Bacon wood knife scales

[homefire 2,551]

LOL, No One going to just walk away with that one.   But that's what I thought about my Stack On Role Around Tool crib too.  It walked off the bed of my truck some place when I was at Denny's one morning.   Lost like $3000 in power tools and crap.

[ArcticDave 1,849]

20 minutes ago, homefire said:

LOL, No One going to just walk away with that one.   But that's what I thought about my Stack On Role Around Tool crib too.  It walked off the bed of my truck some place when I was at Denny's one morning.   Lost like $3000 in power tools and crap.

Ouch

My biggest loss to theft was a nice yamaha 750 virago. I had put a lot of miles on that bike

Homie I can pick that anvil up and carry it, but it ain't much fun, and I can't go anywhere fast.

[homefire 2,551]

All I can think of was they lowered both tail gates and just shoved the dang thing onto another truck.   Worst thing is I purposely parked where I could see it and miss it happening. 

[Edge 444]

5 hours ago, ArcticDave said:

The top is still true, but the edges are a bit rough. I have not tried weighing it, but it is pretty stout. 25" total length and about 12" tall. I'm guessing somewhere 150# range. 

Sweet.

I'll find a good deal on one again someday. With the popularity of forging right now it's tough to find a good anvil. A buddy gave me a cheap Chinese POS anvil with a useless horn but decent face. I use a section of railroad track for drawing out steel.

[Edge 444]

On 7/7/2018 at 11:37 AM, AzNuggetBob said:

Nice work on your knife Dave.

Ive  tried using  boiled linseed oil like you suggested. it works pretty good on ironwood. clear coat polyurethane doesn't. the wood is too oily. you can literately hit a block of ironwood with a hammer and get a greasy spot on the face of the hammer. but that's one of the reasons this stuff weathers so well. Its very dense,hard and its oily. I got the best results if I wiped the ironwood down several times with acetone first, let it dry before applying a finish. this seems to help the finish bond to the grain of the wood.

Here is some photos of a knife I was building awhile back. you can see the Ironwood real good in these. when I took the photos I was in the process of fitting the pins and scales to the blade. that's all hand (flame) file work around the edge with a hot plum brown on the blade. handmade guard. it came out pretty nice. I'll see If I can find some other photos with Ironwood. Taking photo's indoors doesn't work very well but it is a nice shot of my wall switch in my shop.
AzNuggetBob

 

 

 

Wow, just saw these pics. I don't think I have ever seen the vine work on the Tang before, beautiful.

I've been experimenting with acids and etching. How do your blanks come, already hardened and tempered?

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

Edge It doesnt matter what types of blanks/bar steel I use I always anneal them first or your going to burn up a lot of tools shaping them before hardening and tempering.

AzNuggetBob

[Saul R W 740]

On 7/21/2018 at 9:01 AM, ArcticDave said:

The top is still true, but the edges are a bit rough. I have not tried weighing it, but it is pretty stout. 25" total length and about 12" tall. I'm guessing somewhere 150# range. 

No swayback in that old beauty.  That's worthy of refacing to fix the edges.

[Edge 444]

5 hours ago, AzNuggetBob said:

Edge It doesnt matter what types of blanks/bar steel I use I always anneal them first or your going to burn up a lot of tools shaping them before hardening and tempering.

AzNuggetBob

I ask because I know a couple guys whom get and work with blanks but have no way to anneal.

[Saul R W 740]

3 hours ago, Edge said:

I ask because I know a couple guys whom get and work with blanks but have no way to anneal.

Outside only, NOT in your wife's kitchen, you should be able to anneal steel – in theory -- with a propane weed burner and a couple of firebricks.  In the shop, you can do it with a 20-pound propane bottle and a couple of firebricks and a torch like a Bernzomatic JTH7 (I'm not recommending the brand, just the style, rather than a plain, screw-on-the-bottle propane nozzle).  MAPP is even better.

All blacksmith-related work, especially annealing and heat treating, should be done if possible in a shop with good indirect lighting, no bright spotlights, no direct sun on the work.  This is especially important when you're running colors, to have good light, but not too much light.

Be awfully careful with coal forges.  An old friend of my family in Prescott, a master knifemaker and blacksmith, injured his health in his shop, even with good ventilation.  Fortunately, he had a college degree and was able to retire from smithing and take up school teaching.  I've known blacksmiths who weren't so fortunate.

