I've surprized myself and actually got the next installment done. Grinding the blade and relieving the frame (liners).

I marked out and hollow ground the blade on a 10" wheel, first with a 60 grit belt and then a 240 grit belt, and being impatient I did a trial etch with a cotton tip on the blade to see what it will look like. Doesn't look too bad. Figure 25 shows the result.


Figure 25

Having ground the blade I can now relieve the frame (liners). First off I put the bar on the frame and mark the bottom, then mark where the plunge cuts on my grind come to on the frame and extend this to the line marking the bottom of the frame. I then put the blade pin, bearing and blade on the frame and mark the front of the notch and the circle subscribed by the tang, I then repeat the process for the other frame half. Figure 26 shows my marks.


Figure 26

I relieve the frame halves (liners) on my mill-drill using a 1/8" bottom cutting solid carbide burr running at 2100 rpm on a rotary table on which I've mount a milling plate. The frame rotates around the pivot pin and is a lot easier than manually scraping the frame and the end result is much better. The milling plate is centred over the centre of the rotary table and all I do is drop the frame on, set my downfeed counter to zero and mill off .004". Figure 27 shows the frame set up on the table and it has been milled out.


Figure 27

I repeat the process for the other frame half then go round the milled edges and remove the burrs.

Figures 28 and 29 show the finished result. By putting the 2 halves together you can get a better appreciation of the effect of .004" off each side. This will eliminate the possibility of the tang being marred with ugly scratches in the end result.


Figure 28


Figure 29

Well tomorrow's the 7th and I'm going to have a bludge (that's aussie for doing sweet bugger all).
My next step (after polishing the blade and heat treating it) will be to mill out the frame halves and put in the release notch, so Ill catch you all then.

Regards from Australia.