This last weekend, I was able to make some good progress on the second "Virtue" knife. Most of the work accomplished was grinding and finishing the blade. I'm really starting to get the hang of using my new grinder and I'm very pleased with the grinds I have been able to achieve. Grinding goes a little faster and looks a little better each time I grind a blade. I guess that can be chalked up to experience. Here are a few progress photos of the weekend's work.
In the above photo, I have ground the blade up through 120 grit and established the plunge lines and the top of my grind. From here on out, I use the time-honored Sharpey technique to keep a close eye on the grind progress. It's an extremely complicated technique - I'm being sarcastic here - where one scribbles on the blade with black ink and grinds it off again. The light in the above pic is reflecting off the blade grind, but it has been painted with black Sharpey ink.
Here is what the blade looks like after a single pass at 220 grit. You can see that there is some black ink left on the blade. This shows me that the entire surface of the grind is not in contact with the grinding belt. As the belt grits go up, and the abrasive particles go down in size, the circumference of the grinding surface actually decreases, accounting for what you see above. This is solved simply by grinding a few more passes until the black ink is gone and the scratches from the previous grits are sanded away.
Here is the blade after it has been mirror polished up through 3000 grit, followed by a cork belt charged with pink scratchless compound. Next, I polish the spine and tang edges up to a mirror polish too so that they are bright and shiny. I know it's a little overkill to take a blade that will receive a hand-rubbed satin finish up to a mirror polish, but I really hate to sand by hand and I can go from here, directly to a few strokes by hand to get that soft, satin look.
Here is the completed blade with a 600 grit hand finish and my maker's mark etched into the side. I really took my time on this blade and was able to achieve a great finish. I can't wait to see what this knife will look like when I get it completed.
This is the last photo I took of the weekend progress made on this knife. Honestly, I got caught up in the process, zoned out of everything else in life, and completely forgot to take more pics. I seem to do that a lot, don't I? Anyway, the above pic shows one of the liners getting it's embellishments through hand filing. The pattern that I chose for the liners on this knife is as simple as they come. I use a small round file and make semi-circular cuts every 1/8", giving a scolloped look to the inside edge of the liner. I wanted to keep it simple since the spacer is fairly ornate in design. I think they will compliment each other quite well.
What you don't see above, what I missed taking pictures of, was the processes of cutting and fitting the lock, and setting the closed and detent ball positions. I have shown these processes before in previous posts, so if you are curious as to how I accomplish these tasks, just scroll back through earlier posts and you'll find the information you're looking for.
The next step will be to finish off the scales for this knife. If you recall, this knife gets fitted with titanium scales. My plan is to add some artful texturing to the surface and maybe play a little bit with colors through anodizing. I'll be sure to do a better job of documenting that process.
I hope you are enjoying following along with me on this build. I'm sure having a great time with it. It won't be long now before the knife will be finished. As soon as I do, I'll get some good photos taken of it and the other "Virtue" knife and post them to my "Available Knives" page on the blog for some lucky person to add to his/her collection. Thanks for stopping by the Robinson Edge.
- Brandant Robinson
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