Bill Schmalhofer

Haven't had much time to work on things but just finished these two. Chef knife for a repeat customer - he wanted it as a wedding present for his niece. And another Bowie.

Yes the black box is the Mag200. It is a self-contained filtered metal vacuum system. Works really well. It is a bit quieter than my wood dust collector, but it is still kinda loud. Yep wood dust collector for handle material. Can't plumb them outside unfortunately. I did discover I didn't need the "knife workers edition" based on how I have it plumbed (don't need the extra spark arrestor) . Could have saved myself ~$100.00. Live and learn. Can work on getting the pictures.

Finally got a shaft put on my first spear head. You're right @Alan Longmire, does give you a feeling of power . Used white oak for this one.

So I took the plunge. It was a bit expensive but it does the job so well. Did 1.5 hours of grinding last night (making a mandrel for spear making) and barely any dust anywhere outside the collector. Could see the sparks that normally come off the top of the belt getting sucked down back through the funnel . Actually has enough draw through the grinder shroud that it helped keep the platen cool. Also set it up so I can use my wood dust collector. The wood collector port is plugged by a metal end cap when grinding metal. The better half is VERY happy (and so am I)...

So is ash preferred over hickory?

Got tired of sharpies wearing off, saw a YouTube on making it this way, said “I got all that stuff”, so did it

I did much the same thing but used a VERY light cut of shellac flakes in alcohol and a small amount of blue dye #2 (benefits of working in a biochemistry lab). To make it a bit more translucent, you may want to cut down on the amount of shellac you use. Also blue food coloring may work better than the stain. BTW mine withstands heating pretty well.

After the weekend of grinding my spear head, my better half has decided I need to get a better system to collect metal dust. Does anyone have experience or knowledge (personal or otherwise) with the Magna-matic Mag-200 for knife makers? Thanks!

I was trying the way Maciej does it in his videos. I think my issue was the point on the core was too obtuse and the weld in the edge material to sharp. I think the next one I will try welding point down. Thanks for your suggestions. I have to say, this was way too much fun,,,

Well, some of the welds were not quite as solid as I initially thought. Had to make some modifications to the profile - got rid of most of the issue. And then there was the tip ... Also discovered I bent the core just a bit off center. And one of the pieces of cable damascus had a few deep weld flaws I couldn't grind out. Only done to a 60 grit hand sand and not heat treated yet, but had to see what I was working with. Other than all the issues I am pretty damn proud of this first attempt .

Just finished two small EDC's. And then decided to try increase my skill base. Big shout out to @Maciek Tomaszczyk for his videos. I have watched all his spear videos about 4 times each. He makes it look so easy... FIrst attempt: Starting material (yes I "cheated" with DOM. but when you find a 36 inch tube of 1 inch diameter for $8.00 in the drops bin you go for it). The "decorative" stuff is two bars of cable damascus that I've had laying about for years. Didn't want to waste good stuff on an unknown success as this is the first time I've done a LOT of these procedures. But wanted something interesting if I got it to work. No access to wrought so I used 1018 as the core. The stacked material is 1084 for the edge. Had to weld up a billet to get the size of material I was going to need. Progress pictures. And what I ended up with 8 hours later. There was more hand setting of welds than I have ever done. Not pretty, follows no historical pattern (was an attempt to see if I could do it), but all the welds are completely SOLID, and I have the spear bug bad right now...

Very nice!

A little late to this but I have the same situation with springs. Figured if the springs get hard enough to make flint strikers and they spark like high(er) carbon why not try. My solution: canister. Packed in with 1080+2% Ni powder. Welded beautifully! Stretched it out and twisted. Made a decent pattern and it holds an edge pretty well.

+1. Well deserved!

Pretty sure this is from @Joshua States