"Lets Get Ready To ,,FUMBLE"

[skipknives]

When I make a knife,,I compleet the blade all the way to a polish before I put a handle on it because a couple of years ago,,I put the handle on first and dropped the ball on the blade. 40 bucks of ironwood down the tubes...

so now,,I'm preping for a show in Mesa Az. this weekend,,
got sheaths made for all the knives,,got them all branded (no burn smudges near the etching),,then I go too sharpen them,,starting with the least expencive blade and working my way up.
So far,,no problems,,then I get to my show piece,,,yup I blew it.
I sharpen on the platen and the last thing I do with an A-30 belt with "Zam" buffing compound in it is, glide the last stroke on the slack portion between the upper wheel and the platen plate... Thats when it happened,,,now as I'm sitting here crying,,remember that this is my best blade,,,It caught the corner of the plate and dug a groove right under my brand. its trash now,,,,like fumbling 6 inches from the goal line.
BTW I found out that I know a lot of cus words and most of them are compound words.

[timekeeper]

Not salvagable? That sucks. I've still got the 2" grind line problem every now and then. How about a shop knife, car knife, saddle bag knife................. still sucks though.
Kevin.

[skipknives]

yupper thats all its good for now.

[T-Wolf]

hang it on a plaque on the wall, Skip, GOOD SIDE OUT!

[TikTock]

I have done that. its worse when the knife is already sold and paid for and you decide to buff just one more pass on the handle to shine it up before you put it in the box, and the buffer grabs the blade and throws it into your concrete wall.

The chance for fatal mistakes seems to grow the minute a knife hits the 95% complete mark.

[Ray Rogers]

I do the same process as you: finish the blade, add the handle, sharpen the knife. When the blade is finished I cover it with heavy blue masking tape. The tape stays on until the blade is sharpened. The initial bevel for the edge is ground on a slow moving belt but the final shaping and polishing of the edge is done by hand. Much less chance of a fatal mistake if you can do it that way .....

[JediOkie]

Hate to hear that skip. I know how you feel I had my first knife sold and just wanted to remove one little scratch by the handle. Being a newbie I was sure that you could use a 600 grit belt on a rapidly moving belt grinder to 'ease' it out....you ever sneeze while working with a belt grinder?

[skipknives]

Your right ,,about it hurting more when they are already sold,,I guess that is the bright spot,,this one wasn't.
in 2005 my club voted one of my designs to be the club knife for that year.
my grandson hadn't started school yet so that was my primeary job.
with the presure on to get them done,,I seemed to foul up 3 out of every 5 knives.
maybe it was worse by the fact that they all had to be the same.

Ray,,,I'm gonna to what you said from now on,,at this point in my prosses I have already removed the tape from the blade cuz i case form my sheaths to each blade.
and compleat the sheath before sharpening.
I'm gonna slow down long enough to retape the blade while doing the final plung cuts.

Told a friend of mine what I did and he is a wood worker and hunter,,we traded,,,small pieces of wood he can't use (stabilized) for a great looking blade with a small gouge that he will use to gin-sue Bambi and his budies.

[TexasJack]

Just tell buyers "It's spalted." That drives up the price of wood, should do the same for metal.

[Ray Rogers]

I do the same with my sheaths but I do it with the tape on, just trim off the excess tape around the edges.

Also, if I am going to be grinding on the handle or guard where the contact wheel might come in contact with the back of a finished blade (which is taped) I have a 3" long piece of thin sheet metal bent into a U shape that I put over the back pf the blade and secure with more tape. That trick has really cut down on unwanted divots in the blade ...

[skipknives]

Spalted metal,,,,,Hmmmm

I guess these "oops" situations drive home the lessen.
Mr. Ray,,,,I will start doing what you said.
Skip

[Bearpaw]

Skip,

I had two bad slag inclusions in one of my damaccus pieces, still there after hollow grinding. Instead of throwing it away, it is now a roadkill knife for my truck.