On going project Colonial small lock back

[#goldpan]

Thanks Eric!

[#goldpan]

I gotta tell ya, the air is so bad around here you could cut it with a knife! Its been slow going in the shop. Between the triple digit weather and the smoke from all of wild land fires a burning around the state I have been feeling a bit ill. It was recommended that even folks without health issues stay inside. The air so nasty that I feel like I have the flu. So I forced myself into the shop yesterday and today and made some progress with these six knives.

I need to surface the liners and polish them. Then I can start drilling the pin holes. Today I finished shaping the handles and matching the paired frames. Whats that on the far right you ask? That's the mystery frame for this small knife and its going to be a good one! Integral liners and bolsters/handles. It almost three o'clock and I am worn down. I still need to list knives for my store so work in the shop is done for today. Stay tuned! More pics tomorrow

[#goldpan]

The liners have been ground flat and polished. Looking pretty good! However I broke my last 5/64 drill bit. So I'm off to Ace for drill bits. And its back to work!

The Delta breeze has kicked in cleaning out the dirty air and lowering the high temp for today down to 82 deg. It feels nice. The shop gonna comfortable all day! I hope to show more progress later tonight!

[glennbad]

Glad you have been able to get back into the shop, Randy. Your project is coming along nicely!

[#goldpan]

Thanks Glenn. I thought so as well until this........

I used a backing block so that it would not happen. And it did anyway. Maybe the wood was too dry, I don't really know. Even so I think there should have such big blow outs. Most are too deep the grind away. I will have to cut new pieces of ebony and start over. Perhaps on the new pieces I'll drill the holes before I shape the handles. Its never been an issue before. I still have the others to drill. But my frustration levels are telling me to walk away until I know how to stop this from happening on the others. Anyone have any suggestions? We'll see what happens when I come back upstairs to the shop on Sunday. I have to do my granddaughters back brakes Saturday and the front brakes on my motorcycle.

[ea42]

Randy that's really strange! Those are some huge blowouts, are you sure it's ebony? The only suggestions I have are use a solid backing block (as you did). Make sure your bit is sharp. Make sure it's spinning rather quickly, you don't want the drill at its slow speed. Don't drill through all at once, drill about a third of the way through, pull the bit out to clear the hole, drill another third and repeat, then complete but don't blast it through, go slow, peck at it if you have to. Also make sure you don't have any metal shavings hanging on to the end of the bit, especially if you're drilling a new hole through the scale at the same time as the handle material.

Sometimes on a lockback where you have a lot of holes near the butt of the knife, you'd be better off leaving the handle material a bit long and finish it off once the knife is together, like this (please excuse the really awful pic quality ) :

Eric

[#goldpan]

Thanks for the help Eric. I wasn't paying enough attention to my drill speed. I had slowed it down for some other work and never restored it to it normal speed. I have other ebony that looks denser and darker, so I am going to un-glue the wood and start over. I was using a new drill bit, but again I assumed it was sharp. They normally are. But its not a guarantee. Pics aren't bad at all. Nice looking horn! Came out nice too! So Sunday I'm going to cut some fresh ebony from a different source and get these done! The other wood frames should come out better. If they break I more than enough material back up to them again. With any luck I wont have to! Thanks again Eric. We will see have this comes out on Sunday!

[ea42]

Sounds good Randy, good luck!

Eric

[#goldpan]

Well I kicked up the drill speed and went a step further. I used painters tape. Between those two changes the holes came out nice! Thanks Eric! Now to replace the ebony and continue.

[#goldpan]

These three are looking good! I wont pin them together until I get the ebony replaced on the other liners. This is a nice change. The handle covers top to bottom. Manzanita, Walnut and Brazilian Cherry. These three will not get the ivory stripes. Only the ebony ones will. I'm done for the day. I even did my errands this morning before working in the shop. Its Beer:30! We will see how far we get tomorrow! Thanks again Eric. I kicked the speed up on the drill press like you suggested and used painters tape for extra insurance! They came out just like they should!

