Arts, Crafts, and Mechanization

I don’t mean to offend any machinists, craftsmen, artists, hobbyists, or anyone else out there. Or to say that you can’t combine any or all of the catagories.  This is just a ramble of thoughts.

Most of the time I don’t consider myself to be an artist, or really even a craftsman, despite making knives, bows, bowls, pens, and a variety of other things.  I am a hobbyist or something like that.  I don’t focus on one particular topic, get bored easily with doing the same or even similar craft work, and therefore, rarely spend enough time on a particular craft to get very good at it.  I often feel like my first attempts at something are the best because I haven’t gotten bored with the particular task.  In my mind, Craftsmen are those who take the time to get better and better at a particular craft.  So what are artists? I think they are people who put a great deal of themselves into their work no matter the medium.

So what is my point today? I see a lot of mechanization in the field of knife making.  And those products tend to be cleaner and more precise than “handcrafted work”, and most importantly – repeatable as long as the materials and tools hold out.  I can’t do that as a hobby craftsman.  I can make something that looks pretty similar, but it won’t be the same. The hammer doesn’t fall in the same place, the grinder (or sandpaper) marks are different, the gluing shifted slightly, I  burned my finger, the heat treat was 25 degrees different.  I am not a machine.  So which is better? 

Neither. 

There is something to be said about the ability to repeatably make an item, once you get the design and set up out of the way (something that isn’t as easily done as said), and have the process for finishing put together, pieces and parts “just” need to be assembled (see children’s toy assembly for a simple vertion of “just”) and finished, not necessarily in that order.  Mistakes may happen, but generally, the process is repeatable.  Repeatability doesn’t mean that it isn’t art! But the art may be in the design, and assembly and finishing rather than in the machining. I don’t know, maybe there is a grey area.

There is also something to be said about raw crafting – and don’t get me wrong, I use plenty of tools, otherwise my hands would be burned bloody stumps and I still wouldn’t have a product. But at the same time, I rarely measure anything, everything is “by eye”, or until it feels right, or until it fits.  Yes, there is some rough marking of important points, but either I or my machines aren’t that precise most of the time.  I have – rarely – attempted to repeat a project, or make two of something, but inevitably, they are different.  I don’t know if the unrepeatability of my work (by me at least) makes them more artistic.  They generally don’t have the same level of fit and finish as a machined piece, and overall may not be the same “quality” but are they more because they are unique?  Perfect in their imperfection? 

Which would you rather have as a tool? Or as an object to set on your shelf and look at?  Does it make a difference?  Sometimes?  If I make a bowl on my lathe – for me a moderately repeatable task,  although there are likely to be slight variations in shape and size and thickness and symmetry.  I would still rather have that hand turned bowl on my shelf rather than a machine turned piece identical (except for the piece of wood) in all dimensions to 50 or a thousand others.  But a tool? A knife? Yes, there are machined knives that are beautiful, but if there are a thousand of them are they as beautiful? Why not? At the same time, the fit and finish and precision, and the ability to tweak the process to make them even better in future iterations, has a great deal of appeal.

If you want the “best” of something, the ability to tweak the design is key. Craftsmen can only achieve it over a great deal of time and practice (Apprentice, journeyman, master), and although there are certainly different skill levels of machinists also, specifications can be transmitted from one to another and the results should be pretty close. 

I’m sure that any Japanese swordsmith would cringe at the plethora of very functional machined katana out there, but is the hand forged, hand polished, version that much functionally better, or even more beautiful? What if you consider that one takes 10 or more times as much time to make?

I’m a bit jealous of the mechanized craftsmen, and I still want a power hammer, but I don’t think that I will stop being a hobby craftsman for now.

Salt Cedar Bow Update

Since I had a little spare time over the last week, I worked on Salt Cedar Bow 1 – 

 

There is still a bit of twist to the bow, but it doesn't seem to have much impact on performance, and it seems to make the the string line up almost as if it was a centerfire bow.

I didn’t really have a target weight in mind, so it ended up a little stiffer than I expected, probably around 70# at full draw.  And it appears to handle that without any trouble.

Again, I didn't do a fabulous job on the tillering, a bit softer on the right than the left.

I didn't measure the set, but it does hold onto some.

It’s relatively short, about 55” strung, but I think that it came together very nicely in the end. 

My arrows from Nice Archery came in this weekend also!  Naturally, I didn’t have time to try them out over the weekend, since my family just came home, and father’s day happened, and the next three days have predicted 20+ mph winds, but they look very pretty!  I’m sure they will be awesome.  It will be interesting to see how they do with Salt Cedar Bow 1.  

I had been playing with my one carbon fiber arrow and Autumn’s flimsy plastic ones, and it seemed a lot more accurate with the floppy pink ones J

I will have to make another one - good thing I have three more pieces.  I think about 50# will be my target for the next one.

And that's not all

In addition to working on the Salt Cedar bow this weekend, I spent some time on knives.

One of my co-workers asked me if I could make a machete, so I cut a big piece of 1095, and got started. 

