New Knifey Things...

Been working on sharp things...

The key to a chef's knife? Thin is in! This blade started at 1/8" thick. I used a 2 degree taper on each side to bring it down.

Grinding Rest Complete, and more

Gawd! It's nice to take a break from the day job!!!! I enjoy my job, don't get me wrong. I get to work on all sorts of cool machines. I troubleshoot, I assemble, I make parts...it's a good gig. It's also, however, a very tiring job. Physically and mentally. I haven't really taken a break at all this year so far. Hence the spotty entries here. When I get a chance to hit my shop, that's where I am. Sometimes I just don't have the energy to type an article when I'm done. Then a week later, it seems like old news to me, so I don't do it.

Well, that being said, I'm on vacation. I believe the snobbier amongst us would call it a "staycation." I don't use words like that. They make me feel pretentious and arrogant.

Anywho, I have a 10 day weekend, and I'm putting it to good use.

(rant over)

New stuff. Happy stuff. A 12" contact wheel from Ameribrade, and a pair of 2" wheels from Wilmont Grinders. The guys at Ameribrade are a new business, just getting on their feet. I thought I'd throw them a little support. The little wheels, well, we'll have to wait for a later post before we see them again. I need to get some new chunks of aluminum to build the attachment they are intended for. I bought some other wheels from Wilmont, and my grinder is based on his design...so it's only appropriate that I support him.Well, it's appropriate because he makes good stuff. I could start a whole rant about...shut up, Mark. Ok.

Grinding Rest Redo

I've said it before that I rely on jigs and fixtures because my free handing skills aren't so good. That means that the guides I use need to be accurate and user friendly. My existing grinding rest for my belt grinder was neither, so it was time to remake it. Here's just a glimpse into one of the parts...

One reason I was putting off this upgrade was the fact that I didn't have a rotary table. Well...guess who has one now! First order of business is to find the center of the table, and that's done with a coaxial indicator.

Let's Make a Knife, pt 5

Let's see if we can wrap it up here in part 5! I took a ton of pictures, and probably made it seem over complicated, but what the hey! More info is good info. It also made me think about what I was doing.

This is an upside down picture because, honestly, I don't feel like editing it at the moment! Anyway, stuff laid out to fit the handles. Acetone to clean the blade, loctite for the nuts, epoxy, a cup, and a brush.

Let's Make a Knife, pt 4

OK...we're on step 16. Working on finishing the blade and then on to installing the handle.

Now that the blade is cooled after being heat treated, it can be cleaned up. For this one, I'm going to run it over 120 grit, and 320 grit on the flat belt sander.

New Pair of Knives

This is the latest pair of "Outdoor" knives that I've made. That name comes from a general lack of anything to call them. They are about 6" long with 2 3/4" blades.

I really like this shape.

Bubinga handles with brass/SS Loveless fasteners and a brass lanyard tube.

Let's Make a Knife, (sidebar: handles)

Since the next part of making a knife is to put on a handle, I thought I'd write a few thoughts about that outside of the how-to.

A variety of handle materials. From left to right: wood (redheart in this case), carbon fiber, C-Tek, and a few different colors of G10. C-Tek is a colored, resin filled aluminum honeycomb. I haven't used it before, this is my first piece. It tends to be pricey, but I wanted to look at it and try it out. G10 is a fiberglass-like material that is available in a large range of colors. Imagination is the only limit, and this is far from an all inclusive list.