Everyone has to start somewhere.

[prairie dog]

I used my new patch knife Sunday and I like it a lot better than the straight razor I was using for cutting patches flush with the muzzle.  

I have two more of those Pacific blades and some scraps of wood, got to get busy today and put those together.

[prairie dog]

Here's one I finished last night.  I put LMF walnut stain on this one.

[Roaddog]

Very nicely done.

[prairie dog]

Finished the third patch knife (top)

[sse]

Very good...should fetch a pretty penny off the blanket.

[prairie dog]

I learned some things while doing those.  Now I think I will see what I can do with these Old Hickory blades.

[prairie dog]

I thought to revisit this thread and show how I am progressing in my knife building.

This is my latest Old Hickory rebuild.  Maple slabs, brass pins, and a poured pewter bolster.


I just finished a Mountain Man butcher knife.  Green River blade, plain maple slabs, brass pins and of course, a tacky sheath.




I am feeling comfortable and competent with handle, finish, and pewter work so I have started to make some blades.  A visit to the scrap yard produced some old circular saw mill blades.  Here's a blank I cut out with a touch and annealed in the forage.



This is from the same material.  I've just begun to grind and shape the knife.  I am attempting to copy an English trade knife pattern.



When I get it ground down to shape I will harden and temper it.  If that works out well I am fairly sure I can finish it out nicely.

Please speak up if you see something I might be missing or could do to improve.

[Uncle Russ]

PD, Looking good!
Were you able to 'buff' that high shine on the blade?

The last time I tried buffing a shine on I used red ruge, the RPM on the buffer must have been too high  because the blade looked burnt in places to me.

Would you elaborate just a bit on that part?

 

Uncle Russ...

[prairie dog]

I had to grind down the tool marks with a very fine grit belt and some hand work before getting after it with the cloth buffing wheel and some polish applied.  If your blade has any scratches, file marks, or fine grind stone markings, the polish gets into those and won't buff out.  That might be what made your blade look burnished or burned.  The steel should be polished with successively finer grit paper until it is smooth before using polish and the buffing wheel.

My grinder has variable speed, I run it slow to load the cloth wheel with polish but run high to polish the blade.  Putting a knife blade to a high speed cloth wheel scares the bejesas out of me.  I wear heavy leather gloves and I intentionally took the edge off the knife before buffing it.  If that cloth wheel "grabs" an edge, the knife get away from you in a hurry.   I sharpened the blade with my Arkansas stones and smooth butchers steel after I finished it.  It's shaving sharp now.

[sse]

You're pretty good at this stuff...

[Spotted Bull]

Great looking knives there PD!!