Brian Dougherty

Arguments carried out on the internet are never finished, let alone won. As soon as you realize you are in one, it is best to walk away and let the rest eat themselves up in the cross fire. It's sort of like the first rule of holes. Once you realize you are in one, stop digging! It all illustrates the amazing vibe, and standards of behavior created by the founders of this forum. It also illustrates the responsibility for those of us who have come along after Don Fogg retired if we want to keep it this way. It is animal nature to attack weakness, and to join a group. I think that is why most places on the web devolve into a virtual school yard.

Oh snap! I know what I'll be doing tonight. Thanks so much for making these available!

Yeah, that happened to a guy at work about a year ago. A piece of the disk left a big gouge in his safety glasses. At that point I decided to stop buying el-cheapo disks, and now always wear a full face shield when using one. Glad you didn't get hurt!

Hi all. I've been through a meat grinder at work for that last couple of weeks, and simply can't go another step so I thought I'd start the weekend a bit early by sharing something I did recently to make shaping bolsters a bit easier. I solder bolsters to my full tang knives before fitting the rest of the handle. Some shaping can be done after the rest of the handle is glued up, but as you all know there are things that are easier to shape off the blade. I'm always struggling to hold small pieces in a vice so I can get good access with the files while doing the shaping. Last weekend I was rummaging around the tool box and rediscovered a stout little pair of jeweler's pliers that I picked up somewhere. The handles had notches cut in them that made them almost ideal to use in reverse to clamp down on the bolsters I was working on. I used a small clamp to pinch the jaws together which provided plenty of clamping force at the handle tips to hold the part. Then I just held the pair of plier is my bench vise. It worked a treat Here is a shot during the shaping: This is after most of the handle shaping was done so you can get an idea what they will look like when completed.

It doesn't seem like it would be inlaid that deep. Can you just reshape the handle contours slightly to get rid of the low area?

Nice Joshua.

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that it tastes the same, only that it should have the same chemicals in it. On rare occasions, I'll be really dragging in the afternoon, and I'll pull a shot of espresso at the office. (One of the other engineers is a coffee nut, and keeps a full auto machine in the break room at work) If I did drink coffee regularly, I would drink it the same way you do

You know, I have wondered this, but haven't tried. As I understand it, instant coffee is just dehydrated real coffee, so I would expect it to work. I don't drink coffee, so I never have it around the house to try. Can someone dunk a scrap of pattern welded steel in their morning coffee cup and let us know what happens?

Thanks for all the comments So this is really drifting off of waht I was trying to answer - What I would really like is to find a source of nice simple cardboard boxes that would hold knives well. You can get some that are designed for cutlery, but I rarely find one that is a great fit, and I have never found one long enough to hold a chef's knife. What I was trying to get at before I shoved my foot in my mouth about Tom's display box design, was what do you all deliver/ship your knives in? Is everyone really just wrapping them up in plastic wrap, and shipping them that way? I do not intend to create a display box for every knife, but would like to be able to hand or ship people a knife in a simple box that at least looks like a knife belongs in it. (Although the Laphroiag boxes kind of work )

How well do the cylinders hold up in these kinds of hammers?

I think I am going to do just that this weekend. I also just realized that that is Tom's site, so I'll offer an apology to him once I get my foot out of my mouth

Yeah, I'm off base with that comment. The design is perfectly sound. I guess I am a bit jaded because I have seen so many people cobble things like that together from construction lumber, slap some walnut stain on it and sell them at flea markets. However, properly executed those could look pretty nice.

Thanks Tom. I've seen those, but they are a little to "Arts and crafts" for my taste. Maybe I'm being too picky. I've done a few bandsaw boxes over the years for other reasons. (I grew up in a woodworking shop) I should revisit that concept to see if I could so something I like. For most of what I make, a wood box is a bit of a waste because the knife will just end up in a kitchen knife block. However, I'd like the unboxing experience to be a bit better than a knife wrapped up in tape and bubble wrap.

What do you guys actually present a knife to the owner in? I have yet to find a solution I like for actually delivering a knife. I once made a fitted wooden case with quarter matched burl veneer and a flocked interior with various compartments, but that took as long to make as the knife, and isn't a sustainable option. I'd love to find a source of boxes, but even the so called "Cutlery boxes" are never very well sized. A lot of my knives lately have been chef's knives with 2" wide blades and 13" OAL, but I have never found a box that was a good match. Lately I have been wrapping them in a tea-towel with a ribbon round them, but that isn't a great solution. Hunter/skinners and the like that have sheaths I just hand over sheathed, but that also seems a bit unceremonious given the effort that goes into making the knife. I'd love to hear how others are dealing with this issue.

As Steve points out, the answer really depends some on the overall geometry of the blade. For a 2" wide chef's knife that is going to be around 0.100" thick at the spine, I'll heat treat with an extra 20 thousandths (or so) of material on the sides of the blade. Usually my spines will be around 0.014" thick and the edges will be around 0.060". I have had less issue with cracking when the edges are thing than I have had with "Bacon" like warping along the edge. A long gentle warp along the spine is pretty easy to fix in tempering, but that wavy bacon effect on the edge is hard for me to straighten.