Hate wood so much

When my brother-in-law gave me some wood for handle material, he also gave me a draw knife to sharpen for him- and then requested that I also make him some handles. That's kept me busy for most of the day. I didn't make handles out of Ironwood, though. Too tough xfd

So, anyway. I finally have the profile of the knife handles aaalmost ready. I just need to grind off a little bit more, and they're good. I used double sided tape to secure both handle halves to each other to ensure an even grind on both handles. Here's some pictures from the knife handle:

I should note that I retraced an outline of the knife handle onto the wood in a place where it wouldn't have too much glue in tact. once it was cut out properly, I pried the two scales apart and taped them together with double sided tape. I took it to the belt grinder (which for some reason worked much better this time,) and ground it down some more.

This is very near the final result. Just a bit more grinding and then I'll epoxy it onto the knife. :O

My fingers are falling off.

Okay, so I've learned something today: There's a reason it's called desert Ironwood. That shit is HARD. Sawing for a good 15 minutes and I've sawed through all of 4" of it. Good golly, and it's not easy, either.

@Grimsy: Yes, I'll be posting a finished product on here, sooner or later!

@Dan: Hopefully I'll be able to get one done this weekend. Right now I'm cutting the wood (obviously,) and after that it's a matter of shaping, sanding, and epoxying. There won't be any pins, but with how strong epoxies are these days, they're more of an aesthetic than anything else.

Wellp, back to sawing and killing my fingers.

Fricken awersome.

My brother in law dropped by earlier tonight and dropped off some wood for me! I have a few boards of Desert Ironwood (enough for probably a dozen knives, or more!) and some white oak wood, too. This is just fucking awesome. It's a little rough, and there's a few small nails in it here and there, but it's great condition.

I also gave him some DVDs for the first and third season of The Big Bang Theory. I love that show.

Purchases!

Alright, so last night I'm sitting here at the PC, and I decide to head over to my favourite knife maker's supplier, Jantz.
I'm picking out parts I want- grocery shopping, if you will. Handle parts, mostly. Some sanding belts, epoxy, etc. Nothing fancy.
Handle materials, though. Here's what I've been looking at:

Black Paper Micarta Scales
Banded Azurite/Malachite
Chrysocolla
Jade
Malachite
Variscite


The Black Paper Micarta Scales are dirt cheap, so I'll probably get two or three of those regardless, but I can't decide on what handle materials I want to use for my gift to Sonia. She liked the Variscite, but you know... I really think finding a way to put the Black Paper Micarta and the Banded Azurite/Malachite could be stunning, possibly with some brass or nickel silver bolsters.

 

 

(As of this moment, I purchased some pins, epoxy, two scales of the Black Paper Micarta, some sandpaper [for a proper finish job,] stainless steel for fittings, and a bar of 1095 hi-carbon steel!)

 

Unfortunately, until these items come, all I can do it grind out the last of my O1 tool steel, and quench it. I can't finish any knives, or even give them a proper polishing.

 

Oh yeah! I'll remember to convert any future videos so they're not so fuckhuge. I should be able to reduce the size to about 1/7th or 1/8th previous size.

I'm quite lucky, I guess.

It's so easy for the quench to go wrong (especially since I've been forgetting to normalize the steel, first [bringing the steel to the upper critical temperature, and then letting it air cool],) and this is the second success I've had.
Hot out of the forge and into the oven!
I broke off the cement (which didn't pop off during the quench this time) using my horse nail clippers, while holding it with the pliers. Here's how it looked immediately after washing it off with some dawn:

After these pictures, I pulled out some 80 grit sand paper and gave it a quick rubdown before throwing it in the toaster oven at 450ºF:

lol dirty fingers

Busy busy morning.

Haven't slept since the last post. I keep odd hours- wake up at 5pm, head to bed around 1pm. It varies.
Anyway, it's nice out this morning, seen here:

I figured I may as well get the quench of my second blade out of the way while I can. I don't know what the weather's supposed to be like today, and by golly I am too lazy to look it up. Yes yes, I'm at a computer already, SPARE ME YOUR LOGIC.
I've got the forge going right now, blade's already in. While I'm waiting for the steel to reach the critical temp (this is determined either by color [unrecommended, inaccurate, and unreliable,] or testing it with a magnet- steel demagnetizes at critical temp,) I'm drafting poorly drawn designs for my next two blades on graph paper. Depending on the size of the blades, there might only be one from this piece of steel.
Regardless, I'll draw up a few designs, try to get them scanned in, and I'll let you (and a few other sites) vote on which design to go with.
I'll take some short video here and there of the grinding process, more than likely. Remember that I'm still extremely new (this next knife will only be my third ever 'made,') and that I'm not used to talking on camera. As such, expect a shaky voice and stuttering.

I hate the rain.

It's been raining today, and late last night, too. I haven't had a chance to take the forge back outside and fire it up, to finish this second blade. Hopefully tomorrow's a better day, and I can take care of it then.

I'd also like to clarify something: The pictures in the previous post aren't mine. They're from a topic (which is linked underneath the last picture) on a knife maker's forum. I'm sorry if anyone thought it was my work- I'm a VERY long way from having the skill (and even the resources) to make a sword like that.
Creating a damascus blade is actually part of the test for becoming a master smith in the ABS, from what I understand (other criteria includes cutting through two pine 2x4s and then without sharpening, shaving underarm hair.)