Two forging sessions later

 
Its going to be a monster - If I remember right it started out at 21 inches (the Kindjal ended at 20), and its definately stretching a bit.  I need to mitigate the curve some too - it looks fancy, but doesn't feel right yet.

I put a handle on the Uncle Jeds Country Skinner MkII - its a pretty massive knife.  Still needs a bit of finishing on both the handle and blade. Honey Locust handle, with a wrought iron guard.

As promised, AR70 got a brass pommel.  Which still needs polishing... and the handle needs re-finishing.

 This little utility blade is also pretty old,  but now that my carbide bits came in I can punch holes in metal again.  Still needs a lot of finish work, but at least it looks like a knife now.  No idea what they handle is made of -that's the problem with trying lots of different woods - they don't stay labeled long enough.

And this is the revised Kershaw Antelope II - it had broken off in the handle, so i had to grind down the blade to get enough tang to hold the blade in place, and I like my handle better anyway :)  I'll polish up the blade a little bit more too. Katalox handle.

Here they are together for better sense of scale. 

I made this little S35VN stainless steel blade a while back, but never got around to it, but it came together nicely yesterday - just needs its mark, and it will be finished.  Looks like it was in 2011 - my how time flies.

Its got an Amaranth (Purpleheart) Handle with Raaen pins, Nickle Silver Accents and an antler piece as well.

Fancy!

Salt Cedar Bow

As a new bow maker, I wouldn’t call myself a bowyer, I certainly don’t have any experience, or much other than basic woodworking skills, and who has relatively successfully made all of one bow, I immediately did some research on what people thought about different woods.  Everyone seems to think that Osage is great, Yew is great, and lots of other will make a serviceable tool, or that lots of others are awful. 

Looking around for quantification I came across this article at the Wood Database –

www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/bow-woods/ 

In the article, the author (who, like me, isn’t a bowyer or materials scientist) came up with a formula that he thought might estimate the quality of the wood for making bows. I thought it was interesting.

Then I thought about the scrap wood that I had lying around and remembered that I had a couple of Saltcedar/Tamarisk staffs. I looked at them and decided they were useless for bow making. But it got me thinking, I wonder what the physical properties of Tamarisk are. I checked the wood database, unsuccessfully.

With a little Googling I found the analysis of a closely related species, Tamarix aphylla – Athel Wood, now, I know it’s not the same species, but it should be somewhat similar, or not, so I decided to do the math…. MOR/MOE*1000 = bow rating;  88.5/7533*1000 =  11.75!   That is up there with Yew and Osage. 

So now I have to try it.  I found a nice 6’-ish 6” diameter log, which is mostly straight, and split it into 4 staves.   Two I had to shorten due to some branching/knots, and they are closer to 5’.  I painted some glue on the ends of all 4 and put three into the shed to dry some. 

I took one of the shorter pieces and started with that – before it had much chance to dry.  I peeled the bark off the back and brought it down to a single growth ring.  Smoothed out the sides and the belly a bit, tapered the limbs and then put it away for a few days

Despite liking the center cut of the Oak bow, I shaped both sides of the center, and added a hard maple riser.  There is fairly substantial twist in the limbs at this point…might be something to letting it dry first.

I ordered some more fiberglass tape for the back, and some real bow epoxy, I can’t say I expect it to work all that much better, but who knows.  They arrived the other day.  I also bought another string so I can play with two bows at once.  In the meantime I foolishly messed with the string of the Oak bow, and I’m not sure 

I got it back to the right length when I realized how stupid that was. Oh well, now I know.

I may start playing with one of the longer pieces too.

   

The last piece is the current experiment.  It is one of the shorter pieces, and definitely is not as stiff (at this stage) as my oak board bow was  - but it isn’t as thick or wide either.  I stripped the bark off of it, following a growth ring – since that is the way most people seem to recommend doing things. 

     

   

It’s not straight, has some twist, but I’m plowing ahead with this one.  I will probably back it with fiberglass again, since it’s pretty cheap, and I think it stiffens things up nicely, and should keep things from shattering if it all goes wrong.

    

I’m going to use a hard maple riser this time, rather than something more exotic, and I’m not going for a center fire this time, since the stave isn’t quite as wide.

   

My fancy epoxy came in, and I decided to make the bow red.  Here it is curing with the first layer of fiberglass.  So did my extra string.

   

We'll see how it progresses from here.

A Bunch of Knives

A Bunch of Knives

Good Afternoon Everyone, I had a couple of spare hours so I thought I would catch up and finish off a few knives. For most of them, the backdrop is my lovely, clean, blacksmithing apron.

AR69
Large Tanto, W2 steel with hamon, 17" overall, 10" blade, Canarywood handle with carved titanium guard, brass Raaen Star in the pommel, and copper and brass pins.

 AR70
Simple blade knife. CPM154 stainless steel, 10 3/4" overall, 4 1/4" blade, Cholla filled with black epoxy handle, brass guard with brass Raaen Star in center.  I will probably add a brass pommel, and repost a new picture.


AR71
Kindjal, 1084 high carbon steel, 20" overall, 14" blade, Tineo handle, Brass guard, Brass Loveless bolt, and copper and brass pins.