I blacksmithed as a hobby, 15 to 20 hours a week for over 40 years, and never forged a knife. I made a ton of tools, though, and I did make some blocks of damascus for a friend several times back in the 1990s. About 20 to 25 years ago, every young guy who wandered into my shop wanted to learn swordmaking. It must have been related to some movie or TV series, was the best that I could guess.  There's certainly a greater number of competent blademakers now than there were back then.

[homefire 2,551]

1 hour ago, Saul R W said:

Outside only, NOT in your wife's kitchen, you should be able to anneal steel – in theory -- with a propane weed burner and a couple of firebricks.  In the shop, you can do it with a 20-pound propane bottle and a couple of firebricks and a torch like a Bernzomatic JTH7 (I'm not recommending the brand, just the style, rather than a plain, screw-on-the-bottle propane nozzle).  MAPP is even better.

All blacksmith-related work, especially annealing and heat treating, should be done if possible in a shop with good indirect lighting, no bright spotlights, no direct sun on the work.  This is especially important when you're running colors, to have good light, but not too much light.

Be awfully careful with coal forges.  An old friend of my family in Prescott, a master knifemaker and blacksmith, injured his health in his shop, even with good ventilation.  Fortunately, he had a college degree and was able to retire from smithing and take up school teaching.  I've known blacksmiths who weren't so fortunate.

I blacksmithed as a hobby, 15 to 20 hours a week for over 40 years, and never forged a knife. I made a ton of tools, though, and I did make some blocks of damascus for a friend several times back in the 1990s. About 20 to 25 years ago, every young guy who wandered into my shop wanted to learn swordmaking. It must have been related to some movie or TV series, was the best that I could guess.  There's certainly a greater number of competent blademakers now than there were back then.

Yep,  Just need to get it to the Cherry Red Hot stage.  Hell you could do that with Char Coal. 

[Edge 444]

Yeah you're right most can anneal, heck I even use mapp gas.

I forge outdoors, I'll be ok. Most all fumes are going up the stack. I breathe the worst crap while welding.

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

On 7/21/2018 at 8:01 AM, ArcticDave said:

The top is still true, but the edges are a bit rough. I have not tried weighing it, but it is pretty stout. 25" total length and about 12" tall. I'm guessing somewhere 150# range. 

That is one nice anvil you got there Dave. you were right, that's a good head start on the tools.   I used to have a lot of hand forged black smith tongs that I found out metal detecting around old ghost towns but I didn't keep them. never thought I may be forging knives back then. AzNuggetBob

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

On 7/7/2018 at 12:37 PM, AzNuggetBob said:

 

Oh also Dave that's nickel silver sheet liners between the scales and the tang just like the guard. I know its hard to tell with my fine photo's       

I made one knife and mixed brass and nickel silver. didn't like it and haven't done it again.
AzNuggetBob

[Edge 444]

2 minutes ago, AzNuggetBob said:

Oh also Dave that's nickel silver sheet liners between the scales and the tang just like the guard. I know its hard to tell with my fine photo's       

I made one knife and mixed brass and nickel silver. didn't like it and haven't done it again.
AzNuggetBob

Where are you located, pm me it it's top secret squirrel stuff.

Do you cast your own brass, I'm looking to learn that.

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

Edge I used to do a lot of jewelry work. Ive cast a lot of silver and gold but I don't cast brass. simple sand casting is easy though. I purchased the tomahawk head rough cast and that is a high carbon tool steel blade on it. I have been working it down little by little. all of my brass and silver guards are made from scratch using flat yellow brass or nickel silver bar stock. Im going to do a heated twist here soon.
 I was going to twist the ends on this guard but decided to use it with the file work as is.

AzNuggetBob

This ones for you, Terry Soloman

 

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

Here is the sheath Im making for that last knife. its a pancake style. your going to need more tools Dave.      AzNuggetBob

Hand stitched, road kill liner.

[Edge 444]

AZ nugget Bob, are you in the witness protection program?

[ArcticDave 1,849]

22 hours ago, AzNuggetBob said:

Here is the sheath Im making for that last knife. its a pancake style. your going to need more tools Dave.      AzNuggetBob

Hand stitched, road kill liner.

