OK guys, here is the official thread for the Sharpfinger KITH. We had enough interest from the feeler thread to get this going so here we go.

Theme is Sharpfinger knives with sheath included.

That being said the only guideline we established is best quoted from Recurve: we will be "allowing artistic freedom as long as it stays in the spirit of the name "sharp finger". A sharp tool that acts like the extension of the hand.

Open class on all materials for blade, handle, accessories, and sheath - anything goes.

If you are a in-process picture taker, by all means keep them coming. Everybody loves pictures! Plus it can add to the excitement of this thing and lure in some new entries.

Everybody should understand that since this description is SOOOO broad, you have a TON of breathing room for your interpretation. I know a couple of us who have already started our knives have gone with a more traditional "sharpfinger" design, similar to the old timer/schrade sharpfinger. You are by no means required to make a knive that looks anything like this - as long as you can justifiably consider the design suitable for the same purposes.

Due date will be Aigust 1st, 2012.

Anyone is free to join - pros and newbies alike- , and late entries are always welcome. I will maintain the participant list at the end of this post, and update as people enter/drop.

On August 1st, we will have a roll call of everyone who completed in time, and I'll throw those names into the random number generator. Everyone should post the picture of their finished knife and sheath during this roll-call. Results will be posted by the end of August 2nd - just to give everyone a chance to jump online and chime in they are finished.

After names are drawn and posted, everyone should contact who they will be sending their knife to in order to get mailing addresses.


Each knife maker will be responsible for paying shipping on their knives to the new owner.

Now rules:

1. No kit knives - you need to make your blade from whatever raw material you choose

2. No "online printable" designs - everyone should come up with their own design.

3. All knives must be shipped within 3 days of names being posted (by august 5th)

4. To be included in final drawing, you must post up a pic of your completed knife as proof of eligibility.

5. Do your best, have fun, and everybody wins!!!






Entries: as of July 6

The Slacker
Recurve
Kostoglotov
Metal99
Fuzzy
Tuskbuster
Ncrobb
Jawilliams0426
Eli Jensen
Goldsmithy
Ctdflyboy

If I'm missing anyone, please chime in.

Awsome!!! Glad to see this 2012 KITH is on the road!!! This is going to be a fun project. Here is my design I have the blade roughed out I need to grind the bevels in and its heat treat time. Cant wait to see what other come up with for this KITH.

Julius

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5599.jpg

sign me up please

Your in. 7 already, this is shaping up to be a good group.

I just finished profiling my finger... And the blade. Will post up a pic when I have a chance.

Right on Slacker :) cant wait to see it. What kind of steel did you use?

It's 1/8" D2 tool steel. I hate working with it, but I have quite a bit of it, and it makes a fantastic knife blade. Pain in the butt to work though!

<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/mbufford/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_1012.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/mbufford/IMG_1012.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I don't know much about d2 but I do like the fact that it is ground like o1 :) The 1095 i have is hot rolled. D2 is a semi stainless? What do you use to cut and profile your blades?

it is nice to have stock that is already faced. The best part is, I wordered several feet of it from onlinemetals.com and I ordered the oversized to save money. They ended up sending me precision ground, so I ordered some more. And again they sent me precision ground! But sure, I saved some money there, but this stuff destroys belts and saw blades, so I might as well be using expensive stainless. :rolleyes:

For profiling I just lay my pattern cut out on the blade and blast with a few squirts of spray paint. Once dry, I go to the band saw and do a rough cut out. Then to the band saw on a 36 grit belt to finish the profile. Debur with 120 grit, and then on to beveling.

Unfortunately, I got my new pyro ceram platen in yesterday... and I broke it :banghead

I ordered a new one, but since I already removed my other platen liner I can't do any flat grinding until it comes in.

Oh well

Sweet man :) What kind of belt grinder do you have? I use a 3" cut off wheel to rough cut the shape then finish up with my dremel and files . . . I have about 3 hours into mine and yours is already further along. Another 3 or so hours with a file and i should have bevels put in lol. I was going to grind them in but the bench grinder is a bad idea.

I have the grizzly knife grinder. Only $500, but it does leave some to be desired. But for someone of my limited skill level, it is fine. I'd imagine I'll upgrade after a couple years or so. I have a lot of tools to buy before then. At the top of the list is a ht oven!

I bet the grizly is alot better then my dremel :) lol Ya man a heat treat oven would be really nice to have. There not very affordable for me tho. I'm slowly saving up for a kmg.

I would love to have a KMG! hell, even a no weld grinder or a GIB. But the cost of a griz plus an evenheat oven is still less than a KMG!

Ya man there not cheap. I dont know if I am going to buy an actual KMG or make the clone. I was also looking at the BEE grinder but anyways there a long tome away yet so lots of thinking time yet.

I'm in. Don't expect a masterpiece; I only have five completed knives under my belt but each one shows some improvement.

Robb

I'm in. Don't expect a masterpiece; I only have five completed knives under my belt but each one shows some improvement.

Robb

Its all good man, I only have one under my belt :)

I'm in. Don't expect a masterpiece; I only have five completed knives under my belt but each one shows some improvement.

Robb

I got ya in.

Lots of us rookies in here. No worries about that!

I got some work done on my KITH knife today. Ready to send to heat treat! I can't wait to get my own oven.


<IMG SRC="http://www.capnosknives.com/MyWorkbench/image9.PNG" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="400">

<IMG SRC="http://www.capnosknives.com/MyWorkbench/image10.PNG" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300">

<IMG SRC="http://www.capnosknives.com/MyWorkbench/image12.PNG" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="300">

Looks good so far. Original handle, very nice.

Lookin good Slacker!

So far all I have is some pencil lines on white paper :( . But I have an idea of what I want to do.

Robb

Plenty of time left. I have no reason for moving fast other than I have other projects in line so I need to knock this out.

Lots of time left :) I bet I will be the last guy to finish because I have to do all the work with a file :) lol.

Hey Slacker, do you think the sears 2x42 belt sander would be worth the money to start out? its around the 150 mark

When all you have are handfiles, I would say any sander would be worth it's weight in gold. I still have 1x30 that I started with - mostly for sharpening. But if you have the cash handy the bigger craftsman would be very useful. And after you get your KMG, your craftsman would become a backup for doing handle work and sharpening. I think you can find some decent deals on eBay or Craigslist.

Cool man, I think I might get it on pay day then :)

Lots of time left :) I bet I will be the last guy to finish because I have to do all the work with a file :) lol.

Hey Slacker, do you think the sears 2x42 belt sander would be worth the money to start out? its around the 150 mark

It is a good one to start with, I started out with it and I still use it alot. For the price you can't complain. If you upgrade it is still a great piece for the shop to do sanding, profiling and everything you ask of it. IMHO

Right on :) can you get a good variety of belts for it?

check out pops knife supply online. I know he has some 2x42 belts. Not sure which ones available, but I would imagine you could get all of the basic grit sizes from him.

Will do man :) I'm kicking myself for selling my drill press now . . . I had so many tools when I had my garage at the old place that I sold when we moved into the appartment . . . really missing them now.

Right on :) can you get a good variety of belts for it?

Yes at supergrit.com I have delt with for a while and they have done me right every time.

But you do realize that once you start grinding the fever will get a hold on you and you will want a bigger better machine.

Think I will throw myself in for this KITH. I love them, usually I have had to pull out but know I can get one done by July.

Trust me man I already have the "I need a bigger grinder" fever lol AND I DONT EVEN HAVE A GRINDER!!! lol I have been looking at alot of adds hoping to find the right deal. I even sold a bunch of tools that I dont need any more to put in the piggy bank for the belt grinder :)

Ja, got u on the list.


