Once more into the fray........

[Joshua States]

So I started quite a few weeks ago and have been doing a little bit when I can. The last couple of weeks have been tough. Lots of traveling, bronchitis, oh yeah and this thing called a job.....

Anyway, I figured I post up some photos before I totally forget what I was trying to do. I was originally going to use the Stanley flat bar and just do a standard single steel blade, but then the wife says to me:

"Why are you saving all those bandsaw blades?" And I got to thinking.........So, here is my drawing.

 

All the notes are in the upper right corner about what the materials and design elements will be. Here are the materials.

 

 

There are 15 used bandsaw blades for my porta-bandsaw. Typical blades you buy at Home Depot. Also from HD is a piece of 1x4 red oak with some cool looking grain, the flat bar, and a 4 ft stick of #5 rebar. At Ace Hardware I got the 5/64" music wire, 1/16" brass rod, and a small sheet of 16 gauge carbon steel. OK, so I didn't really BUY that at Ace, but I could have. It's just that we buy that stuff in 4 ft by 8 ft sheets and I happen to have half a sheet in the shop so......whatever. Please don't ask why the rods look pre-twisted, they are not. It's just a funky camera thing.

Then the hard part. I needed a piece of white bone for the spacer. After digging through the dog chews at the local feed store/pet supply I found one that might work. Oh yeah let's not forget the sheet of white construction paper from the CVS pharmacy in the school supplies section. If anyone thinks that CVS is not on our "approved vendor list", let me know and I'll leave that bit out.

 

So I took the band saw blades and cut them into pieces. Now I have 120 short pieces of steel roughly .06" thick, .5" wide, and about 5-1/2 inches long. (photo taken after the heating)

 

 

These blades are covered with some sort of lubricant coating that could really Jack up the forge welding. So, I heated them up in the forge to burn that stuff off and after several hours of wire wheel work, put them in the drill press vice to prep for the forge weld.

 

 

Weld the ends and attach handles.

 

 

Then into the diesel fuel, forge, and press. (or is that presto?)

 

 

This photo was taken after I ground one face off to remove the teeth and see if the welds took. Tomorrow I go to Tucson for the gem & mineral show. I am showing a buddy of mine how to make Damascus on Sunday (so that video of the press doing hot work should be ready by Monday night). I might have some time Sunday night to do more on the KITH project, but don't bet on it. Probably next weekend.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Joshua States

[grpaavola]

Nice work so far!

My wife is in Tucson for that same show as we speak.

I need to get to forge welding myself, but can't while she is there.

 

What is the name of those bandsaw blade anyway?

 

-Gabriel

[Joshua States]

HD sells the Milwaukee brand.

[JJ Simon]

Yep, great start.
Can't wait to see the process.
How do I access the notes?

[Joshua States]

JJ: You can click on the drawing. It's a photo and will open in a photo viewer. In the lower right corner of the viewer is a "save" button. Click that, download the photo, open it in whatever photo viewer you have, and zoom in.

 

For those interested, the notes read:

 

KITH Knife

Handle Red Oak - Frame MS, Blued w/ rope filing. Music wire pins-3/32 or less, blued.

 

Spacer Pkg (2) 1/16 coined & blued (1) White (?) bone?

 

Guard 3/16 blued MS

[Joshua States]

So, my Damascus lesson today bailed out and I had the day to do some more work on this knife. So I prepped the bars for twisting by rounding them off in the power hammer and grinding them clean. I have forged one end down to fit in the 1/2 inch socket of a typical socket wrench. Then I can twist them by holding the other end in the press and using an impact wrench/gun to do the twisting. I skipped a couple of additional twisting operations, but the process didn't change much. You have to cool the end that goes in the impact wrench, or cool the areas that you don't want to twist anymore than they already are. You end up with twisted bars. Then I prepped the Stanley flat bar by burning all that black and yellow stuff off it, cutting off the parts that I wouldn't use, and flattening it out. I cut the bar into 3 pieces to weld back together. Because 5160 doesn't like welding to itself, I cut two pieces of mild steel sheet to fit between the 5160. Then I spray the mating surfaces with pure graphite for the pre-weld stack. After welding it up and drawing it out to about 1/2 inch square, I have what will become the edge and spine bars. Now I cut that bar in two, and cut the Twisted bars down to match, and surface grind the mating faces. I cut two more pieces of mild steel sheet, to use as shims between the edge bars and the twisted bars. Spray with graphite, stack and weld. After welding and drawing out, I now have a bar that is about 1/2 inch thick, 1-1/4 inch wide, and 8 inches long. Looks like I am ready to start making that blade!

I have tried to arrange this post 4 different times and it's always chopped up. I don't have the energy to try again.

