What did you do in your shop today?

[Don Abbott]

22 hours ago, Jeroen Zuiderwijk said:

the mechanical shape corrector

 

I like that.

[Conan Dunlap]

I finished a new knife.  I know the proportions and the handle shape are not what I would like, but I leaned a bunch of new skills in this build.  I used hidden pins to align the guards, spacers, and handle.  It is also my first frame handle out of twist damascus.  

 

I also forged a large bar of W's, thank you Mr. States for the tutorial you posted in the brief lecture on pattern welding post.  I believe I was successful, but we will see when I chop it up to stack.

[Alan Longmire]

Not bladesmithing or knife related, but today I rebuilt my old BB gun. That's a 4.5mm air rifle to you in the rest of the world.  Nothing fancy, just a ca. 1981 Daisy Powerline 880.  I dug it out of the closet last year when a friend bought an adult-sized Daisy Red Ryder to pass time during lockdown.  I found out that the seals had gone bad.  It still worked, sort of, but it was hard to pump and wouldn't hold a charge for long.  A couple of weeks ago I was looking at it, thinking about buying a new one, when I discovered the new ones are plastic and made in China.  Found a guy who sells the seals and bought a set.  Three O-rings and one specialty check seal that had to be custom made for pre-1990 models (Daisy no longer makes them), plus a foam oil wiper.  The old oil wiper had turned into a sludge reminiscent of tar...  I watched a few videos and printed the parts diagram, but it still took me three hours to get the thing apart and back together.  Real guns are MUCH simpler!  But it now pumps smoothly, holds a charge, and sounds like I remember.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Alan Longmire
added some useless information

[Joshua States]

On 7/2/2022 at 6:27 PM, Conan Dunlap said:

thank you Mr. States for the tutorial

Thank you Mr. Dunlap. It's always nice to see someone using the information I post and doing well with it.

Blind pins AND a Damascus frame?????
You go brother! Nice work.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Joshua States

[Joshua States]

I did some leather work on a sheath over the weekend. This little Ulu I made as part of the 1 cubic inch challenge works wonderfully well as a head knife.

 

[Conan Dunlap]

2 hours ago, Joshua States said:

Thank you Mr. Dunlap. It's always nice to see someone using the information I post and doing well with it.

Blind pins AND a Damascus frame?????
You go brother! Nice work.

Thanks for all of you help to us newbies.  Although at 50 that seems funny to say.

[Jaro Petrina]

Hunting knife.

[Jaro Petrina]

Its actually forged 52100. The tang is fully taperred. 

[Joshua States]

Inspired by the holdfast video/thread that Niels Provos put up, I reworked my Pritchel hold down. It hardened up nicely too!

 

 

[Brian Dougherty]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:45 PM, Alan Longmire said:

Nothing fancy, just a ca. 1981 Daisy Powerline 880. 

Nice.  It makes sense since we are contemporaries, but had the same BB gun growing up.

[Joshua States]

I had a very busy and productive day. It helps that I have half-finished projects lying around collecting dust.....So I started a new project (KITH entry) and spent some time working on my Dirk handle while the KITH stuff was in the tempering oven.

[Bill Schmalhofer]

Finishing up two weeks off of work and spent some time (after repainting the bathroom ) working on finishing some projects.

 

Finished a retirement present for a friend of mine at work. 15N20 and 80CrV2 twist. Nickle silver and Patagonian rosewood handle.

 

The rose pommeled bodice sgian dubh ordered by my brother for his wife. Stones (just CZ - brother couldn't afford real ones) are the birthstone of the family. "Imitation ivory" bolster, padauk handle, nickle silver rose (thanks @jake clelandfor the inspiration!).

 

Re-discovered an old tool I had (laser plumb bob) which works GREAT for helping aligning things. Can't remember who first posted about using the laser on the miter saw (blanket thank you!), but that was the inspiration for trying this as I don't have a laser guided miter saw...

 

Then made an EDC from a piece of the first canister damascus I made. 1095 garage door springs and 1080+2% nickle powder. Handle is a bit out of proportion for the blade size, but it fits real nice in my hand and is super comfortable. Bolster is 304 SS / G10 and wood is desert ironwood.

 

Been a busy two weeks. Man, I can't wait until retirement...

[Alan Longmire]

1 hour ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

laser plumb bob

 

Cheating!  

 

That's actually such a good idea I might have to steal it.  Just need the laser first. 

 

I really like that first one, very classic design.

[Bill Schmalhofer]

3 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

That's actually such a good idea I might have to steal it.  Just need the laser first. 