Can't wait to see what You guys are coming up with!

Mine still needs bevels put in and I have to find a heat treater in my area because I don't want to deal with 1095 at the moment lol. Pics coming after my ice cream is done lol

Here are a couple pictures of my KITH knife and one other I am working on. These were taken at my kitchen table it is the closest thing I have to a shop at the moment . . . oh well.

Pretty much all the work I do on these knives is done with the files, I have a dremel but honestly I have more fun doing it by hand and feel I get better results. A belt grinder would be a totally different story lol

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5668.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5669-1.jpg

Looking good! Keep it up,

working on mine profiled and ground ready for heat treat. Havent figured out pictures yet but maybe by july.

Right on fuzzy :) for pictures I upload them to photobucket and post the image link on here

yeah, photobucket makes everything real easy. If you have trouble figuring out how to do it, you could email me your pictures, and I'll post them up for you.

Well i'm not very happy right now . . . just got back from sears and they said the 2x42 belt sander is USA sears only . . . I looked around the city and can only find a 1x42 but i dont know if i want that . . .

Will they not ship to you from online either?

I would try calling their customer service and seeing if they could work it out with you.

If you have a grainger close to you you could get this one. I know Grainger has a Canadian counterpart so you could get lucky. Its over $200, but still well below the $500 +shipping for the grzzly knife grinder.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON-BeltDisc-Sander-6Y945?cm_mmc=CSE:GoogleBase-_-Power%20Tools-_-Finishing%20Tools-_-6Y945&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=6Y945

Thats not a bad looking machine man. We have an Acklands Grainger here wich i think might be the "same" thing. I'll call them monday. It just sucks because I have so much time to work this weekend but no sander lol. I made a bunch of micarta today hopefully that stuff turns out :)

metal99 alot of knifemaking stuff is hard to find locally, i ended up ordering a grizzly a couple years ago and its worh every penny. if you ever need any help just let me know.

So I looked on the acklands site and they don't carry that grinder in Canada . . .

What would you guys think about a 1x42 grinder to start with? I found a used one for 90 bucks looks like brand new!

metal99 alot of knifemaking stuff is hard to find locally, i ended up ordering a grizzly a couple years ago and its worh every penny. if you ever need any help just let me know.

I might end up going that rout because I cant find anything I like here. Where in SK are you from man?

It would really depend on what the HP is pushing the belt. The BIGGEST complaint I have about my 1x30 is that it stalls if I use any real pressure against the platen. If I remember correct it is only 1/3 hp, so anything over that would be a useful upgrade. I have seen several 1x42 belts available, so I doubt you would have much of a problem in that arena.

Only thing that would bother me about you going that route... is I know how it ends. You're already making knives without a grinder, so if you get one and you dont want to use it anymore because it isn't strong enough, and you dont want to go back to the dremel and files... then you are upgrading 3 weeks later.

I have to agree with Terence. I love my griz. Bang for the buck you cant find a better deal on a grinder. Sure, it has it's limitations, which will reveal themselves the more things you try to do... but there are ways around just about all of them.

If you were willing to drop the 220 for the grainger one, I'd say just keep using files for another pay period at work, then go ahead and get the grizzly. It would be worth the wait.

On the other hand, I'm sure a Bader would be worth the wait too - but I'm not that patient.

decisions decisions

Ya "decisions decisions" is right man, some days I wish there just were no choices to be made when buying tools lol. Here are a couple pictures of the micarta I made yesterday!

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5706.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5702.jpg

Looks usable from what I can see. Mine looked similar until I trimmed all of the edges back about a half inch. after trimming, cut off a test piece and contour it out, and see what you've got!

I was going to do that but I only had half an hour to run to the shop, unclamp everything, clean up my mess and get back to my parents place. So I only had enough time to sand down the one edge lol. I will do some more tomorrow to see what it really looks like :) I like the way your micarta turned out.

I think I might end up using micarta on the KITH because I dont want to have to worry about non stabilized wood getting wrecked or warping and all that stuff.

I hear ya. A few weeks ago I started a batch of bolivian rosewood in a minwax wood hardener "stabilization" It has been curing for a couple weeks now, so once i find some time I'll do some testing on those slabs and see how resilient it is. If it isn't a winner, I'll likely do my KITH with my micarta too.

Slacker, I have spent the past year trying to master stabilizing wood. I have read alot about minwax wood hardener but the problem is with the very small amount of solids left behind. I think its around the 80% solvent range so thats not leaving much. I have also tried the "plexitone" soup where you disolve acrylic plastic in acetone and use a vac chamber to suck all the air out of the wood. Same problem, only a little bit of that soup is solids so that doesnt work well either. I have some special polyester resin that is for vac-bagging fiberglass parts it has a fairly long open time of over an hour. I got some penitration with that stuff but an hour is not long enough to stabilize wood. There is a product I would love to try called misquite mans "cactus juice" It only looses 0.01% of its weight when hardened. Its about 100 american for a galon but if it truely works like he claims it does its alot less money then paying 50 bucks for enough to do one knife. Here's the link to the "cactus juice"

If shipping to Canada wasn't almost the same price as the galon I would buy it right now.

http://www.turntex.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=121

Slacker, what kind of canvas did you use for your micarta? I looked around the city here and all i can get for cotton canvas is the natural color light tan stuff. I can get colored canvas but its polyester and i'm not sure how well that would work.

As unmanly as it is i had to go to Jo-ann fabrics to get the canvas I used for mine. look for duck cloth, or duck canvas. They had at least 7 different colors, I purchased tan olive black red and blue.

Now is that cotton or polyester?

Metal99. I'm farm in the lashburn area. East of lloydminister.

Cool man but at the same time it kinda sucks being a knife maker in this provence doesnt it lol.

Metal, I got the same stuff from the same place. Duck cloth or duck canvas is all cotton, dyed canvas. But from what I've read, micarta can be made from virtually anything. If all ele fails, get some cheap bed sheets in the colors you want and do it that way.

I was planning on making linen micarta my next voyage into the fiberglass realm.

I have all the fine cotton I would ever need to make the micarta I just prefer the heavy canvas look. I found duck cloth at the art store but its just tan colored . . . they dont carry the colored stuff. I found some colored water proofe treated canvas but I can just imagine how well that would work lol.

I'm slowly getting more and more money in the piggy bank for the belt grinder. If get enough for a griz before I find a local one I am going to order it :)

If you can only get tan duck cloth get some rit dye and make it whatever color you want.
Most grocery stores carry it and its only a couple bucks.

How hard/messy is dying fabric?

It's really not that bad. Just a big pot to boil in and some RIT dye from Walmart.

Cool man maybe I will give it a go this weekend :)

So does anybody els have any progress to share with us on the KITH?

I picked up some polester and acrylic fabric for making awnings and boat covers today. I don't know if they will work or not but my fingers are crossed

From what I have read polyester and acrylic might not be the best materials to use for the micarta. It is my understanding that the material has to absorb the resin and polyester dosent seem to fit the bill. If fabric stores are in short supply hit a few garage sales this weekend, denim jeans aren't as "heavy" as canvas but a few bucks should net you enough for a few dozen handles

I'm not counting on on it working but I don'T TRY i will always be wondering lol. I just rwally like the look of a heavy material being used like canvas. I will most likely pick up some dye this weekend and have a go at making some cool colors :)

It didn't work the greatest . . . I bought a 1x42 belt sander and 20 belts last night for 100 :) Its an older rockwell and seems to be in pretty decent shape.

Awesome. That should be a lot quicker than files!! Any progress on the blade?

Definatly wrecks blades fast! Wow is free hand grinding bevels hard . . . I'm practicing on one of my own blades and I am glad it was not the kith knife. No more progress on the knife for the kith yet but this weekend I SHOULD have it ready for heat treating.