[grpaavola]

Good Gods man!

You ain't messing around!

 

I never heard of using graphite before... could you please explain a little about the process and what graphite spray you used?

 

-Gabriel

[Alan Longmire]

I dig using the impact wrench for twisting, bet it's easier to keep straight than hand twisting. And I second Gabriel's graphite question, I've never even heard of that before!

 

Oh, and your pics are in order from this end!

[Joshua States]

The graphite spray needs to be the straight graphite, not the stuff with silicone added. I use this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Blaster-5-5-oz-B-laster-Graphite-Dry-Lube-8-GS/202597501

 

Tim Hancock told me about this trick. It's primarily used in multi-bar patterns or any forge welding where the possibility of heavy decarb will occur and leave a nasty little white line at the weld. The graphite spray provides the needed carbon that the lower carbon steel wants to draw out of the high carbon steel. I don't know why it happens in multi-bar patterning, but it sometimes does. This doesn't always happen, but the graphite spray is a simple and effective way to mitigate the possibility.

As for the process, I lay the bars out in the order in which I am going to stack them. The outer layers are on the outsides, the inner layers toward the center of the photo (yeah I didn't lay them out right in the photo). I spray all of them at once and flip the layers over (carefully so as not to remove the graphite) onto the piece next to them exposing the underside of the pieces that have two mating surfaces. Spray the next side and flip the next piece on. Don't worry about getting too much spray on the pieces, it doesn't appear that there is such a thing as too much.

[Joshua States]

Good Gods man!

You ain't messing around!

 

-Gabriel

Well, I blame J.J. Simon and Alan........they started raising the bar and I just couldn't hang back and do the easy thing anymore.

I am doing this as a trial run for another knife I have planned. I do want to point out that in no way do I expect anyone else in this KITH to go through this much work on their knives. Everyone should at least try and test themselves a little bit, but on no account should anyone feel pressured to go this far on the KITH knife.

 

I did just because JJ & Alan threw that gauntlet down and I wanted to try some multi-bar stuff out.

[JJ Simon]

Well, I'm learning a lot!

Nice tutorial.
Great idea with the impact gun.

[Joshua States]

So, I heat treated the blade, tempering for the 5160 edge and went to finish the grinding. I found a delam at the edge area up toward the front, which left an ugly divot.

 

 

Unfortunately, I cannot grind this divot out because its bottom is past the center line. So I have two options:

1. Start over (ugh)

2. Shorten the blade up and remove the offending divot.

 

In order to use option 2 and keep at least an 8 inch blade, it would come out looking like this:

 

 

Not exactly what I intended. What is that Dave Stephens quote? "I do this for the Zen" yeah that's it.

The Zen........

Edited February 15, 2016 by Joshua States

[Joshua States]

I stared at this for a while today and just walked away.

[Gabriel James]

hahahahaha -- i try not to find pleasure in this-- because i have a knife that causes me to do the same thing Every day for the past week!

 

that persian blue or sharpy whatever it is is casting illusions. Perhaps if you could salvage just a bit more of the tip region and then drop your clip a few more degrees is would look sharp?

 

 

PS i dont giggle at the failure but at the staring at it and walking away part

Edited February 16, 2016 by Gabriel James

[Alan Longmire]

I feel your pain, dude. I almost walked away from mine when that happened near the spine, but I have come to like the effect in that particular instance. If it had been a commission I'd have started over.

[Joshua States]

I stared at this for a while today and just walked away.

 

So right after I posted this, I went back out to the shop and thought about it some more. Then I set myself to regrinding the profile. When I came back in and sat down at the computer, I read this:

 

Perhaps if you could salvage just a bit more of the tip region and then drop your clip a few more degrees is would look sharp?

 

 

Guess what Gabriel? That's what I did. Here it is after finish grinding, hand sanding, 3 ten-minute etching sessions and some polishing. It is 8-1/8" from shoulders to tip, 5/32" thick at the spine, and 2" wide at the plunge cuts.

 

 

Unfortunately there are several small inclusions in the blade and a little bit of that divot left along the edge, but I think that will come out with the blade sharpening. I'm sure a better smith would have made better steel, but I'm not him ....yet.

The twist pattern in the center is not easily seen without a good light and close inspection.

 

 

I seem to be having some difficulty uploading the next group of photos. Will try another post.

[Joshua States]

So, I also had a small piece of steel left over from the initial bar that measured about 2-3/4" by 1-3/8" by 1/4" and I smelled an opportunity.

 

 

So I decided to try something new and redesigned the guard. I decided to forge this chunk into an open D-guard. Here is the piece as-forged.

 

 

After a bit of surfacing to smooth things out.

