*Calling Knife Makers*

[jak]

I highly recommend taking your son to Bellville for the day to visit with this fella. I hear that he is passionate about his work and loves to show the craft to others.

http://www.phenixknives.com/

[TXHUNT3R]

I highly recommend taking your son to Bellville for the day to visit with this fella. I hear that he is passionate about his work and loves to show the craft to others.

http://www.phenixknives.com/

Heck yeah, that is awesome.

I am going to contact him!

Thank you!

[Razorback01]

Good stuff, he won't get anything out of school today!

[HainesNYT]

Cool thread!...hope you keep the DIY step-by-step pics coming of you and the boy working on it!!

[papabearclif]

I highly recommend taking your son to Bellville for the day to visit with this fella. I hear that he is passionate about his work and loves to show the craft to others.

http://www.phenixknives.com/

This! Cowboy is a good guy.

[TXHUNT3R]

This! Cowboy is a good guy.

Cowboy emailed me back and we were going to head that way but my son came down with a nasty bug.

We did do a little work on the knife, he supervised from his chair... lol

Basically just cut out a rough shape and started playing with the grinder a bit.

[Razorback01]

Any progress this week?

Ain't no Arky in Arkansas, 2 more days.

[TXHUNT3R]

Progress Pics

Knocked out a good amount of work yesterday.

My son was dead set we were going to heat treat it, so one I got it ground close to where I want it, we "heat treated it". No idea if it was hot enough, I put a propane torch all over it for about 5 mins straight. It smoked and bubbled as it went into the oil.

My guess is it needed to be more hot.

I have some questions but will post the pics first

[TXHUNT3R]

Handle work

[TXHUNT3R]

So with the brass pins.

They were tight when I first put the handle on but as i'm grinding and shaping, it is now loose.

Will I need to glue everything together when I get the handle shaped?

Or what should I have done differently?

Thanks!

[Razorback01]

Looks good.

You can get a fair guess if it hardened using a file. Does it grab, or does it "skate"?

Pin fit, did you use a drill press? If not you probably wobbled the hand drill.

Make sure the blade is finished 100%, once the scales are mounted it's extremely to do major blade work.

Make sure the surface of the tang is flat, you can dimple or drill a couple extra holes in the tang to improve epoxy surface, same for the scale surface that will epoxy to the tang, just make sure its flat. If you did get it hard all the way into the tang you probably can't drill it.

Epoxy the scales and pins, I wouldn't recommend the 5 min epoxy, find some 2 hour. Coat the pins well. The pins will mostly be what secures the scales, the epoxy for the most part provides a water seal between the tang and scales. Tape the blade b4 you epoxy and lightly clean excess with acetone (gloves and fresh air). Don't clamp the crap out of it and squeeze all the epoxy out. After 12-24 hours you can start working on the handle, be careful not to get it hot, especially the pins. Heat will weaken the epoxy.

All I can think of at the moment.

[Razorback01]

Wanted to add, if were successful in hardening, you might have it too hard. If so, hard to sharpen and so brittle it will snap. I accidentally snapped a blade once between hardening and tempering.

[Razorback01]

Brittle can be dangerous, some of the other guys here can probably provide additional and better advice.

Forgot to add- ain't nor Arky in Arkansas!

[TXHUNT3R]

Looks good.

You can get a fair guess if it hardened using a file. Does it grab, or does it "skate"?

Pin fit, did you use a drill press? If not you probably wobbled the hand drill.

Make sure the blade is finished 100%, once the scales are mounted it's extremely to do major blade work.

Make sure the surface of the tang is flat, you can dimple or drill a couple extra holes in the tang to improve epoxy surface, same for the scale surface that will epoxy to the tang, just make sure its flat. If you did get it hard all the way into the tang you probably can't drill it.

Epoxy the scales and pins, I wouldn't recommend the 5 min epoxy, find some 2 hour. Coat the pins well. The pins will mostly be what secures the scales, the epoxy for the most part provides a water seal between the tang and scales. Tape the blade b4 you epoxy and lightly clean excess with acetone (gloves and fresh air). Don't clamp the crap out of it and squeeze all the epoxy out. After 12-24 hours you can start working on the handle, be careful not to get it hot, especially the pins. Heat will weaken the epoxy.

All I can think of at the moment.

Need to get a drill press. I don't have one, sure it is not 100% straight.

I am not going to worry about the hardness too much as this is just our first run at it.

Thank you for the info on the handle, I will take it apart and find some good epoxy and follow your instructions on getting it set together. When I have it apart, I can shorten the handle up a bit as it is too far down the blade.

This has been really fun!!!

[TXHUNT3R]

Wanted to add, if were successful in hardening, you might have it too hard. If so, hard to sharpen and so brittle it will snap. I accidentally snapped a blade once between hardening and tempering.

Good to know.

I don't think I have it too hard though, no way I was hot enough IMO.

I did run a file on it and it slides fairly easy, not a skate though.. lol I would say semi hard