Knives (handmade) 101 #14 Fighting Gear + I'm Back

docsmith (60)in #life • 8 years ago

Hello dear Steemians,

Yesterday, I've finally managed to get to my shop after almost three weeks. I was really having withdrawal symptoms.

It wasn't, what you would call, a productive day, I was kinda tired and got to my shop quite late, it was raining and I had to leave early since we were going to our friend's kid birthday party.

On the other hand, I don't have any outstanding builds or orders so I decided to just mess around a bit, and ended up making zombie apocalypse survival kit.

This kid that we were going to celebrate his BD got a wooden sword for his last birthday and ever since he's been begging for a matching shield. So what the hell - I'll make him one.
I was thinking it will be an easy job, but it ended up as a fun project that left both me and my shop in 2cm layer of sawdust.

I had some parquet boards glued from some previous project so I've cut out a basic design

I did the finer profiling on the grinder and "painted" his initials using some, well, paint

A bit of a linseed oil and a strap on the back (I forgot to take a pic) and it was all done

Oh, and this is the sword I've made for him last year

P.S. The kid went mental and started screaming like a Viking - didn't stop for two hours
P.P.S. His mom told me I'm not invited next year
P.P.P.S. I think I'll make him a war hammer next :)
P.P.P.P.S. It really isn't about the smile on kids face - it's about the misery on his parent's faces

Just as I was done with the shield it started raining and I didn't really feel like starting a new project, so I went to my TODO bucked to see if what could I find that won't be too demanding.
I ended up picking one of the hardest projects I've ever started - a Bowie knife.
I started this one close to a year ago and was done on the grinder except for the upper edge or swedge - see the arrow in the pic below. I've never actually done that ever and there was a fair chance I'll fu?#$k up so I've been avoiding it for a time now.

This is what it looked like until yesterday

I do all my grinding freehand, and to be honest, doing a swedge really is when you want to bring some kind of a jig in play. Which of course I didn't do.
So many things can go wrong when doing a swedge on a knife: the grind had to be at the perfect 90°, perfectly centred and equal on both sides. It's not impossible, but I haven't done something like that before and I was shitting my pants.

Anywho, I've managed, with almost no problems, to do a pretty good job.
This is a rough grind at 60 grit

I had some time before I had to go and I've done the hand-sanding to 240 grit on one side. Even though it was nerve racking, I am glad I finally did it, and I must say I'm kinda proud of myself that this project can now go on. There's still a lot of work to do, but I think it will be awesome when it's finally finished.

This is what it looks like now

That's it for...
Oh, one more thing. A friend of mine brought me a +50 kg of scrap steel, files and various tools that he had laying around left by his dad and grandad. There's some really amazing stuff there.

Some of the files are over 2kg and 100 years old - you should have seen the smile on my face :)

And that's it for now. Feel free to drop a comment below or have a look at some of my previous post on knife-making.

#craft #knife #zombie #wood

8 years ago in #life by docsmith (60)

Sort:

tanveerali (43) 8 years ago

Well come back great to see you again on your professional work.

$0.05

2 votes

[-]

glenalbrethsen (68) 8 years ago

I was wondering for the first bit of this post whether or not you were the one who made last year's sword for the kid or not. With the addition of the shield, instead of creating a monster, you created a viking.

And you're right. It should never be about the sheer joy on the faces of the children, but the utter disdain and dismay on that of the parents. It would be even better if the parents were your own children, but you take the victories where you can.

It's probably best, to avoid the boomerang effect, that the boy not be your grandchild, because then you, sword, shield and viking might have to be close to each other for extended periods of time.

That Bowie knife looks quite good. It seems the ones you sweat the most are the ones that come out the best. Mainly because you're paying the most possible attention and taking the most care? Anyway. You may have a future in Bowie knives.

$0.05

1 vote

[-]

docsmith (60) 8 years ago

Oh, I've been buying kids annoying toys for a long time :)

Bowie - I'm not sure I'll be getting into Bowie knives - it's just not my thing. It's a fun build and I do try to do an out-of-my-comfort-zone project every now and then, but there are so many guys out there that do them, and do them amazing, I just don't see any point.

$0.02

1 vote

[-]