Yeah definitely a learning curve there. I do know several people will still use files to establish their plunge cuts since that part can be tricky on a grinder.

Can't wait to see it

I ended up doing a slight convex grind all the way to the spine on that knife I was practicing on it looks really bad . . .

I hear ya. I've screwed up my fair share of blades too. But the great thing about screwed up grinds is you can just keep grinding and learning on them. Though your original plan for that blade may be shot, it can be made into a different blade while gaining experience.

Maybe if you beefed up the platen on your grinder you could have better luck. After I put pyroceram on my 2x72 platen, the difference was immediately apparent with my flat grinds

Definatly wrecks blades fast! Wow is free hand grinding bevels hard . . . I'm practicing on one of my own blades and I am glad it was not the kith knife. No more progress on the knife for the kith yet but this weekend I SHOULD have it ready for heat treating.

Ok here is some advice take it with the grain of salt. Try a file guild to set and straighten out bevels. I use one and I know for a fact that there are several Mastersmiths that use them. When I get a bevel that is rounded I can use a file to straighten it out.

Like they say man practice is key. The platen on this thing is flimsy, springy and not straight so thats one mod I have to do asap.

Ok here is some advice take it with the grain of salt. Try a file guild to set and straighten out bevels. I use one and I know for a fact that there are several Mastersmiths that use them. When I get a bevel that is rounded I can use a file to straighten it out.

Thanks for the advice but what is a file guild exactly?

Click link and it will show you what one is, I will try to get a picture of one in use.

http://www.riversidemachine.net/productCat4554_1.ctlg

When I get a chance I will pm you a link for one.

So that guide is for getting the ricasso lines straight? I was actually thinking about making something just like that out of some o1 then hardening it.

O1 will work very nicely, basic difference that I have seen is they have carbon guilds. Make sure it is hardened.

Super busy weekend I had to get all my stuff out of storage because it was starting to cost me way to much. I met a knife maker here in Saskatoon and spent a few hours at his house on saturday. I ended up getting some micarta, 2 sets of stabilized king wood scales,2 coco bolo scale sets, desert iron wood (3 slabs 10 inches long 3.5 inches wide) and a bunch of spacer material. I got all that for 120 :) Where I saved the big money was with the iron wood I should have enough for about 5 sets of scales if I play my cards right :)

Sure wish I could play fellas, but this little project is keeping me pretty busy...
14' mahogany outboard made from plans.
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4879/imag0658.jpg
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4040/imag0659k.jpg

Thats quite the project man! My dad made a strip canue once and that took a loooong time.


Well my file guide is pretty much done I just have to harden it. Now when I harden it should I put some bolts in the threaded holes to prevent excess scale build up in the threads? Have any of you guys ordered from usaknifemaker? The local'ish store we have here is pretty picked over so I was thinking of making an order from the other side of the border but I'm not sure where to order from.

Thats quite the project man! My dad made a strip canue once and that took a loooong time.


Well my file guide is pretty much done I just have to harden it. Now when I harden it should I put some bolts in the threaded holes to prevent excess scale build up in the threads? Have any of you guys ordered from usaknifemaker? The local'ish store we have here is pretty picked over so I was thinking of making an order from the other side of the border but I'm not sure where to order from.

I didn't when I made mine. I don't know if usaknifemaker carries them but I do know Riverside machine shop does.

http://www.riversidemachine.net/item576493.ctlg

And Ed Caffery just ordered some from Bruce Bump. Contact him through his webside.

USA knife maker has taken lots of my money! Tracy has one of the best selections I've seen, and he is a pleasure to deal with. I definitely recommend buying from them. I bought my oven through them, and even heat finally shipped it today.

Knife kits has some good stuff too, but all I've ordered from them is my kydex since they seem to have the best selection of that available.

Alpha knife supply is a great store, but their materials are kind of hit or miss - just depends on what they have in stock.


On the file guide, I wouldn't ht with bolts in because they could seize up. With the natural expansion and distortion of metals (especially two different metals), you would likely never get them out. Maybe you could try pickling out the scale overnight and then making another pass with your tap... Not sure if it would work, just a thought. But I could be totally wrong on that.



Btw, I haven't had any time to work on my kith since it got done heat treating - been busy with a couple orders I'm trying to push out. I hope to make some leeway this weekend.

Ok I will just harden them seperatly then. I did some hardening tests on an old pry bar I had and it hardened up really well so I just used that to make the file guide. I was going to use o1 but I wanted something a little thicker. Took me about give or take 3 hours to make. The only power tool used was my drill. The rest I did with files and sand paper at my kitchen table :)

Slacker, I have an order made with usaknifemaker right now lol. Have you used the stabilized wood they sell? I have never heard of the company that does the stabilizing for them. I have some wssi stabilized thuya burl, amboyna burl and black vavona burl on the way here too :)

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5726.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5723.jpg

My hardening was a huge fail for some reason. My test piece was nice and hard but I made a mistake when hardening the file guide. I hardened both parts at the same time so I think it heated up the oil to fast. These days it seems that everything is a speed bump for me lol.

Anybody have any progress to share with the KITH? Cant wait to see some pictures!!!

I have a fairly big order of g10,micarta,stabiliced wood and some steel coming :)

Bummer about the hardening being botched.

I haven't tried any of their woods yet. I buy most of my wood from my local woodcraft store. I'm not a big fan of stabilized woods because of the plasticy look to them, but I did see some black locust on alpha knife supply that looks absolutely awesome I wouldn't mind trying.


I managed to do the descaling and finishing on my kith knife today while doing the rest of my current batch. I should have a handle on it sometime next week.

<<img src="http://www.capnosknives.com/MyWorkbench/image18.PNG" border="0"></a>

if I can see my face in it, it must be shiny.

Thats awsome man do you have any tips on grinding the bevels? Thats my goal this weekend. I'm going to use the file guide the way it is and eventually just face it with some o1. That D2 that you use I did some reading about it and what is it? Some people say stainless, some say semi stainless but when I saw the makup of it, it seemed like a high aloy tool steel.

Grinding bevels... I'm far too amateur to be offering advice on that. I read tons of tutorials and practices on several scrap pieces. Just time and repetition I guess.


D2 is a little of all you said. It is a HC tool steel with a good amount of chromium in it, just not enough to deem it stainless - hence the "almost stainless monaker". I love d2 knives, but I'm not a huge fan of shaping it!

I will have to practice a bit more before doing my finger knife lol. It just sucks that belts are so much money. Whats it like to heat treat?

It's easy to heat treat by sending to Texas knife supply! I don't get my over for a couple more days, so I haven't done my own HTs yet. Seems pretty straight forward from the recipies I've seen.

I did some more work on the file guide today, I cant wait to try it out on the blades! I made 2 o1 tool steel faces to put onto the guide because I couldnt get the guide to harden. I even quenched it in water . . . When I made the o1 faces I was playing around with the heat treat on some scraps and did some quenches in water and honestly it turned out great! I thought for sure it would have cracked but it hardened up really well :)

I ground down some of that micarta that I made and I really dont like it. There are thousands of white spots in it I think its from the fabric. I checked the resin and it was pretty free of debris. What are the odds that black cotton T-shirts would have lots of white particles in them?? Here is a pic so you can see for yourself lol.

Without the white spots this stuff looks really good but I cant use this on anything . . .

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5752.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5754.jpg

Well I was just going to file in the bevels on the finger but. . . . after 8 hours of filing I still had a little bit to go so I used the belt grinder to finish it. But before that I practiced on another knife I'm making. here is a picture of the knife i'm making for a friend, this is the second knife I have free hand ground.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5798.jpg

Here is the Finger after I filed the bevels in
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5772.jpg

and here is the finger after I finished up the bevels with the grinder :)
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5789.jpg

I'm getting pretty confident with my free hand grinding and that file guide works great with the belt sander too!!! It just scuffs up the surface but doesnt really eat into that hardened o1.

