That is beautiful!

|quoted:

This is my first attempt at this pattern. The blade shown is after heat treat with a clean up sanding to 220 grit, a 10 minute etch in FeCl and a cold blue to bring the pattern out. I will post more pics as the whole knife progresses. There is a lot more work to be done here, but I wanted to see the pattern to be sure it would work.The blade is just under 8 inches long and 1-5/16 at the widest point. The starting billet was 13 pieces of 1095 3/16 x 1-1/2 and 12 pieces of 15N20 .06 x 1-1/2.

I thought I might share one of the drawings I've made for this knife so folks might understand where I start and where I'm headed. The working drawing is on 11x17 and my home scanner cannot handle pages that large so I have attached a .pdf file of the handle section of the drawing. This is a commission knife, so this is based on what the customer has told me for materials and finishes. There are other partial drawings of the handle section, one for the frame shape and pin layout, one with the tang in the handle area, etc. All these different drawings get used during the making of the parts for the frame handle design. I had a little trouble scanning and compressing the drawing, so the handwriting isn't too clear, but I think you will get the idea.

Good start to work, the results strongly! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

jean-louis

La traduction n'est pas bien. Me dire en français s'il vous plaît

Sorry I didn't get anything posted on this project last week. Last weekend we went up to Flagstaff to do an art installation at the Arboretum. They are having an art walk through the grounds all summer and we have three pieces in the exhibit. I did get back into the shop today, but our main computer crashed, and it has the photo editing software. So, I cannot resize and compress the photos I took of the work I did today. I'm on the laptop and it has diddly for photo software.

Well, I resurrected the main computer and got the photo editor up again. So here we have a couple more photos of the progress from last week. I am including another shot of the handle drawing that should be a little better and easier to read. There are two (2) red-bronze spacers in the handle. These I have to make from scratch. So here it is. First the drawing.

The next pic is of my casting set. The crucible with the red bronze grain and the 1/8 inch slab form. I heat the grain in the crucible with an oxy-acetylene torch and pour it into the form. wait for it to cool, empty, and repeat. Two slabs of red bronze that are approximately .145 inches thick.

I had to replace the original post's blade photo in order to free up some upload space.

During the final sand I check the center of the blade tip with a square soap stone and a granite slab. Laying the blade flat on the granite, and standing the soap stone on edge, you drag the point across the stone, leaving a line in the stone. Flip the blade over and repeat. Sand a little more off of the side that produces the lowest line (closest to the granite), recheck center, and repeat until the tip is centered and both sides produce a line in the same location. When that's done, it's time to set the shoulders where the guard rests against the ricasso. I have one of Uncle Al's filing jigs for this. Set the carbide faces on the jig exactly where you want the shoulders and press against the grinder (belt or disk, I use the 9 inch disk) at low speed until you bottom out both shoulders on the carbide. I also set a second set of shoulders using the same method where the guard will initially contact the tang behind the ricasso. More on why I do that when I get to pressing the guard on. You can see the finished shoulders in the new pic on the first post of this thread. After both sets of shoulders are done, it's time to hand sand. I usually finish Damascus to 220 by disk and 320 by hand. Don't forget the spine and the underside of the ricasso. This new photo editing software I have is either not very good or there's a learning curve and I'm not quite over the hump.

This week I'm posting the process of slotting and fitting the guard. The first photo shows the layout setup. I have the drawing with all my dimensions, machinist square & rule (graduated in 8ths, 16ths, 32nds and 64ths), digital calipers, and the piece of 416 for the guard. The area behind the ricasso (I call it "the hump") measures .1775 thick and .765 long.

I also decided to change the heel of the handle from convex to concave, so I had to make a template for that. It has nothing to do with setting the guard, but it is in the photo, so I figured I throw that out here. I spray the face of the 416 with layout dye and mark out the area where the slot will be. I chuck up the bench top mill, drill the starter hole and slot with a 7/64 end mill. Then I widen the slot evenly across both sides to a couple (3-5) thousands narrower than the hump. This is a thick guard (IMHO)so, I flip the guard piece over and over mill the perimeter of the back (handle) side approximately 1/2 way through. If it were 1/8 thick or less, I wouldn't do this step. I leave the ends of the slot rounded so that the squared ends of the hump overlap the curve just slightly. This will create cut corners through the guard and ensure that every time the guard comes off, you can easily get it on again in the same location. It also locks the guard in place and takes less time than filing the slot out square. There is a photo of the guard on the bench with the handle side up. Then I wrap the blade in one of those shop towels (it will remain in this blanket for most of the rest of this project), and place it point down in the side mounted bench vice. I place the guard exactly where I intend it to sit and add a drop of super glue to keep it there while I place the sacrificial guard and guard setting tool over the tang. A few good poundings with the 24 oz. ball pein hammer and the guard is set tightly with no gaps. Unfortunately, I have run out of file upload space and cannot add the final photo. I will try and delete some photos elsewhere and load this last one later today.