 

I really like that first one, very classic design.

Well I already stole it myself so...

The gentleman who came up with the idea makes scissors.He uses it to align the blades. Wish I could remember his name to thank him. It really helped a lot.

 

Mine is a Craftsman. I've had it for about 22 years.

 

Thanks on the compliment.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Bill Schmalhofer

[jake cleland]

I've been house/dog sitting for my sister all week, so I've been limited to carving. First this seax/tanto hybrid I started many moons ago. Ringerike style foliate knots on each side of the boxwood handle, and a long braid on each side of the walnut scabbard:

 

 

 

 

 

And then the figured walnut handle for the first basket hilt:

 

[Joshua States]

9 hours ago, Bill Schmalhofer said:

Finished a retirement present for a friend of mine at work

This is a really nice knife. Well done.

 

3 hours ago, jake cleland said:

this seax/tanto hybrid

This is getting to be a thing around the forum. The handle is supurb Jake.

[Aiden CC]

I tried out a different way of securing a tang. I think I made it a bit too thick and maybe a touch too long to fully embed, but I’m pretty happy with it! It’s a wrought iron tang welded onto a hearth steel blade. 
 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Aiden CC

[Alan Longmire]

I was wondering who among us would be the first to try that.  Well done! 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Zip, zilch, nada, nothing & niks for several weeks, barely done with the last round of covid when I dared ask the doc about some other issues that seemed to set off a medical avalanche 
They are now done with me and whatever else is wrong will be ignored.

 

Saturday I hope to start with a project that I would not normally consider, but it's a barter arrangement and I really like my end of the deal.

Good friend wants to put a new blade on that I consider to be a German style hunting knife that he got from his grandfather.  The existing blade is rather small and worn out.

He was a bit disappointed when I pointed out the main part of the handle is plastic (or something), not ivory......

My biggest concern is getting the handle off in one piece and setting up the new tang for the screw in the pommel, but looking forward to it!

 

[jake cleland]

Been working on a Bauenwehr for the past week for another facebook makes challenge. Today I took the tape off the blade and did the foundation polish to get a look at the hamon:

 

 

forged from 1095, steel bolsters, bridges and nagel sculpted into the shape of a hand. Massur birch scales.

[Conan Dunlap]

I made some W's steel last weekend and today I cut the notches out of ot, forged it flat and gave it a test etch to see if it worked.  I think is OK, but it seems like I have a ladder pattern looking quality to one side and some sections that look parallel instead of W's.  I suspect that my problem was cutting the notches.  I did it with a grinder and they weren't exactly even.  Anyway thanks again to Mr. States for the tutorial.  

[Guy Thomas]

Stood staring into space in the middle of my shop... and then looked down and saw the detachable work table for my Grizzly metal cutting bandsaw sitting in plain sight on an open shelf right in front of me. I've been looking for it for months!

I then processed a bunch of old underwear into shop rags because... well using them whole was rather disturbing.

 

Edited July 18, 2022 by Guy Thomas

[Gerhard Gerber]

Started work Saturday on taking apart my friend's inherited knife to replace the blade.

With reading glasses on I realized the middle part of the handle is bone, not some plastic as I first suspected.
Got the pommel nut out easy, glue gave us a bit of a fight but we got the tang out without breaking anything.

Copied the tang onto paper and designed a new blade, cut that out of a piece of 80CRV2 and ground the bevels.

There's a potential issue with how the handle will go together that we need to sort out, he had somebody weld in a new thread on the end of the tang, and coming Saturday we'll heat treat the blade.

 

[Brian Dougherty]

It isn't knife related, but I filled hole in a collection today.  Almost 20 years ago I bought a Springfield 1903 and halfheartedly thought it would be cool to piece together the major US rifles.  Today I finally put an M1 Carbine in the rack.  None of these are high grade examples, but there is an 03, and 03A3, an M1917, a Springfield made lend lease Enfield, a Garand and the Carbine.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Brian Dougherty

[Gerhard Gerber]

10 hours ago, Brian Dougherty said:

It isn't knife related, but I filled hole in a collection today.  Almost 20 years ago I bought a Springfield 1903 and halfheartedly thought it would be cool to piece together the major US rifles.  Today I finally put an M1 Carbine in the rack.  None of these are high grade examples, but there is an 03, and 03A3, an M1917, a Springfield made lend lease Enfield, a Garand and the Carbine.

 

 

If I was living in the US of A I would be a poor man with A LOT of guns........nice!