrap...

  urbanheirlooms

  $55.00 USD

• 

  Carved Elk Antler Tooth...

  josephlutter

  $25.00 USD

• 

  a Leather Belt in a Mod...

  fix8ion

  $100.00 USD

• 

  Leather Top Hat

  SilverLeafCo...

  $115.00 USD

• 

  The Pinnacle Box

  watswood

  $395.00 USD

• 

  Bloodwood Wood Ring - H...

  jewelrybyjohan

  $139.00 USD

• 

  Baby skull rattle - Nim...

  thesmARTaleck

  $85.00 USD

• 

  Rhino skinner- C. Thoma...

  theknife

  $425.00 USD

• 

  The Bizarre Mating Ritu...

  snegoratchka

  $1,200.00 USD

• 

  Leather cuff Bracelet C...

  FamilySkiners

  $70.00 USD

• 

  Scimitar Bladed Skinner...

  AcrylicAndSteel

  $400.00 USD

Just Lathing Around

Obviously I must have been being lazy, since I haven’t posted anything in a long time.

Life and work have been a little hectic and more stressful than usual, and then I had a custom order with a deadline. The plus side is that that is done. It is a Harley Davidson inspired Chef’s Knife (AR 43, 5 ½” blade, 11” overall, ebony and bloodwood with stainless accents), and a matching block. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

I’ve also been playing with the lathe a little, some for fun, some to get some ideas for the custom toffee/oyster knives that are due in a couple of months. So I made these sample handles:

Amaranth (Purpleheart)

Pear, cherry and salt cedar

Then I prepped the actual walnut, let it dry some more, and then spun it down to the rough shapes I’m looking for, without embellishments yet. There are some wormholes that I will have to deal with, but I think I’ll end up with a nice produce eventually:

Walnut

I also made this oak ball:

Oak Ball.

I think my lathe works pretty well for being a cheap as it was, and the tools as well (the set for the price of one quality tool).

I also mostly finished up my second Puukko, now I just need to make sheaths for them:

AR44 Tiger Maple and Bronze

And, I’ve slowly been making progress on NRJJ’s next project, a Blackthorn handled sgian dubh. I’ve done some filework on the blade, vine and thorns pattern. Here are some concept and materials photos:

Potential Handles

Vine and thorns filework

Concept photo, I was thinking of Nickel-Silver and Horn for the bolster, and a nickel-silver pin to hold it all together. We'll see.

So, as usual, just lathing around.

Adam