You guys are way ahead of me. I have my design and the blade is profiled. I bought a NWG from a guy and I am trying to figure out how to use it. I may just grab the files and get on with it.

Robb

Metal99 it is looking good.

ncrobb try useing some scrape steel to start out with on your new grinder or even wood. It will help, been where you are at and screwing up a blade can be very frustrating.

Going to profile mine out tonight and start grinding

Nice lines metal! That file guide seems to be doing the trick very well.


Good to see some progress from u guys.



Pictures???...... Anyone else?

Thanks Slacker!! the file guide is the best tool I have made yet!!! Thanks for telling me about it jawilliams0425!!!!!!!!!!!


Would love to see some more pictures!!!!

Well, 13 beer and a crap load of time in my shop (kitchen table :) ) lol I almost have 2 knives ready for heat treat. A little more sanding and then I have to drill the holes for the pins. I tried my hand at file work today and I don't know what it is but I can get lost in time when I'm playing around with this stuff.

Here is a picture of the knife I'm making for a friend of mine. I just did a small section of vine on the blade of his. I'm not sure if I will do the whole spine yet or not. I think it turned out ok since it was the very first time I have done anything like this.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5802.jpg

Here is the file work I did on the KITH knife today :) this was a bit harder to do because this knife is made from thinner steel then the first one I filed on.
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5834.jpg

Last but not least, here is the finished blade of the KITH knife. I have it sanded down to 220 grit ready for HT!!!!
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/CIMG5816.jpg

Great job. Thought just crossed my mind seeing that picture. The choil looks a lot like a bottle opener. Was that intentional or just an accidental bonus?


Looking good

It does look like a bottle opener! Didn't even notice that lol maybe i'll draw the temper out a little more in that spot just in case somebody tries to use it to open a bottle lol

My KITH update.


<<img src="http://www.capnosknives.com/MyWorkbench/image22.PNG" border="0"></a>


I'm loving how this is turning out. I might have to make several more of the same design for sale. The blackwood is awesome looking, and in this picture is only sanded to 150!

I like it man, good job!!! Is black wood the same as ebony or is it different? I'm still not sure what to use for a handle on mine. Here is what I have to choose from.

Blue black G-10
Multicam G-10
Snowcam G-10
Black canvas micarta
Black Linen micarta
Brown linen micarta
Stabilized kingwood
Arizona desert ironwood
Coco bolo
Bocote
Zebrawood
Ebony
Bloodwood
Stabilized Thuya Burl
Stabilized Amboyna Burl
Stabilized Black Vavona Burl
Bubinga
Rosewood
purple heart ORRRR
My home made micarta

What do you guys think? To many choices really . . .

Where are most of the other members? Havent heard from a few of you in some time now. Lets see some pictures!!!!!

That is quite a collection of materials!


I'd love to see the zebra wood on there. But any of the woods you have would look nice. Personally I see micarta and g10 as more of a "utility" handle. I see sharpfingers as one of the more elegant knives.

Black wood is very similar to ebony in density and oiliness. Ebony has darker tones than black wood, but black wood is more uniform in color. Cost is about the same for either.

If I can find a way to "stabilize" the zebrawood I will use it. I'm just scared to use woods like that if they are for somebody els. Zebrawood looks really cool but warps bad. The stabilized blocks I have are almost to big to be used on such a small knife. I might save them for a stick tang knife like the old fighters.

I found another good deal today :) a 1720 rpm 1/2 horse buffer with 4 like new wheels for $100 its got the straight through arber so you can run 2 wheels at the same time.

I know there are a few places you can send it to stabilize. But considering this a knife you are giving away, I'm not sure how you would feel about the added expense. I'm sure any of the stabilized slabs you have would be fantastic

I have a crap load of spalted maple burl that I would love to send in to get stabilized. I just have to let it dry and slab it out. If you get WSSI to stabilize wood a friend of mine told me that its best to send in quite a bit so I might see if a couple people would want to go in on it.

still here knife for kith is finished I used purple heart for handle its not stabalized. will get pictures up soon. Now for the with sheath never done a sheath.

Right on man! Lets see some pictures!

Done with my KITH knife. Just needs a sheath and a sharpen, and it is ready to ship. The blackwood looks more brown right now, but as it oxidizes and ages, it will get darker, and eventually look black again.


<<img src="http://www.capnosknives.com/KnifeArchive/image11.PNG" border="0"></a>



<<img src="http://www.capnosknives.com/KnifeArchive/image10.PNG" border="0"></a>

Right on man :) really like your design, how does it feel in the hand?

Fits great in my hand. I think it will be a great skinner. It is a little handle heavy - which I planned for, but I'll take more metal out of the tang on future builds of this design. Overall it's a knife I would like to keep and use - I really like it.

I like it :)

I think I just heard crickets!!! lol sooo Hows everybody doin these days? I'm still waiting to heat treat mine . . . I have to drive out of town to use a drill press for the pins then I can heat treat it. I need to get out of this appartment . . . its depressing

Plenty of time to build another one then you could keep it! As time goes on there will a LOT of them you will want to keep and before long you'll end up with the worlds largest collection of your own knives! Been there done that! -Jim-



www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Plenty of time to build another one then you could keep it! As time goes on there will a LOT of them you will want to keep and before long you'll end up with the worlds largest collection of your own knives! Been there done that! -Jim-



www.shullhandforgedknives.com


Well actually I have a fantastic collection of knives I made that I use as samples of my work to show people. See that sounds better.:rockon:

Well, I got my new to me grinder up and running. I tore it apart, welded most of the joints (its a NWG I bought from the guy who originally built it) and painted it. I've been trying to figure out how to grind on it. Profiles are coming pretty easy but the bevel grind is wearing me out. Anyway I ended up making one reground to a pen knife blade and one very rare Sharpefinger throwing knife. I bounced it off the concrete and was lucky it didn't stick in anything, esp me. I finally got a halfway decent looking blade for my KITH project so I am back on track. I only ground it to 120 grit and then switched over to hand sanding tonight. That way I have less chance of messing it up. I would post a pic but that would take away the suspense of not knowing what the rookie was doing. I will say its 1/8" 1084 with black G10 handles. I have heat treated four blades with good results so the first chance I get I will light the coal in my back yard built forge.

Robb

Nice to see the thread back in action! I havent done anything els to mine yet. Just been really under the weather lately but I will finish it soon :)

Plenty of time to build another one then you could keep it! As time goes on there will a LOT of them you will want to keep and before long you'll end up with the worlds largest collection of your own knives! Been there done that! -Jim-



www.shullhandforgedknives.com


The only problem is, I want to keep all of them - and buy half of the knives I see on here! My wife doesn't like that too much.

I probably will make one of these for myself. The more I play with this knfe, the more I like it.

Well, I got my new to me grinder up and running. I tore it apart, welded most of the joints (its a NWG I bought from the guy who originally built it) and painted it. I've been trying to figure out how to grind on it. Profiles are coming pretty easy but the bevel grind is wearing me out. Anyway I ended up making one reground to a pen knife blade and one very rare Sharpefinger throwing knife. I bounced it off the concrete and was lucky it didn't stick in anything, esp me. I finally got a halfway decent looking blade for my KITH project so I am back on track. I only ground it to 120 grit and then switched over to hand sanding tonight. That way I have less chance of messing it up. I would post a pic but that would take away the suspense of not knowing what the rookie was doing. I will say its 1/8" 1084 with black G10 handles. I have heat treated four blades with good results so the first chance I get I will light the coal in my back yard built forge.