I feel no shame in collecting more tools 

That sheath is going to be fantastic Bob. Nice work 

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

Thanks Dave
I'll tell ya Dave you can never have too many tools. having the right tools makes it sooo much easier. when I first started making knives I did everything the hard way. with the correct tools things that where hard are easy now, much faster and more accurate. on some things I still improvise. for example if I do go with the copper harness rivets on this sheath rather than stitching Im probably going to use my drill press with a bit to make the holes because the leather is so thick being stacked after its all rubber cemented together. normally I just use standard leather punch pliers. but I would have to punch the holes through several thick layers one at a time and get the holes to line up just right for the rivets. and if the holes don't line up it will cause the leather to pucker up and separate along the edge later. I'll show you how I put it together before I glue it and peen the rivets. and of course its always nice to have a good solid base like an anvil to peen the copper rivets on. the base has to be very solid or you will have problems with the riveting being loose. I use a flat anvil that's built into the rear of a very large 5" vise on my bench.  
I don't have a leather sewing machine. but you can pre-punch the stitching holes with a leather awl and a hammer on wood. Its similar to a small ice pick.  you can also get a multi-hole punch but they only do straight lines. Its way to much work to push a leather needle through all the leather and harder to get the holes straight without pre-punching them first even if your only doing two layers. I started out pushing and pulling the needles with a pair of pliers. forget it. If you have a drill press you can also put a extra heavy needle in a drill press, running or not it also works good just using the lever arm to press the pre-marked holes. don't forget to put lots of wax on the needle or punch. bees wax works good. for the middle layer of leather I just lay the blade on the leather and draw a line around it and cut out before gluing it in.
Also I antiqued and distressed the top outer layer of leather with brown dye and black antiquing paste. dying leather can be tricky. I will still have to do the edge coat on it but that's last after I rivet, belt sand the edge and go around the edges with an edging tool. the edging tool gets rid of that square edge look that always seems to get laid back later with wear and edging will make your work look a lot more professional.  also probably going too use some copper/brass black on the rivets. gives them more of an aged look.
I dont know what all you or other readers here have as far as knife making tools so I mentioned several options for those that don't have a lot of tools.
There's a lot to be learned but the more you know and the more tools you have the smoother things will go.
Also some of my tools are home made and I like them better than some of the cheap factory tools. I'll show you later.
I'll put up more photo's as I go along.

AzNuggetBob

[ArcticDave 1,849]

I watched a fellow a few times who was a very competent leather worker. He had trays full of diffent punches and stamps and Lord knows what else. He had several for prepunching the stitching holes. They looked similar to little table forks with varying numbers and sizes of tines. Line them up and smack them with a mallet.  He made it look easy...but I'm aware the devil is in the details.

I thought I would start very simply and stitch up something for the little knife that started this thread. It has a lousy nylon webbing sheath with a plastic insert. The thing is limp at the belt attach loop and folds up like a wet paper towel when I pull the knife out. Royal pain in the butt

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

Dave Ya the multipunch tools are the way to go if you punching straight lines and its not multi layer leather. I took some indoor photo's a little while ago but they suck and so does my camera. its a bit of a dino, even with a flash indoors sometimes they come out dark. I need to get a new one. I know your busy working on your airplane. Really looking forward to seeing your plane finished too. just thought I'd keep this thread alive.
AzNuggetBob

 

 

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

These photo's came out a lot better. (daylight)

 

This is how I do the blade cut out., when you look at this stacked pancake style sheath from the side it gets pretty thick. as aposed to a simple folded leather sheath. Here are some other sheaths I'm working on. Im a big fan of the sunburst design simular to the Az. flag.
AzNuggetBob

 

 

[ArcticDave 1,849]

Ok I see what you mean about stacking layers now. The middle is a spacer to allow room for the blade.

I need to get back to work on that airplane!

I've had so many projects lately, that by the time I have a chance to work on it...it's over 100° and I lose my gumption real quick.

Hopefully here in another month or so the dew point will start going back down. I'll be able to get more done then.

Bob where do you get your leather? Do you mail order it, or is there someplace local?

[AzNuggetBob 1,544]

 

I buy a lot of my leather on Ebay. If you buy it in large lots you can get it pretty cheap. I got about twenty pounds of 1/4 sides. and some surplus fancy Italian shoe leather too. I dont use it just for knives, I use it for other things too. I prefer oak or vegy tanned.

I hear ya on the heat. Its almost like hunting during the day this time of year south of the N.hills. I have a shop outside, I dont use it this time of year unless Im just going to cut some wood (real quick) . I'm still insulating it trying to get a widow air to cool it. so far, no luck on that in this heat. I also have a spare room indoors I use for hobbies. but nothing big enough to fit an airplane in.

AzNuggetBob

[ArcticDave 1,849]

Bob, If I had an air conditioned shop...I would never leave the shop! I have a swampy on my shop tent, but it only goes so far this time of year. That and the last storm ripped the front door off...

I did some looking online and found there at least 3 Tandy Leather shops in Phx. I want to finger some different grades and weights in person. I don't know enough about leather classifications to order it off the web yet.