I needed to make one for a birthday present that my cousin wants to give to her neighbor. ( I think its going to be a freebie) So I thought I would make an extra and throw it in. I am about done with kitchen utensils for a while. The last slicing cleaver is in this heat treat batch. I am terrible at remembering to take pictures when I get on a roll. But here are a bunch that I did get. The blade is 1/8 AEB-l In a full width hollow grind RC 60-61, Traditional finish hand sanded to 2000 grit. (and trying to keep the sanding lines running full length) 304 stainless bolsters and pins, stickfasted Manitoba Maple with a little blue dye. I drew up a basic pattern and went from there. After I finished playing with different handle shapes etc I made a blank I didn't get a lot of bevel grinding shots. In this pic the two little unhandled ones are the B+ts Found a better pic, This is the kith knife ground before heat treat. Then cooking them. Warming up the oven. After soak is done I plate quentched them . The small knives go into the heat sinks and there is a fan behind them that blows through them that isn't in this pic. Cools them quickly. The cleaver goes in the steel plates. Down to room temp and into the sub zero (dry ice and acetone) before tempering. This is out of the ice. They are cold and it takes a minute for the acetone to warm up and evaporate I cleaned a few spots and checked them in the Rockwell tester Then the always popular clean up and hand sand. This is where it starts. Looking a little better now. The dark spot on the point is my shadow I like to clean up this spot now because its hard to get at after the bolsters are on without scratching them. Then Their taped up and the handles where the scales go are sandblasted to help the epoxy bond.
I see I forgot to put in the tempering. When they get back to room temp they go in the tempering oven for 2 two hour cycles. Then the bolsters get roughed out drilled and the fronts of them are polished at this time ( and everyone knows why so I won't repeat it) Pins are cut and fitted then the bolsters are put on the blade and pressed. Then they are profiled close to the blade with a coarse bet and and finished up later with finer grits I'm going to continue this tommorrow
BB if you're thinking of making a knife vice you should check out one that Dan made. I'm sure he posted the build somewhere. Mine is pretty basic which works for me because my vise swivels. Dans adjusts pretty much anyway you would need. Starting the handle. Picked out a piece of maple and headed for the saw I use a guide to get as straight a cut as possible. I like to use the bandsaw for this because the blade is nice and thin. After sanding the cuts flat you end up trying to remove about 1/8 ( or the thickness of your blade ) so that when you put the blade in you are replacing the 1/8 and the book match should line up. ( I said "should"). You can adjust it later if you need to. To adjust the bookmatch if I need to.(usually do). I leave the butt end of the roughed in scales long and don't profile them yet. This is before you drill any holes in them. I had to mention that because the pic I have has the temporary pins in and I put a little oil on it to check the final alignment. ( can't change it now anyway lol.)
Ran out of room again lol Okay if the grain is not lined up cross ways you can sand a little off one side or the other and line them up before you drill them. That's why I leave the butt profile till last. The grain in this Maple can change very quickly when you cut it. Lots of times I've cut many pieces where one scale is really nice and the other side ends up white with a brown streak. This one looks pretty good though. I'm not saying this is the right way its just how I do it. Still waiting for the epoxy to cure.......
Well there's been a slight change of plans. When I finished the Blue handled one my cousin seen it and decided that was the one she wanted for her friends birthday present. ( She supplies me with homemade pirogies so I didn't argue ) I don't have anymore blue dyed wood right now so the kith knife is going to have to be the natural handled one. AEB_l Hollow grind 60-61 RC Yellow brass bolsters and pins Brass mosaic pin from Rob and Marilyn at CKM Natural Manitoba Maple handle stabilized with stick fast resin Leather sheath dyed Brit tan and some simple tooling. Here's a few pics.
It does have a couple little issues that bother me but maybe the next one will be perfect. (I keep saying that but it hasn't happened yet) Anyway it's ready to go. Frank
Frank, I wanted to say that your knife performs very well. It's been on a couple of outings and recently to our company picnic at which it garnered some oooh and aaaahs. Haven't had to sharpen it yet. Good work! Dan
