Two more off the bench

[Doug Lester]

IMG_0031.jpgThis one is a trailing point coffin handle of the EDC type. The handle scales are of buffalo horn with a brink red spacer. The washers are nickel silver with brass cuttlers revits with the heads standing proud on the washers to help keep the horn flat. It has an OAL of 8" and a 3 1/2" blade, ricasso included. The width is 1 1/8" and the thickness at the ricasso is 1/8"

IMG_0033.jpgThe next one is a utility blade, 8 1/2" OAL with 4 1/2" blade, 1" wide at the plunge line and 3/16" thick at the ricasso. The scales are leopard wood that I had treated with Nelsonite when I first started making knifes. That still didn't prevent it from taking up four coats of boiled linseed oil. I'll let the reader make up their own minds about Nelsonite but I don't choose to use it anymore. The scales are held down by brass cuttler's revits'

Both blades are of 52100 that had multiple normalizations, three right before quenching, the austempered at 430 degrees and oven tempered at 425 for a single two hour cycle.

Doug Lester

[ranger1]

Nice job, I'd call that a double header.

[Doug Lester]

A quick update on the knife with the leopard wood scales. Even though the wood was supposidly stabilized with Nelsonite, they quickly warped on one side and had to be removed. Nelsonite might be good when it comes to "stabilizing" wood for pool cues but it doesn't seem to do the job for knife scales. If you want to have wood stabilized for knife scales, do it right and send it out for a professional job.

Doug Lester

[squigly1965]

Hey Doug what was your process using the Nelsonite?

I bought some and was going to try Harbor Freight vacuum pump and a mason jar.
Just want to know if it's worth even the effort

[Doug Lester]

That was one of the sticks of wood that I soaked for 3-4 days which, according to the outfit that I bought it from should give complete penitration. The cut surfaces did smell of the Nelsonite even after a couple of years. A vacuum jar might give better saturation, I know that Darrel Ellis recommends that it be applied that way but I am not impressed with it at all. I know from other stuff that I treated with it that it will not harden spalted wood; linseed oil will actually do a better job on that. I don't think that it harmed the leapard wood, that scale would have undoubtedly warped without it, Nelsonite just won't perform as advertised.

Doug Lester

[ranger1]

Squigly,
Do not use a glass jar to vacuum. They will implode and throw glass at a high speed all around your shop. Beware the Mason-Granade.

[squigly1965]

Originally Posted by ranger1

Squigly,
Do not use a glass jar to vacuum. They will implode and throw glass at a high speed all around your shop. Beware the Mason-Granade.

hmmmmmmm.........

what should I use then?

[Doug Lester]

There are those who have built pressure vessles out of steel pipe and plexiglass. Most I have seen have welded a flange to the ends of the pipes to install a gasket and bolt down the plexiglass window. I think that the main problem here is what you use to put a vacuum on the jar with. It should be alright to use one of those vacuum canners or mabye a break cylender bleader to put a vacuum on a jar but they were never designed to hold up to a strong vacuum. At any rate always use glass with caution.

Another caution, don't use a plastic jar for something that smells like it has acetone or another strong solvent in them. The solvent can eath through the jar and cause a big mess.

The light just went on in the attic. The outfit that I bought the Nelsonite from used PCV pipe to make their soak tanks from. Seal one end of the pipe with a solid flanged cap and put a screw cap with some sort of gasket on the other end. Install your connection to the vacuum line into the screw plug or into the side of the pipe near the top. That should take more strain than a glass jar would.

Doug Lester