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Next attempt at a mosaic


Brian Dougherty
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Ok, I'm too excited about this to not share it.  I'm working on my second attempt at mosaic pattern, and just got my first glimpse of the pattern.

I'm kind of bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas right now...

IMG_20190104_160122681.jpg

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-Brian

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Very nice. I like it. If I tried it would look like a cat coughed up a hairball.

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9 minutes ago, Alan Longmire said:

WooHoo!  Gary has really lit a fire under you, hasn't he?  B)

Most definitely!   I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for all the "How to's" he has posted.

 

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-Brian

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Looks like yer gittin it figgerd..............................Nice !!

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If ya can't be good don't git caught  !!                                        People who say stuff can't be done need to

                                                                                                        git the hell outta the way of people who do stuff   !!!

Show me a man who is called an expert by his peers         

And I will show you a good man to listen to ......

Show me a man who calls himself an expert

and I will show you an egotistical asshole...............!!

 

                             

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Thanks everyone!

I may as well show my progress as I complete the knife.  I got the final polishing of the blade done, but am still working on getting the etch to where I like it, so I don't have any new pics of the it yet.

Here are a few pictures of drilling holes for the blind pins for the bolsters, and shaping the forward edge of the bolsters.

I use superglue to alternately hold each roughly shaped bolster in place while I drill blind holes.  Then I use temporary pins and superglue to hold the two bolsters together while I shape the forward edge.  These will eventually be soldered to the blade with the pins being primarily for allignment.

At this point, the front edge of the bolsters are shaped and sanded to 800 grit.  I'll buff them, and solder to the blade once the etching is done.  All of the other bolster surfaces will get shaped with the rest of the handle, so they have been left unfinished.

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-Brian

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Lovely blade Brian. Your bolster clamp is a g-clamp and pliers? 

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"The way we win matters" (Ender Wiggins) Orson Scott Card

 

Nos, qui libertate donati sumus, nes cimus quid constet.

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4 hours ago, Charles du Preez said:

Lovely blade Brian. Your bolster clamp is a g-clamp and pliers? 

Yes, it is an oddly shaped, but stout little pair of pliers :)

 

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-Brian

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Well, one piece of advice that I forgot to pass on to you all was to make sure you were rounding off the correct edge.  Somehow I managed to mess this up and round over the edge that buts up against the wood :rolleyes:  Here are the messed up bolsters...

IMG_20190109_193947735.jpg

So I made another set of bolster blanks,  and rounded the correct face this time...

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Then it was time to solder them to the blade.  I decided to try using Liquid Paper as a solder block based on someone's suggestion in the recent thread about using it as an anti-scale material.  Without a solder block, I usually end up with some solder weeping out from the front edge of the bolsters, and I don't like trying to clean it up without messing up the finish.  Here is a shot of the parts ready to be soldered.

IMG_20190109_200228099.jpg

And finally, the bolsters soldered in place.  I'm happy to report that the Liquid Paper worked great!  The blade is wrapped up in a paper towel soaked in Windex to keep it cool.

IMG_20190109_200646262.jpg

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-Brian

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4 hours ago, Brian Dougherty said:

Then it was time to solder them to the blade.  I decided to try using Liquid Paper as a solder block based on someone's suggestion in the recent thread about using it as an anti-scale material.  Without a solder block, I usually end up with some solder weeping out from the front edge of the bolsters, and I don't like trying to clean it up without messing up the finish.  Here is a shot of the parts ready to be soldered.

And finally, the bolsters soldered in place.  I'm happy to report that the Liquid Paper worked great!  The blade is wrapped up in a paper towel soaked in Windex to keep it cool.

That's why this place is so amazing.......I now need to find wholesale amounts of Tipp-Ex.......but you'be potentially saved me hours in the future, thanks @Brian Dougherty

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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.

 IMG_20190112_102321498.jpg

 

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It works really well for cleaning up the inside edge.  Unfortunately, I don't know who to credit the idea to :(

 

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-Brian

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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.

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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.

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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.

   IMG_20190112_181239836.jpg

Edited by Brian Dougherty

-Brian

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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".

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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.

IMG_20190114_071924440.jpg

Edited by Brian Dougherty
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-Brian

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