Almost There!

I was able to sneak in a few hours out in the shop this last weekend.  Not as many as I would have liked, but at least I made some good progress.  During those few hours I was able to get one of the two knives that I have on my bench almost complete.  Here is what I was able to get done.

 First off, this is the setup that I use when hollow grinding my blades.  For the time being, I only have a 6" contact wheel to use for hollow grinding.  I hope to be able to afford an 8" wheel in the near future, but until then, the 6" wheel gets the job done quite well.  I have a small work rest that I move back and forth when grinding each side of the blade.  I also have two LED lights that I use from different angles in order to keep my work area well lighted.

 I use a shop-made file guide attached to the tang of my blades in order to keep the plunge lines symmetrical.  I rest the spine of the blade on the tool rest as I draw the blade across the belt.  I use to grind without the work rest, but I've found that I can get much better, more even results if I use the rest.

Here's the blade after the grinding is complete.  It's almost at a mirror polish, which will make the hand satin finish easy to achieve.  Without a doubt, this is the best hollow grind that I have been able to achieve to date.  I'm very excited with how this little blade turned out.  I still have a lot of work left to polish and satin finish this blade, but that will all be done by hand.

One of the last things that needs to be done before final finishing is to cut and fit the lock into the liner.  I've shown this before, but my process for doing this is to blacken the liner with a black marker at the area of the lock, mark where the blade tang is in the open position, and scratch a line with a razor blade.  The photo above shows the liner ready to be cut.

Here's the liner after the lock bar has been cut.  The next series of steps involves filing the lock face until it engages the tang in just the right position, setting the detent ball into the lock, and drilling the detent hole in the blade tang.  I didn't get any photos of these steps, but I will try to get some pics with the second knife.

Here is the knife completely assembled.  I'm really please with how this little knife is turning out.  It has a solid lockup, the blade centers perfectly between the liners, and the detent ball snaps the blade shut really well.  You can also see that a thumb notch has been cut into the front liner, bolster, and scale, in order to make disengaging the lock possible with one hand.

This knife is getting close to the finish line.  Only a few more things left to do including putting the finishing treatment on the blade and handle, etching the blade, and anodizing the liners.  Thanks for stopping by the Robinson Edge.

-  Brandant Robinson