 

 

Now I have to profile that thing.

[Gabriel James]

thats pretty BA.....

[Alan Longmire]

I am beginning to suspect that this KITH is more about overcoming obstacles in creative ways in general rather than just about using hardware store materials...good save! I like that pattern.

[Joshua States]

I am beginning to suspect that this KITH is more about overcoming obstacles in creative ways in general rather than just about using hardware store materials...good save! I like that pattern.

Well the basic principle of "Hardware Store Bowie" carries with it the presumption of difficulties.............

(both known and unexpected)

 

Thanks guys.

Edited February 18, 2016 by Joshua States

[Joshua States]

Progress update.

I slotted and fitted the guard and two pieces of thin steel sheet to the knife, and then cut out the center section of that bone for the center spacer. I surfaced one face of the bone, filled the center with some weld-wood and fit it to the tang and let it set up. Then I rough cut it to size and surfaced the back side parallel to the front face. The spacer is on the right, the cut off piece is shown so you can see the filler and tang slot.

 

 

Now to make the frame. I forged out that 5/8" rebar and took it down to about 5/16" thick. I normally make my frames from sheet stock and just cut out the shape from the template, but I wanted a pretty thick single piece frame so I am forging this one out. Here it is forged to the shape of the handle template.

 

 

Then it's off to the surface grinder to reduce it to the thickness of the blade spine (roughly 3/16"). The ricasso measures .1685 and the frame is .1700.

 

 

Now I spray one side with layout dye, clamp the template to the frame, scribe the outer profile and drill the pin holes. Using sacrificial pins (spent drill bits work great) drill a hole and put a pin in it. When you have 3 or 4 holes drilled and pinned, you can take off the clamps and drill the remaining holes.

 

 

Now cut/grind the excess off the outside profile and clamp the frame to the tang with the guard and spacers in place and everything is fit tight. I had to reshape the tang slightly to fit the frame properly. Then scribe the outside of the tang and cut/grind the excess out of the center of the frame to fit the tang.

 

 

Finally, The frame fits the tang and I am ready to use the frame as the template for the handle scales.

 

 

[Joshua States]

Well, I have shaped the frame and scales. I usually do a rope pattern file-work on this handle design and I was ambivalent about going the extra mile, mostly because my carpal tunnel was killing me for the last couple of days, but my sense of esthetics won me over. I tried to take some photos of the process, but they came out crappy. I did get the top of the frame mostly done. It could use a little more sanding. Here it is in the sandwich with the red oak scales.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Joshua States

[Brian Dougherty]

Nice rope work. I struggle with that...

[Joshua States]

Brian, I suggest the DVD by Dwayne Dushane for excellent step-by-step instruction on Rope, Vine, and "S" patterns. I did the handle belly the other day and took some photos of the process. I primarily use two files to do this pattern, a chainsaw file and a modified marking file. The marking file has had the flat side ground clean.

 

Start by laying out the spacing on whatever the object is. I happen to know this handle frame patter takes a 3/16" spacing on the spine and a 1/4" spacing on the belly. Then cut straight across the top with the chainsaw file to create a series of parallel grooves, evenly spaced, and about 1/3 the depth of the file.

 

 

Then, using the marking file on edge, cut a series of lines in the middle of the flat spots.

 

 

Back to the chainsaw file and round off the edge of the grooves on one end. These cuts start on the top and as the file travels toward the edge, it rises up and moves slightly forward until the file is almost parallel to the side of the workpiece.

 

 

Then do the other end the same way. Finish by starting parallel on one side, come up & over the top, and continue down the other side.

 

 

I didn't get a pic of the next step, but it is the same process for those little lines in the centers of the flat areas. You use the modified marking file on edge and do the same cut & roll to round off the corners of the flat areas.

 

Then using the round face of the marking file, smooth out the remaining parts of the flat areas and create a sharp ridge as indicated by the scribe point. You can see the widening/rounding I decscibed in the step without the photo.

 

 

The clean up is accomplished by wrapping sand paper around a smooth round bar and sanding the surfaces to whatever grit you like.

 

 

 

 

[Joshua States]

I shaped the spacer package to match the front end of the handle. I drill two 1/16" alignment pins through all three pieces and pin it to a piece of 1/4 masonite hardboard for easy cutting on the bandsaw and profiling at the grinder.

 

 

Then I shaped the guard, coined and blued the steel spacers, and blued the frame.

 

And here it is. Almost done.

 

 

Sorry about the big ding in the guard.......

I still have to router out some space on the insides of the scales, cut new pins and glue the handle up. Right now the handle is drying from the stain/sealer coat. When that's dry, I can glue this puppy up, peen the pins in the handle and blue the pin tops.