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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 11-23-2015, 05:29 PM
Gilessim Gilessim is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 5
A first attempt

Hi all my name is Giles, I've been lurking here for a few weeks since I bought a couple of billets of Damascus on eBay won very cheaply, I know they're probably made in Pakistan but a blacksmith I know near me here in the uk said he'd used a couple of bits someone took to him and found them fault free and also hardened up nicely, so anyway having always wanted a Damascus knife and getting a ton of inspiration from the beautiful pieces of art that you guys make I thought I'd have a go. I'm a cabinet maker and I also make, mainly electric, guitars, I've also done a fair bit of metalwork, tools, miniature steam engines and stuff like that, when I was at school in the seventies we had a great metalwork shop and a great teacher who thought us the great art of hand filing which has always been very useful!
Sorry for the bad phone photos but my camera was stolen recently. I had a basic shape and form idea in my head so I fired up the angle grinder on Saturday afternoon and after an hour of so with a file I had something that looked a bit like a blade as you see in the photo with the other end of the twisted piece of Damascus. By the early evening I'd got it pretty much as it is now in the other 2 pics, I'd really thought it would take much longer, I suppose I should really thank old mr Dyson at school for those filing lessons! Yesterday I made the handle, I did it mostly on the lathe with the axis running at right angles to the bolster to a point just above the heel if you can imagine that, that gave me a round bolster end and the curved underside shape. I made one from some beech first to see how it worked and then made this one from a nice black piece of ebony I had lying around, and today I cut out a bolster from a piece of hex brass, cut the hole for the tang, tacked the bolster in position with superglue and shaped it all to the point you see it here, after filing the blade I used a little credit card sized diamond touch up thing with 300 grit on one side and 600 on the other with water (spit!) to clean off the file marks, I was really surprised at how well that worked, it's only credit card thickness too but it seems to have diamonds on the edges and it cleaned up that curved bit a the end of the blade (what's that called?) as it bumped against it. So that's where I am now, just needs some final tweaking on scratches and things like that. I've done some hardening and tempering so I'm fairly cool with that but there are a couple of things I wanted to ask you guys about, one was where the sharp side of the blade hits that curvy bit would that be a point of stress when quenching? I seem to remember from somewhere that there should be a little nick there or something? Or should I file it back a bit away from the bolster? The other thing was what is this secret pin method through the handle? Do I need to pin it, will just epoxy with some "glue nicks"filed into the tang? I thought of making a little Corby type pin that will sit below the surface with some wooden mosaic plugs made on the lathe but I'm not sure if I don't like the plain look of it now.
Thanks in advance, Giles
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Last edited by Gilessim; 11-23-2015 at 05:43 PM.
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Old 11-23-2015, 05:36 PM
Gilessim Gilessim is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 5
Can't seem to get the hang of posting pics! They're really ####, I'll try to take some in the daylight and post them later
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Last edited by Gilessim; 11-23-2015 at 05:47 PM.
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Old 11-23-2015, 05:44 PM
Gilessim Gilessim is offline
 
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Posts: 5
Only seems to take one at a time or is it me?
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Old 11-23-2015, 05:47 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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The curved area at the back of the blade where you might rest your finger is the choil, the flat area above the choil is called the ricasso.

Can't tell from the picture how the handle is attached. If the tang is stuck into a hole in the wood then glue might hold it for a long time if the knife is used for light duty work and not exposed to a hot climate. If the handle is slabs attached to the side of the tang then glue isn't likely to hold for long at all. Generally, a handle should always be pinned or bolted in some way. My method for constructing a single pin handle is explained at http://www.rayrogers.com/stubtang.htm You can see many examples of knives made this way on my website since it is almost the only way I'll make a handle ...


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Old 11-23-2015, 05:54 PM
Gilessim Gilessim is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 5
Thanks for the reply, sorry for the really bad pics they don't really show anything, the tang is in a hole but it's a nice tight fit, I think I will put a pin through though, doesn't seem right not to be mechanically held somehow.
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Old 11-23-2015, 10:03 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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A pin is going to be a really good idea. Now that you have the handle shaped it is going to be more difficult to hold it level where the drill bit will go through the handle and the tang at a right angle. Also, if the tang has been hardened it might be difficult to drill the tang. You might be able to do it with some high speed cobalt bits with light pressure. Another thing that you could try is to stick the blade in a can of wet sand and heat the area of the tang where you think the pin will go through up to red and let it air cool. The wet sand will serve as a heat sink and keep you from drawing the temper.

When doing a hidden tang like that I draw out the outline of the handle with the outline of the tang laid out with it's mid line. I then drill the hole in the rough block. I also lay out the mid lines on both ends on both axes to guide my bit in starting the tang hole. I fit the tang before hardening and when I harden I don't harden the tang. I also rough cut the outline of the handle on by band saw.

I assemble the finished blade, except for final sharpening, with it covered with tape into the rough handle and then finish shaping the handle with hand tools and sand paper. The exception would be for metal bolster or guard which will require power tools.

Doug


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Old 11-25-2015, 03:01 PM
Gilessim Gilessim is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 5
Finished knife

Did the HT on the blade and a light etching, everything went ok so epoxied together with an m3 screw and nut and made up a length of Blackwood and olive plug to plug the holes, Danish oil on the handle, very pleased with the result, going to try a chefs knife now. Sorry for the rubbish photos.


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