How to make a few Loveless patterned knives

[tree_creeper]

Sticky?????

[lefteris]

Sticky?????

+100

[grommit]

David,
Chuffed TA bits ya understand me now
Another great day for learning new stuff.
Thanks again,
Brian

[tree_creeper]

I think Brian is more like this...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSXzRWlL7Z0

Really been enjoying this thread, something to look forward to in the mornings what with the time difference.

David if I could pick your brains about the tapered tangs... where do you actually start the tapering and what would be a safe thickness to finish at?

Cheers
Ian

[David66]

Ian, I'm not exactly sure what you are asking?

The Loveless shop tapers the tang to .050" the larger knives in this thread are using a nominal 3/16" steel. From the mill with scale it is around .210", after grinding and getting rid of the scale the blade sits around .200". I taper the tang from the rear of the guard to the butt going from .200 to .060" at the butt.

I start tapering the tang at the butt of the knife. I go through the same process as marking the edge; scribe two lines .050" apart on the butt of the handle. I then use the exact same method as on the blade; I create a precise lead in grind to the desired thickness. Then it is just a matter of working that smaller bevel back towards the guard (just like flat grinding a blade).

Getting to the end of this adventure.

After polishing it is time to attach the guards (pin and solder). Prior to doing that though I use temporary pins and rough shape the guards.

Plenty of blue tape to protect my investment of time in the polished blade. Pre-shaping the guard allows you to more successfully hide the pins. Instead of peening or pressing or both into stainless that is going to be ground away you are peening very close to the finished level. This usually insures an invisible pin.


Grinding


A close to finished dimension guard.


6 guards ready to attach, all sanded out to 15 micron ;close to 1000 grit. Prior to affixing the guards I clean everything thoroughly with Duplicolor wax remover and alcohol so that I don't end up with an surprises when I solder.


My peening surface, ( I would eventually like to own a nice post anvil for different beating jobs) a 4x4 steel leg supporting 3/8" steel top with an additional 3/4" plate on top of that; works pretty well. I have so far been successful without a pin press so I will probably continue with this method.


Peening and peening...


and done. On to soldering.


Being new and still anxious about some processes I didn't get many action shots of this, also for what ever reason my camera refused to focus on this part. So just a few to move us further along. I use a piece of rectangular brass stock as a graver. I round both top and bottom to give a nice concave fillet.


Set-up in my mini vise and ready for solder. I use the same process detailed in the SRJ sub-hilt DVD.


Post solder clean-up aided by my...


custom TIG welded desk lamp. After I am happy with the solder joint I move on to handle material.


Flatten all of the handle material.


Blast both liner and handle material, and then...


wipe down with alcohol...


glue...


clamp...


and then clean-up of the pre-glued liner and handle material. This may seem like a lot of work but I do this process in the evenings because the day job won't allow much more and it is still forward progress! As you can see mostly Micarta.

[Chui]

Sanding blocks of G10. I read Tony Bose's hand sanding technique and applied it here.

- anywhere we could find this please?

Had a look on youtube, but could not locate this specific vid.........

[David66]

- anywhere we could find this please?

Had a look on youtube, but could not locate this specific vid.........

Tony Bose one of my slip joint making heroes! You will need to read a bit; no video here: http://boseknives.com/rubfinish/page...nish-1_jpg.htm

[Chui]

Tony Bose one of my slip joint making heroes! You will need to read a bit; no video here: http://boseknives.com/rubfinish/page...nish-1_jpg.htm

[Hatethatgiraffe]

Great thread
Amazing work and thorough walk through!

[David66]

So I got all the handle material glued up and ground an angle in the handle material so that the handle material meets the guard correctly. Now the issue lies with getting an angled hole drilled through the handle material when the tang hole is straight.

My tapered tang handle drilling fixture. It consists of a 1-2-3 block, a few bolts, and some aluminum.


Clamp the knife by the flat ricasso. If your blade is straight then you should be able to drill straight through the tang hole. I use two drops of glue to hold the handle material to the tang as well as a Micarta wedge to support the handle while drilling. The glue may be an old trick but I will credit Mr. Terzoula; I read about it in his folder making book.


In the mill vise.


And drilling.



Knife and handle material blasted and ready for glue up.


Glued, bolted and dry. You can see I already started grinding the hardware flush.


Getting rid of the excess and material and starting the handle shaping.


Most of the excess is gone and shaping the front near the guard.


Grinding the handle hollow.


Rough shaped close to slack belt time.


100-15 micron to get to the finished handle.


And you end up with this!

And after some fine tuning you end up with the finished knives (buffing, logo etch, satin flats, etc..).



Traditional Chute with green linen. The color is off in the second photo.



A Mini-Wilderness with maroon Micarta



A standard 4.5" Utility Hunter.


A Utility Stiff Horn with jigged bone. This one has a very small guard; after finding pictures that indicate there are some that came form the Loveless shop this way (Mr. Merritt confirmed this). It makes for a better feeling knife.


Thanks for looking!!!

After doing this I have a much larger respect for those that try to document their work. I am only able to work on knife projects Friday evening through Sunday. I calculate that this process took about 2 weekends worth of time.

[Big Rick]

Awsome knives, awesome thread. Very informative. Keep up the good work David!

[nimrod]

A most excellent WIP and superb knves.

[earthman]

Amazing work and in only two weekends,.....wow.

[Gizmo]

Incredible thread and so detailed; this will be a useful guide to many for a long time I think. Anyone that questions the value of hand made knives should read this and become better educated. And the knives you produce look fantastic David.

[Chui]

Wow............

Mods - please make this a sticky, reckon quite a few will consider this is a master WIP/instructive piece.........?