[ea42]

Looking good Randy, I'm glad it worked!!

Eric

[#goldpan]

Making progress! Here is where I stand now.

Here is a family portrait minus the busted out ebony.

Here are the ebony pieces all glued and dried and ready to drill.

Here is the new ebony handles all drilled and ready to go!

And here are the parts for the mystery knife!

I hope to get the these three ready for pins soon. I still need to shape the ebony handles then the pins go in. The mystery knife handles are almost done as well. Soon there will three ebony knives ready for their ivory stripes. You'll get to choose soon Greg! I'll post the pics here, but I will send you a PM with separate, up close pics and you can choose which one you like the most! I'm going to try to finish by Monday. Finished or not I'm taking a couple of days to go Salmon fishing next week!

[glennbad]

Coming along nicely, Randy!

[gsmith7158]

It's looking good Randy! Can't wait to see them finished!

[#goldpan]

Were coming right along! I need to pick up some finishing supplies and get back to finishing. The knife with the cutting bit next to it as been a devil so far. This one has had the handles changed three times due to cracking. I got it put together and looking good. However the spring is weak so I will have to cut it apart and replace the spring. No big deal, just more time. Once the bolsters are ground and polished and the handles are finished I'll add the ivory to the three ebony knives. Every day its a getting closer!

[glennbad]

Looking good, Randy!

[#goldpan]

Thanks Glenn! Here are some pics of where I'm at on these knives. Backs have ground and the bolsters are almost done being ground. Next step is polishing of the all of them except the ebony. After I repair the spring on the other I can grind and polish it as well. Then the ivory stripes will be inlaid. I woke up with the flu this morning so I don't know how much will be done today. Decided not to go Salmon fishing this week. Been felling a little off since Sunday, now I know why!

[#goldpan]

Its been a while since I updated this thread. I'm getting closer as the pics show! Next I need to do the finish sanding and then contour the edges of the knives and finish shaping the bolsters. When these are ready I'll do the final finish on the others as well. These are the two you get to choose from Greg! But wait until they are both finished. There some big differences between these two that may not show in these pics. I will high light the differences when they are done!

The biggest thing that I have learned is that cutting the channels for the inlays is hard to get right when you don't have the right tools for the job! Its all hand work for me. Its been fun and challenging, as well one heck of a learning curve! I plan on doing some more of this kind of work so I'm looking for the right equipment to do the job. In this case I need to machine cut the channels to make sure that the channel is uniform in depth and the sides are straight. With bad hands and a bad neck this kind of work lends itself to a painful neck and shoulders after a few hours of work. I know what I need to do the inlays with more precision. A rotating machinist vise. I have a machinist vice that I use with my drill press but it only adjusts on the X and Y axis. They make them that sit on a turn table and that is what I need. This way the cuts are uniform and the angle is adjustable. So I am saving what little ivory that I have left until I can get one those vices.

[gsmith7158]

They look great Randy! I'll wait till you point out the differences. You can wait and ship it with the 72's I send.

[americanedgetech]

Thanks Glenn. I thought so as well until this........IMGP0002.JPG I used a backing block so that it would not happen. And it did anyway. Maybe the wood was too dry, I don't really know. Even so I think there should have such big blow outs. Most are too deep the grind away. I will have to cut new pieces of ebony and start over. Perhaps on the new pieces I'll drill the holes before I shape the handles. Its never been an issue before. I still have the others to drill. But my frustration levels are telling me to walk away until I know how to stop this from happening on the others. Anyone have any suggestions? We'll see what happens when I come back upstairs to the shop on Sunday. I have to do my granddaughters back brakes Saturday and the front brakes on my motorcycle.

There are two things that may help this issue that I can add (beyond the post that followed yours)

1) actually clamping the stock to a backer
2) Brad point drill bits... set your depth of cut so the point just breaks the back surface then you can flip the piece, and finish the cut from the back side.

The BEST method is combining undersized Brad point bits, and the appropriate sized ream to finish the cut

Those are some very handsome knives sir, and your skill is admirable. I hope my methods above will help.