Robb

Ya im always scared that I will make all my knives into throwing knives on the grinder lol. I have heard some pretty scary stories about that happening. A knife maker that I have been talking to a lot here had a 12 inch blade chefs knife go flying on him just a few months ago when he was using his disk grinder. 1084 is suposed to be great for heat treating :) cant wait to see it man.


Slacker, I know what you mean about wanting to keep them... even the one that I am getting paid for is going to be tough to get rid of lol.

Each one you make will be just slightly better than the one before it, so you want to keep it even worse. after you've had it for awhile you will begin to see the slight imperfections in it and build the next just one step above. You will never be satisfied and that's what motivates you to keep going. The only thing that will ever slow you down is the lack of desire to finally find Excaliber. -Jim-


www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Each one you make will be just slightly better than the one before it, so you want to keep it even worse. after you've had it for awhile you will begin to see the slight imperfections in it and build the next just one step above. You will never be satisfied and that's what motivates you to keep going. The only thing that will ever slow you down is the lack of desire to finally find Excaliber. -Jim-


www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Well said, sir!

^^^ I second what Slacker said

I'm in, even though I haven't made blade yet. This should be fun. I plan on taking plenty of pictures and I'll post them---as soon as I learn how to do it quickly. :)

Do you guys mind if a complete rookie joins in...if not I'm in!!

Dont mind at all, it's open to everyone. I got you and goldsmithy on the list


Especially for another coastie! I'm a BM1 at MSST Galveston. Also did avionics on kc-130s for the marines a lifetime ago.

im here boys and aint forgot,they been keepin me busier than 2 year old stud horse in a roundpen full a OLD broodmares,ever time think im done 1 wants more:flame: ,mite have to wind up goin and gettin and OLD TIMER ,knockin the scales off,gluein some bone on ,callin er good but im still in.these cowboys around here been smokin my forge ,if ya call er that .done blowed all the thinset out from the firebrick.
the cave http://http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/okie44/004-5.jpg
and what they been smokinhttp://http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/okie44/018.jpg
http://http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/okie44/019.jpg

Still plenty of time. I'm lucky I got as much done as early as I did because I have barely had time to touch my kith lately. I just finished up the sheath for it this morning. So mine is just about ready to go - just gotta etch the blade. I'll have pics up shortly.

I'd love to see pics of progress from you guys.

pics of my entry finished up.

http://www.capnosknives.com/KITH/image1.PNG
http://www.capnosknives.com/KITH/image0.PNG
http://www.capnosknives.com/KITH/image2.PNG
http://www.capnosknives.com/KITH/image3.PNG

I showed you mine... now let me see yours!:spy:

Dont mind at all, it's open to everyone. I got you and goldsmithy on the list


Especially for another coastie! I'm a BM1 at MSST Galveston. Also did avionics on kc-130s for the marines a lifetime ago.

Thanks Slacker, I've only got one completed knife hopefully this one shows improvement and I don't embarass myself. Nice to know another Coastie on the sight.:rockon:

You'll see improvement on every knife you make. Just do the best job you can, and you won't likely hear any complaints; that's what a kith is all about. It's not about what you get out of it, it's the effort you put in that counts

Right on! Nice to see a couple more people joined up! :) I'm so behind its not funny lol. I went to my uncles house to drill the holes in the tang just to find out his drill press chuck doesn't run centered so that's not going to work for me. I don't want to try to drill them free hand either because well.... I know there is no way for me to drill a hole square to the blade. I have collected all the leather mworking stuff I need to make the sheath. Can't wait to try that out :)

Let's see some pictures!!!

I've finished the knife but not started the sheath. I am still thinking about how I want to do it. I went for the no frills, simple approach and it turned out pretty cool.

Robb

Metal - I'd go ahead and drill your tang holes freehand. Just oversize the tang holes slightly, they will fill in with epoxy when you scale on, and be nice and tidy.

And then, post some pictures!

Metal - I'd go ahead and drill your tang holes freehand. Just oversize the tang holes slightly, they will fill in with epoxy when you scale on, and be nice and tidy.

And then, post some pictures!

That's not a bad idea :) that way I can go ahead and heat treat them.

My Dad bought me a drill press at an auction :)

Awesome! That will definitely make life easier for you.


Anybody have any updates on their knives? Pictures perhaps? Btw, if some of you are having trouble figuring out how to post pics, email them to me and ill be happy to post them for you. Just title the email sharpfinger to mattbufford@hotmail.com

Sorry folks, I've been so far behind I just got the blade forged out last night after work. I should have some pics to post in a few days. That is one sweet rig you got there Slacker, somebody gonna be happy to get that puppy! - Jim -



www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Can't wait to see it man!

Slacker ya the drill press is going to kick some rear!!! Lol I won't be able to post many pics for a while so I might actually have to send them to you. My 2 year old daughter spilled a drink on my laptop :( before I could get the batterie out something inside fried and it smells burnt now.

Ouch! Gotta love the random destructiveness of young children. Mine is 5 years old, and still destroying; at least she knows to stay away from the work shop! Send the pics on, I'd be happy to throw them up for you.

Jim, thanks for the kind words. I cant wait to see yours.

just over 7 weeks to deadline. I'd imagine we will start seeing more pictures soon from the other participants... hopefully anyway

Thanks slacker I'll have some progress this week :)

Going to test out the new to me drill press today :)

K this might be a silly question but what are you guys using to clamp your blades to the drill press?

any drill press vice works great, but a cheaper option is a couple C clamps.

here are a couple pictures being posted for Metal99

Lookin good!

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/mbufford/photo.jpg

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/mbufford/photo1.jpg

Thanks Slacker :) now there's nothing holding me back from finishing this knife.

Do any of you guys use gauged drill bits for drilling holes for 1/4" pins? I just find that using the 1/4" bit makes for a really tight fitting pin and I don't want to split any scales.

The wood I am using is stabilized king wood. Its a simple wood but when polished up looks pretty good. I'm debating on brass or stainless for the pins. Not sure wich one I want to use yet. I tried making some mosaic pins but my epoxy is way to thick to flow through so for this knife I won't be able to :( i can either use 3 hollow stainless pins, 3 hollow brass pins or 2 solid brass pins and 1 hollow for the lanyard hole. What do you guys think?

any drill press vice works great, but a cheaper option is a couple C clamps.

I ended up using some spring clamps but still didn't seem very safe. I don't know how well I would be able to clamp a knife like this in a drillpress vice. I should have drilled all the holes before I finished the blade with 220 lol. Thanks again for posting my pics.

Still not sure about what pins to use... To many choices lol. I'm kinda leaning towards all stainless hollow pins. I think it would give an interesting twist to the knife. A little bit of modern on an old fashioned knife.

Kind of looks like you drilled all the holes large enough for tubing?

That wood looks good with both brass or stainless. But it would really pop with copper!

I drilled 1/4" holes. Ya man copper would really work well with kingwood. I might have to try to find some :)

Hey guys, I will not be able to participate. Life's too hectic right now. We're moving this week and then I'm going to Canada until July 31st. I might still make one cause I had a really awesome one planned out. Maybe then someone could swap me a knife outside of this KITH.

That's too bad man :( where abouts in Canada are you going?

Sorry to hear it.

I don't think it would be a problem finding someone to do a late swap with you. If noone else calls in sick, I'll trade one with you.

That shouldn't be a problem at all man. I would make a trade with you too but it would be a while. I have to make 4 more that are accounted for.

