up late??

[Dave W.]

How many of you were up till the wee ours the last few nites finishing presents?

Dave Raises His Hand first!

I'll post pictures later.

Dave

[Darrel Ralph]

Dave,
This is a normal around the shop for me.
I get more done at night than in the day time.
I cant wait to see the pics!

[Dave W.]

Here are some pictures of the finished knife. I learned a lot on this one, and i'm loking forward to doing my own ddr 2 next! Doing this makes me appreciate the ones done by Frank Mangelli and the Alex's photos!!
There are lots of little things that I'm hoping to improve on on the next project. This stuff is addicting!

Happy Holidays!

Dave

[Darrel Ralph]

Hey ,
I like those metal scales.

Looks great.

[Osprey Guy]

Alright Dave!

Nice job...Looks like the metal scales turned out fine. Looks like you put some work into that...bet it feels good in the pocket.

You'll have to refresh my memory...can you post your specs/material info? (you need to get in the habit anyway for future finished knife postings).

Keep pushing that envelope!


Dennis Greenbaum

Yeah Baby!

[Dave W.]

Dennis,
The kit is stock, the scales are sterling silver. I traced them from the side pieces, then cut them out of the sheet with a jewelers saw. I started filing them to shape, the switched to using my dads belt sander and saved hours. I glued the scales in place, then peened the pins and did more belt sanding. I went from the belt sander and tried an orbital sander (see lessons learned) then moved to files for touch up, and a foredom tool with various sanding implements including a sandpaper roll, a flapper with sandpaper, fabulustre polishing compound, and finally a pink silicone wheel . The knife is heavy, but there is something satisfying about the feel of a heavy tool that 'clicks' when you open or shut it. The silver feels "soft" to the touch too. I wasn't sure I wanted to give it away, since it wasn't as perfect as I had envisioned, and, I liked it for myself depsite the flaws. IT makes me hungry to get the DDR2 done for myself now!




Somebody else did a lessons learned and I'll steal that mode here.

Lessons (re)learned
Sometimes you gotta live it, even if you 'know' it:

Cut as close as you can to the line, filing is a major pain!

Power tools are a good thing! Use them whenever possible, but only if they are the right tool for the job since:

Orbital sanders are good for flat spots, not sloping curves, they make a mess of curves and you end up filing!

Think as far ahead as possible, there is nothing that makes you feel sillier than removing scales that are super glued on, only to reglue them as the next step before drilling the scales for the pins!

Don't have a deadline that is close when you are working on something totally new.

Things to figure out for next time:

How to not have the gaps on scales

Figure out how to minimize the gap around the rocker arm and backspring, and get it even on both sides if there is a gap.

How to use the shims right while assembling the thing

How to make sure the backspring and the rocker arm are squared to each other without rounding

How can I do some cool filework on the rocker arm like Dennis does? Tim McCreights book shows some great fileworking ideas, that are good in and of themself and as a spring board for my own ideas. The ones on this site do the same. I have some angle iron to mess with, just ran out of time for this project!

As far as finishig the silver, put a high polish on it, knowing that it will quickly get nicked in the pocket and all the nicks together will = patina (a good thing), or, use scotch brite to put a muted, pre-patinated (is that a word?) finish on it from the git go.

Regards,
Dave

PS I was hoping to give it to the recipient tonight at my parents house, but he was sick and couldnt come, so I had to open the package and show it to the rest of the family and re wrap it! You'd think I was 16 not *cough *43* cough*!

[SharpByCoop]

Dave,

It looks as though this gift gave a LOT more to others than you thought. Even here we are getting the benefit of your now-learned advice.

It's a good one and you should be as proud as you are. Thanks for going the distance.

Coop

[Mace]

Here are a couple that I was up late working on. I too do a lot of my work late at night.......These are the first chef knives I've made. Let me know what you all think.
Mace

[Dave W.]

Coop: Thanks for the kind words! I figured that I owed it to the others that I learned from to pass on whatever I was able to glean from my own experiment(s).

Mace: Those are some pretty knives! I like the burl handles. I find that by the time i get my share of household chores done, and the boys to bed, if I want to so anything for me, its late at nite, as evidenced by this late reply tonight!

Best Regards,
Dave