New Build - "Cronus"

It's that exciting time again when one build ends and a new one begins.  I still get the feelings of exhilaration upon seeing a pile of raw materials and picturing in my minds eye what the final knife will look like and how it will feel in my hand.  I thought I would try something a little different than my usual drop point knives.  The Cronus design has a nice clip-point blade and a gentle curve to the handle.  I've made this design once before on a knife I made for my sister a couple year ago.  It turned out great then and I hope I can repeat the success on this one.

This is where the proverbial rubber hits the road, the assembly of the raw materials.  CPM154 for the blade, 6AL4V titanium for the liners, 416 stainless steel for the bolsters and spacer, and finally some dyed and jigged bone for the scales.  This is the first time I've used bone, so this is a step into the unknown for me.  Should be exciting.

After several hours of grinding, drilling and hole tapping, here are the major parts of the knife laid out.  The blade is wrapped in tool wrap and ready for heat treatment.

I chose to go with front bolsters only on this knife.  In the photo above, the bolsters have been dovetailed at 30 degrees and screwed to the liners.  I thought it would be interesting to show how to work with natural materials that are not flat.  It can be a challenge to create the dovetails and even to drill the holes in material that is not flat on both sides.

The first step is to make sure that the backs of the scales are absolutely flat so that there is no gap between them and the liners.  The disk sander is the tool for the job.  Here are the scales after they have been flattened.

Because the dovetail end of the bolsters are not square with the angle of the liners, by design mind you, the front end of the scales are ground at an angle to match.  Here are the scales set in place to verify that the front angles match up correctly with the bolsters.  Looks good.

The next step is to create the bevels on the front of the scales that will mate up with the bolsters.  Because this bevel needs to be on the top side of the scales, I tip my tool rest down to 30 degrees so that the flat side of the scale can rest on the table.  I have an angle gauge block that I use to set this angle.  Being able to tip the rest forward makes this whole process possible.

Here is the first bolster after the bevel has been set.

Test fitting the scales to the bolsters shows that the fit is tight and that there is enough material to completely cover the area of the handle.

This is where it gets a little tricky working with natural materials.  The only flat side of the scales is the back side, so flipping the scales over on their faces to drill screw holes to match those of the liners just doesn't work.  So, in order to accomplish the drilling, I made this little jig.  It's no more than a square piece of tubing with a large hole drilled through it.  The scale gets clamped in place to the liner and the assembly gets inverted and clamped to the inside of the jig.  This essentially inverts the assembly and puts the flat side up so a hole can be drilled through the scale perpendicular to the liner.  Simple, but it works great.

Here's the handle assembled for the first time after the edges of the scales have been profile ground to match the liners.  In the photo you can see how the dovetail joint looks.  I think it's a detail worth the extra work.

The last process that I was able to complete was the shaping of the handle.  After a lot of work at the grinder and buffer, the handle is looking nice and shiny.  I really liked working with the bone.  It ground easily, polished nicely, and the final product looks great.  I'm going to have to use more of this stuff in the future.  I don't believe that I will leave the mirror finish on the bolsters.  I may texture them, or I may do my standard satin finish.  I'll mull that decision over for the next few days.

Thanks for your interest in my work and for following along with me on my knife-making adventures.

-  Brandant Robinson