Well my sharp finger is now hardened :) its getting tempered right now. I got a decent hamon on it but it's on the small side so I don't know if I should re do the heat treat or not. The smallest "hard" part of the edge is just over 1/8" and the rest is a bit more till it gets to the tip where it got hard further in. I honestly don't see it being an issue as far as usability goes but it might look funny... It would take decades to sharpen that much of the edge away. What do you guys think?

Okay slight change of plans after thinkin about the hamon being so shallow. I just finished hardening it for the second time and am much happier about the hamon :) but it warped a little this time :( no big deal really, just another speed bump is all.

I'm going to Bissett, which is 3 hours north/northeast of Winnipeg. Boy Scouts has a staff shortage at their high adventure camp. So they are paying me to get float planned 30 miles into wilderness and canoe for a week in the cleanest waters on the planet where the scouts do all the cooking, cleaning, navigating, etc. My job is to keep them alive. Paid vacation or what?

Btw copper would pop, mine is going to be a custom bronze alloy I cooked up. Bronze is my new thing, but hamon will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart. Get a pic up!

Right on man :) I would love to go on a trip like that :) was it you that had the tread going about making bronze? I can't remember lol. The knife is cooking right now but tomorrow I will post a few pics for sure. I ended up getting a real nice straight copper tube from my dad so I made 2 if them into mosaics and one is hollow for the lanyard. For the mosaic I fell in love with the most simple of all, five brass tubes inside the copper. Is looks like a flower :)

The hamon is simple on this knife. I didn't use clay so it's a fairly straight line following the curve of the blade. What I did was Heated the entire knife up (after normalizing) to just non magnetic then on the last few passes of the torch I focused on the edge just a little deport then where I wanted the hamon to be. Then I quenched in tip first straight into the oil followed by lots of agitation. I owe thanks to a member here in the forum that helped me out with this technique for a hamon. Thanks AUBE!!!

I am going to be slow at work tomorrow... I am one hour into my first two hour tempering cycle then it's another 2 hour cycle. Did I mention that it's after 11pm? Lol

Eli, I'll trade a knife for your trip! I'd love to go on something like that.


Metal, sounds like it is coming along. Can't wait to see the finished product!

I went a summer before which is probably why they let me go on just one without any more in person training. But hey, if you can work something out for training, hit them up next summer. Its www.ntier.org. They are notorious for staff shortages. Last time, they just picked some canadians up as guides with just a crash course for training. All the college kids are doing internships to get that "edge" in this economy. Summer camps across the board are having staff shortages. The chief recruiter and one of the directors WIVES are filling in as guides. Seriously, don't trade me a knife for a trip, just hit them up next summer!

And yeah that was me with the bronze. It was more headache to figure out than learning knives, but just that much more rewarding. It really makes you realize how we take for granted a perfectly square bar of brass with no bubbles or cracks free of heavy scales, and just for a few bucks. But its cool to be able to do it yourself. Opens a lot of doors too. No one in the world uses the alloy I use, as far as I know.

I'm going to try Nordic Gold next. Its just a copper alloy with roughly equal parts zinc, tin, and nickel, I think? But its highly resistant to tarnish, the main reason I want to use it (think kitchen and display knives). Europeans use it for coins, and the alloy name is copyright, so I'm thinking add 1-3% silver and call it "fine bronze" or "king's bronze" or "jester's gold" or something cool.

Late night HTs are the BEST.

I don't know if I would call late night heat treatments the best lol. I did my first cycle for 2 hours then when I stuck it in for the second cycle.... I passed out on the couch so it got a 3 1/2 hour second cycle... It was all at 400-420 degrees but it turned to a dark straw with a hint of bronze so I don't know if I should re harden it again or not. Can holding a 400 degree temp for to long soften the knife to much? Or will it only soften to a certain point and then the oxides just keep building up to get those colors? I'm lost right now and have no way of actually testing the rhc of the blade. The file will just barely bite into the edge so it still is somewhat hard, no where nears as soft as the spine. What do you guys think should I re harden it a third time?

I did some tests on this a whiles back, and someone else said it maybe Doug, oxidation is a function of temperature and time. I got some sample pieces PURPLE! at 300F after long enough.

And no, late night HTs are not the best, they suck but are fun at the same time.

Ok so after some reading and a phone call to a blacksmith in my area I have decided that the blade should be right where I want it. The oxides are more of a guideline within a given time period. The metal will slowly change color over a long period of time and going by what I read it takes an actual temperature increase to further soften the metal. I can just barely get a file to bite and also took a kerahaw knife to it and it seems like both the knives are pretty close to the same hardness I would actually say that the sharp finger is slightly harder. I'm going to roll with it. I successfully hardened it twice and with 1095's track record the third time could fall into the failure catagory lol. It's defiantly not to soft to make a good knife I was just scared that it may not make a great knife.

Any body els have a thought on this?

Eli, what were the results as far as hardness went when you did your tests at 300?

I would go ahead and put an edge on it and do some heavy cutting with it. If it holds the edge better than any of the junk steel knives you probably have (like 440A, commonly used in cheaper kershaws and gerbers, or Aus8 commonly used in cheaper SOGs) then roll with it brotha.

I didn't do hardness tests on it. I was only testing the temperature/time effect. I too had a blade in there for 4 hours and it was purple. I think I re-HTed anyways though.

I would go ahead and put an edge on it and do some heavy cutting with it. If it holds the edge better than any of the junk steel knives you probably have (like 440A, commonly used in cheaper kershaws and gerbers, or Aus8 commonly used in cheaper SOGs) then roll with it brotha.

I actually kinda like my Aus8 blades :) I will defiantly do some tests with it before I finish the blade but I don't know what I'll do if it busts... Running out of time to make another one lol.


Eli, to bad you didn't do some hardness tests on them. I might try that out some time. But from my research it should still be ok but there is very little information on that subject.

I'm not dogging aus8, just saying its a cheap steel. I ONLY carry chap pocket knives, simply because they are disposable, and I destroy my pocket knives. So if a cheap $50 knife lasts me a year, I'm ok with sharpening it more often.

I couldn't ever carry an expensive knife with me all the time. My EDC knives that I use for work never get sharpened because of the abuse they go through every day. But my weekend knives are always razor sharp :) I don't really have any expensive knives the highest I have paid was $120 for my kerahaw shallot. Most of my knives are around $80. I Wouldnt mind something with s30-V or VG-10 but the price is just insane. The spiderco I bought for Dad was almost $400 after tax and it's only got a 2 3/4" blade!!!

Well after some testing on the blade and some finish sanding and etch I was lett then happy with it. The steel had an extremely shallow hardening and the hamon was nearly on the edge in some spots. I went to the shop today to start it all over again. Buy first I made six sample pieces with bevels ground into them. I oil quenched three in canola with slightly hotter heats as I went and I did three in water. All of the canola quenched samples did the same thing, very shallow hardening. The water quenched samples were all fully hardened right through and had geat grain structure when broken. I didn't want to but I think it was my last choice, I water quenched my sharpfinger. I nearly had a heart attack as I was about to quench the blade lol. It turned out amazing :) the hamon is not along the edge like I was aiming for but it starts just before the plunge cut and angles up on about a 45 degree angle to the spine. I'm so happy it didn't crack, not many 1095 blades survive an amature water quench lol. Now I just have to figure out how to get the nice uniform etch like the pros. I can't get circuit etch here so I'm stuck with vinegar or some citrus acid of some kind.

Do any of you guys have any experience with etching to bring out a hamon line?

not sure about the etching. But I have seen several videos on youtube and instructables of people with cheap DIY methods. The whole concept of electro etching seems very similar to anodizing aluminum to me - which is way easier than people seem to think.

I'm not sure how much of an etch I will do on it but it will get some not just to bring out the hamon but also to protect from rust. I am so glad that it didn't crack in the water because time is running out lol.

