Brian Dougherty

My newest forge is much more evenly heated than my last, and I noticed this exact thing the first time I used it for heat treating. I had to do a lot more in and out to keep the heat even than I did when I had a big hot spot.

Ha, that mat be where I got it then!

Very nice!

I think your standards are slipping Alan, I wouldn't have pinned this one, but I am honored none the less. Now to go back through and fix all the type-os...

Man that blade is mesmerizing Gary. I lost track since you were sharing progress on several blades at once, but was this one of the canoe welds? I think I see tiles welded on the bias so to speak, but deciphering the pattern development makes my head hurt

over 230 lbs by my calculations...

I don't put the cutler's rivets in until after the epoxy because unlike a corby bolt, you don't have much room to sand into the head of the rivet. Therefore the surface of the scale has to be pretty close to the final dimension before they go in. I felt the rivets I had in stock were either too small or to large for this handle so I took some of the larger ones, and turned the heads down to 1/4". Then it was just a lot of rasping, filing, and sanding to get the final handle shape. Here is a quick snapshot of the mostly finished knife. I need to do a few touch-ups, and get some glamor shots done.

I got the handle scales fitted and epoxied into place while listening to my favorite NFL team getting pummeled in the playoffs this weekend. First I roughly shape the scales so that I can accurately fit them to the curve in the bolster. Then it is just a matter of tacking one side down with super glue, and drilling through the holes in the tang. Then tack the other side on, adn drill back through. I'm using G-Flex epoxy these days, but will probably switch to acraglas once I run out. I use cutler's rivets on kitchen knives, so I don't put the fasteners in until later. Here it is after the epoxy cured, and I had the handle mostly profiled, and had started shaping.

I used the White Out as a solder block on the forward side of the bolsters, but there is still some cleanup to do on the handle side. This is another trick that I believe I learned here: Hammer a graver/chisel shape out of a piece of brass rod. (Don't heat it, work it cold) this work hardens the brass a bit, and you can shave off the extra solder quite easily. Once it gets dull, I just touch the end up on the grinder to get back to a crisp edge. It works really well for cleaning up the inside edge. Unfortunately, I don't know who to credit the idea to

Cool!

I'm curious to see how you would carve out the relief for escutcheons in the mamoth ivory. Is it soft enough to chisel out the way you can with blackwood? (I've never worked with it, but assume it is rather hard since it is usually referred to as "fossilized')

If it causes you to lean one way or the other, I will most likely be doing a slip-joint for my entry.

That one is sweet and nasty at the same time! I've drifted away from shaving with a straight over the last few years. This blade reminds me that I should go back to it.

The problem with pace makers is more that the lead wire stuck into the heart will have enough current induced into it to disrupt the heart rythm. The electronics will probably be fine, but it only take an extra hundred micro-amps or so going through the lead wire to screw you up pretty permanently.

The answer lies in the advice that has already been given, but I'm curious what you were using for a hammer. You mention a high school shop. You weren't using a 10oz ball-pein were you? Even poor technique with a 2-lb hammer for that long should have moved more metal, and no, it isn't the spring's fault. I doubt that it was made out of something very exotic.