AR72
Paring Knife, 1095 high carbon steel, 8 1/4" overall 3 5/8" blade, Oak handle with stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR73
Mini-Kindjal, 1084 high carbon steel, 10 1/2" Overall, 5 3/8" Blade, White Linen Micarta Handle, Brass Guard with black spacer , Brass Raaen star pins and powdered turquoise accents


AR74
Small knife, CPM 154 stainless steel, 8 1/4" overall, 3 1/2" blade, Redheart handle with Stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR75
Drop Point Knife, W2 Steel, 10 3/8" Overall, 4 1/4" Blade, Wrought Iron Guard, Teak Handle with Stainless steel Loveless bolts.


AR76
Paring Knife, 1095 high carbon steel, 8" overall 3 1/8" blade, Rosewood handle, Stainless steel Loveless bolts.

I also modified a Kershaw Antelope Hunter II that I found broken on the road. I need to clean up the blade before posting that.

And put together my first multi-blade folding knife kit.  I put the blades in all wrong.  Better luck next time. I'll get it up eventually too.

Some of them have been mostly done for some time, just needing their numbers and hallmarks, but it still felt like progress to "finish" them all.

Hopefully I will have a progress update on my Salt Cedar Bow soon, I just got in the fiberglass for backing it, and the epoxy should be in early next week.

Recycling

A while back, one of my colleagues gave me the fin off of a 2.75 rocket .  The look something like this:

He works for the Pueblo managing projects that clean up old Department of Defense bombing sites, and other waste and debris – the Native American Lands Environmental Mitigation Program.  The Pueblo of Laguna has a few that were used in world war two with ship targets and big bullseyes and that sort of thing.  Most of the debris is inert (like the fin), but some is explosive and needs special handling.

Anyway, I promised I would make him a letter opener out of it.  After a year or two, and after some thought, and after making some other letter openers, I decided to cut it in two and to make two openers.  Then my Dremel tool burned out.  Eventually I bought a new one and finished the openers.  Nothing too fancy – one is ebony, the other is Bocote. The aluminum is pretty shiny, not quite as drab as 50 years-worth of oxidation makes things, but I’m sure it will calm down after a while.

I’ve also, again finally, started working on a folding knife project.  Some time ago I bought a number of knife kits.  I like the Bighorn, and have made two of them, but decided I should try something else and picked up the “rancher” a little three bladed slip joint folder.  If you are familiar with Case knives, you’ve probably seen something like this.

Once upon a time I intended the kit for an employee of mine, but didn’t get around to it before he left.  Now I am thinking about making it for another one, hopefully it doesn’t take me that long.  One problem that I have, is that I have no idea what the wood is that I’ve chosen for the handle.  It could be desert ironwood, but I’m really not sure.  Whatever it is, it polishes up very nicely and has good shimmer (chatoyance is you prefer).   We’ll see how it turns out.

I wish they would make kits with higher quality blades though – not that I have had problems with mine, but something a little more exotic would be nice.

The Bow is done...

The bow is done.  And now I want more J

So I learned a few things making this one – unsurprising since it was my first one.  I ended up doing two coats of fiberglass and epoxy, since I sanded through the first one in one place.  I also clearly didn’t work the bow enough while I was tillering, since a slight hinge appeared later on.  I also managed to pop the riser off a couple of times, so I switched from epoxy to wood glue, and no problems after that.   But!  I hit my target weight about exactly.  My cheap luggage scale (about $10) reads at 39.8# at the cheek.  I think my draw might be a little short of 28” so I am pretty much on track there. 

I also didn’t brace it quite far enough out initially, so the string was pounding my thumb each time I took a shot.  A slight shortening of the string, increasing brace height, and no more problems.   No propeller to the bow so I guess I chose a good piece of oak.

Now I have a couple of problems…I have one arrow, which probably isn’t the right weight for the bow.  I’d like to have enough that I don’t have to go to the target quite so often and can practice nocking a little bit.  I also don’t have a particularly good place to shoot.  Not that this should be a problem in New Mexico, where there is quite a bit of open space, but I need to find one.

And now I want to make a couple more.  I’d like to try osage orange and hickory and a bamboo backing and a recurve or reflex/deflex of some sort.  Obviously not all at once, although I guess I could with a laminated bow.  I’ll probably order some fiberglass tape, and I wonder if I should try carbon fiber as well?  I don’t think I am ready for a real sinew bow yet though. 

Now, I don’t really have the time to do any of this, but having a successful first attempt is always invigorating, and having some (4) of my co-workers ask to buy it is a pretty nice compliment.

I took it in to NiceArchery here in Albuquerque, and plan have some arrows built for it.  I’m not quite ready to build my own yet. We shot it a bit in the store and Robert thinks it needs a 400 spine, although he was expecting it to need a 600. I'm sure I wouldn't know :)  But I'll take his advice.  Once I learn to shoot again, maybe some nice wooden arrows, but I'll go with the durability of carbon fiber for now.

I did make some slight progress on many of the knives too, but they still aren’t done.

In other news, one of my awesome staff members made me some traditional Laguna shoes!  No I am not pigeon toed, but it was easier to take the picture :)

Thanks Nevin!