Well, here is my submission for the 2012 KITH. As you can see I did mine a little differently. I wanted it to have a traditional Sharpfinger look and feel but I made a friction folder. There are a lot of ?firsts? to this knife. It is the first knife finished off my new (to me) grinder and part of the first batch heat treated in my homemade forge. It?s actually the third blank I started for this project, the other two I wouldn?t call knives. This is the 7th knife I have completed; I finished it about a month ago and the sheath finally came to be last week. It?s the first folder, first pocket/paddle style sheath and the first time I attempted stamping a design into the leather. Its not perfect; I am still working on getting an even satin finish on my blades and my leatherwork is getting better, but I am pleased enough to submit for the drawing. I hope the new owner likes it. I thought about making another for me to keep but there is an inherent cool factor when there is only one. The blade is 1/8? 1084 from the New Jersey Steel Baron heated in a coal forge and quenched in canola oil heated to 130F. The blade was tempered for 2 two hour cycles at 425F. It is 2-5/8? long and the OAL is 6-3/8?. I purposely made the tail on the blade stand above the handle because I like the way it feels it under my thumb when I am holding it my hand. The handle is three layers of 1/8? black G10 with three hidden pins securing the center spacer and a fourth pin as the blade stop in open position. The pivot pin is 1/8? stainless steel and there are nylon washers between the blade and the G10. The action is smooth and by some miracle the blade is centered in the closed position (I was really worried it would be off). I am not proficient at sharpening knives but I tried and I applied a coat of Renaissance Wax to protect it. Here are a couple pics.

Robb

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/ncrobb/th_P1060811.jpg (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/ncrobb/?action=view&current=P1060811.jpg)

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/ncrobb/th_P1060810.jpg (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/ncrobb/?action=view&current=P1060810.jpg)

Right on Robb!!! I love it!!! That is soo cool that you made it into a friction folder, what a great idea. I found for a satin finish I had the best luck wet sanding it down to around 600 grit all in one direction followed by fine automotive scotchbrite I prefer the grey for this but the red/maroon works good too.

Mine is in the acid as we speak slowly getting eaten. I have been etching it for nearly 12 hours already. I missed a couple scratches right at the plunge cut... now that its hardened they are there for good. I want to glue it up tonight.

Robb, that is fantastic! Any one of us would be proud to have it. And you should be proud of your work as well! Have you started doing your makers mark yet? I'd say it's a piece worry of a marking.

I agree :)

The first two knives I made I didn't mark. When I showed them to a friend who has been making knives for over 40 years and the first thing he said was "Who made it?". So since then I have been etching a simple "R.LIPE" into the left side of the blade. I do it in my hand writing which, to me, gives it a personal feel. Granted sometimes I wipe off the resist several times before I am satisfied, but I like the results. You can see my R.LIPE in the folded pic.

NC now that is what this KITH is all about, thinking outside the box. That's where one of a kind trumps production every time Well done -Jim-




www.shullhandforgedknives.com

I didn't end up leaving the blade etched very much. I don't like the look of the hamon on this one, it didn't do what I was hoping for but its still kinda cool. I finished the blade after etch with 3000 grit foam backed polishing paper. Got the scales glued on and not its time to shape the handle.

Sorry for the crappy pics it looks better in person. I thought these iphones were supposed to take amazing pics and hd video?

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/IMG_10151.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/IMG_10321.jpg

Looking cool. I kind of like the subtle etch on it. Not extremely bold, just a little something to catch the eye

Figuring out the hamon/etch line is on my list of to-do's. That is a cool grind metal. I'm diggin' it.

Robb

Thanks guys :) I had a hard time with this hamon. The first two times it was way to close to the edge and the last time it took up the whole blade! Lol oh well it's all a learning experience. That's what I get for jumping head first into a hobby lol. I am falling for this knife it's going to be hard to ship it out. I will make another one tho just for me :) I have learnt a lot while making this knife I am glad Slacker started this kith.

I have the handle almost finished just a little more sanding and some light buffing to do.

Is there a trick besides using a sanding block to prevent the pins from staying slightly higher then the wood? Or is it just part of the game?

I've used the platen on my grinder on several handles if I start getting pin protrusions. Otherwise I use a scrap piece of lignum vitae (really hard wood) as a sanding block


I'm happy to see more pictures being posted. Can't wait to see all of the entries complete! So far I'm loving the results.

That's a sweet wood man! A friend of mine has a huge slab of it that probably weighs 100lbs. I don't trust my skills enough to use the belt sander for more then a rough out. I can't wait to see more pics!

Well mine is finished just needs a sharpening.
Time for some leather work :/
Here it is.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/b48906c3.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/2da81edc.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/0d254f71.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/6a82a320.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/ffae93e3.jpg

VERY nice metal. I haven't attempted any real file work but yours looks great. Can you wet sand the liner or what. I have a set of handles with a white liner glued on but I am hesitant to start working them.

Robb

Nice job metal. Looks great!

very nice work gents, how did I possibly miss this thread ??? whens the cut-off ??

Thanks guys! I'm not to sure about wet sanding that stuff I dabbed a little water on a scrap and it almost seemed like it absorbed it. The only wet sanding I do is on the blade before I install the handle. If I am using natural wood I wets any the wood with tung oil.

I believe cutoff is July 31st.

Well I got started on the sheath today. I made a mistake tho :( I did all my tooling dry and when I dyed the leather it came out a bit. I went over everything again so I think it should be good now. I'm learning a lot because of this KITH :) thanks Slackr for starting it.

Here it is ready to get the snap and sewing time :) I'm I huge fan of the antique look so that's what I was aiming for. Hope you like it.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/8c6aa0c9.jpg

Man. Lots of detail in there.


No cut off until the kith is over. If you think you can have one done by 1 August, we would be happy to have you.

I think I'm addicted to leather now XD

Mine is all done besides the final sharpening.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/9e4b6407.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/ab1d3ee8.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/8c60ec82.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/f04d9443.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x36/Julius099/b337b922.jpg

Man that sheath looks fantastic! Great job

Thanks man :) I was wondering something, what do you use on your sheaths so soften them a bit after you dye them?

Looks great! I use "Aussie" leather conditioner from Tandy Leather. It gives it a bit of moisture resistance as well.

Robb

Hmm I will have to go back and see if they have some of that. The carnuba I used softened it a tiny little bit but I bet it would still wrinkle and crack if I bent it hard. I don't want the whole sheath soft just the strap.

I use a spray-on conditioner/protectant called "leather Sheen" made by Fiebing's. It is very quick and easy. Just spray, dry, buff, repeat, and done.

I know a lot of people swear by neatsfoot oil, but I make enough of a mess as it is!

Does the sheen soften the leather?

If I'm understanding correctly, you're wanting the leather to be more malleable? Are you using alcohol or oil based dyes? For the strap, I usually work the strap around until it is nice and bendy. Then I'll dye it, let it dry, bend it around again, second layer dye, dry, bend around again, then my two coats of conditioner. Works out well for me.

I don't actually know what base the dye is man. It seems like an alcohol base tho it really dries out the leather after its dry. I do want the strap more malleable but not the whole sheath. I have another finish by fiebings (can't spell) called acrylic resoline but I haven't tried it out yet.

I would probably stay away from putting the acrylic on any moving parts. I'm not familiar with that particular product, but if it is acrylic based I could only think it would be prone to cracking.

That's kinda why I didn't go with it mang. I just walked into tandy and asked the guy what all I needed to make a sheath and that's the stuff they gave me to seal it up. After I did some reading I found that some people said the thę carnuba liquid leather finish gave a nice firm but flexible finish. It's just that where the lock strap comes around the back of the sheath is fairly thin so I want to make sure it doesn't crack there.

