[Sandy Hancock]

All the forging is done. While I was baking the blade to a balmy 870ºC to normalise it, I picked a few bits of handle timber for my customer and his wife to mull over....

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Last edited by Sandy Hancock; 09-10-2022 at 01:02 AM.

[Sandy Hancock]

The blade is now hardened - for those not in the know, that involves evenly heating it to 805ºC, then rapidly quenching it in warm oil.

The side effect of all that hardness is extreme brittleness; a drop onto the concrete floor would result in several pieces of steel and many tears and much cussing.

So into the tempering oven it goes! Two hours at 200ºC, twice. And the display even gave me a reminder how cold it is in the shed

[Sandy Hancock]

A quick look at our WIP in between tempering bakes.
I reckon it will be long enough for any loaf out there

Next time the workshop opens, we start the serious grinding. It might have to wait until the weekend....

[Sandy Hancock]

A quick update before our granddaughter arrives for the day.
A little bit of bevel grinding reveals the beginning of a pattern!

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[Sandy Hancock]

The bevels are ground, the final shape has been refined, and the blade is now hand sanded to 400 grit.

This is how it looks before the "official" etch in ferric chloride. That will take at least half an hour, so a trip to the bottle shop for some long-overdue beer will ensue!

[Sandy Hancock]

The official etch has worked its magic. Possibly my favourite step in the whole process.

Now for an overnight soak in strong black coffee....

[Sandy Hancock]

So, what does soaking in coffee for 20 hours add?

CONTRAST, baby!

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[Sandy Hancock]

Right. Time to get a handle happening.

I have cut up a piece of 416 stainless steel for the guard, and some copper, nickel silver, and black G10 fibreglass to add some bling to the brown mallee timber selected by Gator's wife.

To get everything to fit nicely, I need to get the shoulders of the tang perfectly square, so I have fixed a tungsten carbide file guide. You'll also notice I have wrapped the blade in masking tape to avoid messing it up.

[Sandy Hancock]

Another hour or so has gone into drilling and hand filing these handle components to more or less precisely fit the tang.
The stainless steel guard has to be a more accurate fit, while the others have a large central hole to accommodate a split dowel, which will also run the length of the slot I'm about to make in the timber.

[Sandy Hancock]

Acceptable dry fit of all handle components.

Next step is to shape the guard, and polish and hammer texture the front surface. After the glue-up, that will be inaccessible.

[Sandy Hancock]

It's not easy to photograph with a phone camera, but here's the guard ready to go.

Now I need to prepare the split dowel and sick all this stuff together with high end industrial two pack epoxy. It gives plenty of working time for complex glue-ups like this, but it needs an overnight cure before I can finish the handle.

As luck would have it, I have Thursday off as well. And yes - knife making is not kind on the fingers

[Sandy Hancock]

All glued up now, and set rock hard overnight in a warm kitchen.

Our granddaughter will be with us this morning, so shaping the handle will have to wait until later in the day.

I'm considering drilling a pin through the timber for added bling

[Sandy Hancock]

The handle is now finished! Roughly ground to shape with a 36 grit belt, progressing through 60, 120, 240 grit and 80 and 30 micron finishing belts. All done freehand. Yes, I decided against the pin

Then came the hand sanding, down to 1500 grit, and finally polishing with high end furniture oil.

I'll get the serrations done on the weekend.

[Sandy Hancock]

Finally, we get to the finishing touches.

Here is the smallest of my four small wheels for the belt grinder - 1/4" in diameter and the weapon of choice for bread knife serrations.

Starting with a 120 grit belt (at low speed to avoid over-cooking the super thin edge), I will gradually get these grooves as deep as needed, then gently touch them up at 45 degrees to create 48-odd little scalloped cutting edges.

[Sandy Hancock]

E voila! C'est finis.

I'm really proud of this one. It the customer decides he doesn't want it, I'll happily keep it

The final jobs are to write a personalised letter to the new owner, and make a box to fit this rather long knife....