Do any of you guys have any experience with water stones?

Less than a month until deadline. Anyone else done or close to it?

Im going to have to drop out of this one. sorry

Im going to have to drop out of this one. sorry

That's to bad man, I'm sorry to hear that. There's always next time.

Sorry to hear it man. I'll drop you off the list

Still in

Got one done and another glued up. Should be able to finish this week and post pictures

Right on man :)

A little off topic but I just got two forges, 3 blowers and a bunch of coal! :) I can't wait to start forging some blades! Forging blades is the reason I got into knife making and now I can make it happen! I can't wait to hear my 1899 Trenton anvil start singing :) just have to sell off the forge and blowers I don't need.

Nice man. You're not going to be forging on your kitchen table are ya? Where you setting them
Up?

Nice man. You're not going to be forging on your kitchen table are ya? Where you setting them
Up?

Not at the table no but the stove has a nice exhaust hood above it :) lol my dad is interested in some blacksmithing so he is letting me set it up at his place. That's where I have the belt sander and drill press.

Still in here. Got the blade etched and I'm rubbing the in now, should have a handle on it and the sheath completed by next week. -Jim-



www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Still in here. Got the blade etched and I'm rubbing the in now, should have a handle on it and the sheath completed by next week. -Jim-



www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Can't wait to see it Jim :)

I'm glad I got mine finished early. I hate running down to the wire; I'd be so twisted up nothing would go right. Really looking forward to the seeing the finished products!

Robb

Just bought about 60 pounds of ironwood for $40 :) there all carvings and one branch ripped in half. Lots of handle material now!

I'm done with knife and sheath now to figure out this photo deal

works this time now just remember how i did it

Looks good fuzzy :) what's the handle material?

Nice work, fuzzy. I'm glad to see another completed.

Robb

I hope we see some more soon! Times running out fast. This thread has slowed down alot in the past while.

Here is the link to my entry, since I'm too dumb to figure out how to post directly to the forum. Blade steel is W-1 with a slight Hamon. Stick tang goes 3/4 of the way through the walnut handle. The sheath is done just needs to be sewn and dyed, will have more pics in a few days. -Jim-

img189.imageshack.us/img189/7472/2kith2010.jpg

www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Looks good man :) what did you use to etch the hamon? Did you forge the blade or stock removal?

All my steel comes in round bars of 12ft lengths and then forged out. As close to zero waste as I can get. That way I can take a 4 inch piece of 1/2" round stock and get a fillet knife with a 7" blade and 4" tang. This particular one was etched in ferric chloride I use alot of hot vinegar and sometimes warm lemon juice which produces a wonderful frosted etch. -Jim-


www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Cool man :) where do you get the steel? I checked with my somewhat local knife supply and the carry nothing in round bar. I wish they did tho....

I can't get farric chloride here so I just use strong pickling vinigar I believe it's 7% acidic. It etches ok but takes nothing to wipe it off

I get mine from supply house that sells drill steel. I generally order 30-40 feet each of 0-1 and W-1 unless you have one locally the shipping can really tear you up! I just use regular ole white vinegar heated up till it just starts boiling ,take it off the heat and put my blade in ,after a few minutes it will look like it's boiling again. Leave it for a few more minutes take it out neutralize it with windex wipe it down with 1500 grit paper. Repete as many times as it takes to get the effect your after.

www.shullhandforgedknives.com

I get mine from supply house that sells drill steel. I generally order 30-40 feet each of 0-1 and W-1 unless you have one locally the shipping can really tear you up! I just use regular ole white vinegar heated up till it just starts boiling ,take it off the heat and put my blade in ,after a few minutes it will look like it's boiling again. Leave it for a few more minutes take it out neutralize it with windex wipe it down with 1500 grit paper. Repete as many times as it takes to get the effect your after.

www.shullhandforgedknives.com

The only local stuff I can get here is "oil hardening drill rod with 1% carbon" I believe it's o1 tool steel but honestly I'm not 100% sure. There is a website that had a list of stores for knife making supplys in the area and it said "o1 tool steel at acklands" but acklands calls it oil hardening drill rod. It's 45 dollars for three feet...

I didn't warm up the vinigar much when I did it so I might have to try it again. I also read that adding a drop of dish soap will reduce the bubbles that "cling" to the blade.

Handle matrial is purple heart I found lying aroud

Purple heart is nice stuff. I make a storage/jewelry box for my wife out of it.

Very cool Jim. Nicely done!

Man, I wish I'd read this thread first....I gotta finish this Kukri before I do anything else.

Now if we were doing a Kukri challenge...

How do you get the imageshack pic to come up?

I get mine from supply house that sells drill steel. I generally order 30-40 feet each of 0-1 and W-1 unless you have one locally the shipping can really tear you up! I just use regular ole white vinegar heated up till it just starts boiling ,take it off the heat and put my blade in ,after a few minutes it will look like it's boiling again. Leave it for a few more minutes take it out neutralize it with windex wipe it down with 1500 grit paper. Repete as many times as it takes to get the effect your after.

www.shullhandforgedknives.com


Soooo I priced out some o1 rid 5/8" and it comes in 36" lengths the cost $12 a foot without shipping.... May I ask what you paid for your o1?


Robb I copied the link and pasted it in the URL box

metal, I tried three or four times earlier today to copy and paste, I guess I wasn't holding my mouth right. It worked this time. Thanks.

Recurve, that forged blade is...well, sexy. That is if its okay to give an inanimate object an animate description.

Robb

Thanks Robb, you should get with North Carolina knifemakers guild and start forgin' some,it gets in your blood! Metal I order mine from FlatGround.com they have O-1 listed at a little over $3.00 a foot for 5/8" my last order was 12' ea of O-1 & W-1 shipping was $14.00 but I only live 100 mi or so away, don't know how bad they would stick you? -Jim-


www.shullhandforgedknives.com

Wow... The shipping on one 3 foot piece of o1 from the next Provence over is more then that...

I joined the NCCKG at the April meeting and they are a great bunch of guys. I have a forge, well I call it a forge, made from a 1 ton truck brake drum. I made a skinning knife for a buddy of mine in a trade and he is bird dogging an anvil. He is like Radar from M*A*S*H, he can find anything. I am heading in that direction but I gotta get the basics down first.

Ok, so since we are close to deadline, do y'all think I should start a "gallery" thread for everyone to post their entry? Or would y'all prefer we keep this one going?

I think that would be an alright idea Slacker. I still have some stuff to finish on mine so I better giver lol.

It might be a cleaner thread to move through and see what everyone came up with. I check everyday just to see if anyone added an "I'm done" pic.

Robb

It might be a cleaner thread to move through and see what everyone came up with. I check everyday just to see if anyone added an "I'm done" pic.

Robb

Me too! I hope there are a couple more soon.

I got my forge working today and my Dad and I made a tool to keep the fire in order :) its a nice little scraper/fire poker lol.

Ok everyone. If you haven't already, please post up your finished entries in the kith gallery thread. Drawing for numbers will be done either once everyone is posted up or by midnight of the 2nd.

Tomorrow is the last day for entries. Only 5 in so far, let's see some more knives! Post them up in the gallery thread.

Hope the rest of the guys on the list make it! Haven't heard much from some of them.

Me too. I sent reminder messages to them. Hope they show up!

Nobody els is joining? Where did all the other guys end up?

Not sure. They still have a few hours to get pics up. I'll be doing the post right before I go to bed tonight. Hopefully we get more, but if not I'm still thrilled by what we have

Me to man :)

Oh woe is me...my grinder won't be ready until mid- Oct. I can't finish without it. Ya know...the best laid plans sometimes turn to ca-ca.