Post by Shorttime on Sept 30, 2018 19:10:01 GMT -8
I've gotten quite a lot of progress without wrecking anything. I was even able to fix the ricasso, when the file skated off the shallow end of the bevel shoulder.
The file rough side looks better than the 150 finish side.
Every time I approach some kind of landmark with this, I wonder if this is the moment I'm going to mess it up. Usually, I feel some kind of satisfaction with these builds.
Yes, okay. "Builds", for lack of a better word.
Normally, there is some kind of satisfaction in getting the bevels set, but this time it was "oh, that's done, now time to try not to screw something else up."
At the same time, I couldn't quit. I suppose that's the definition of masochism.
I'm going to take the bevels up to 220, and then try to finish the rest of it. I'll have plenty more chances to get the guard flats uneven, and then I can work on a way to punch holes for handle pins. Maybe I'll try drill bits.
Last Edit: Sept 30, 2018 19:11:27 GMT -8 by Shorttime
Most of the time, I have no problem throwing things away, but this is not the case with steel scraps. If it's anything more than about one square inch, I have the feeling I can do something else with it. It's just that, up to now, I haven't known exactly what.
Playing one of those complicated card games with the kid made me realize that there is an opportunity to make some custom markers/tokens/pogs for these kinds of games. With a stub of pattern-welded steel laying around, there was no question: I had to start there.
It took me most of the day, because eyeballing the half circles was maddening. It was supposed to look like a gear, but it was also a practice piece, and nobody's going to know unless I tell them that. I'm limited by the fact that I don't have a lot of precision tools.
I figured I wouldn't get too fancy with this one. Leaving big flat surfaces will show off the pattern of the two metals, and I learned what I needed to. Normally, the practice is to polish, then etch, to bring out the pattern. In this case, I'm going to let skin oils patina it naturally. I can always re-polish and etch, later. I showed it to the kid, and he liked it, so I'm calling that a win.
Last Edit: Oct 27, 2018 16:20:43 GMT -8 by Shorttime
I don't know if this is interesting to anybody else, but it was really interesting to me. Now, the goal was to harden it, and I have no idea if I did that, or not.
But the heat patina made it look like it has some serious stories to tell. Heat-treated or not, I'm finally satisfied.
Some pencil and paper bravery for early Sunday morning.
The kiridashi is associated with the art of Origami, and it's also marketed to luthiers, because it's very good at making small, precise cuts. An artisinal hobby knife, if you will.
Then, you get some lout like me who starts experimenting with the basic pattern to see where a kiridashi loses it's distinct identity, and turns into a steak knife, or a so-called "camp knife", a blurry definition on it's own.
This is just the idea of "what if you just make it bigger?" Your average bushcraft knife has a blade of 4.5" to 5", so I swung for a cutting edge length that was about the same. Turns out, I didn't miss by 1/4 of an inch, I overshot by 1/4 of an inch.
What I learned is that you can make a kiridashi any size you want. What makes it recognizable is the blade to handle ratio. If the blade is longer than the handle, or nearly equal, you have a fairly conventional looking knife on your hand. It's only when the handle is longer than the blade, that you start to get something that looks... kiridash-like....
I'm still trying to find the lower limit of that ratio, and I'm pretty sure the upper limit is somewhere below a hatchet. Although copying the blade:handle ratio of a hatchet, with kiridashi proportions would be interesting.
Oh. Yes. Who cares?
Well, me. I like understanding things, from how subatomic particles work, to how consciousness manifests. So, this is another small step in the process of understanding knife design. I grant that it's nothing special to anybody else, but hey: there's a picture.....
I've quoted Antoine de Saint-Exupery before, and his philosophy about how to achieve perfection has informed my knife designs.
This round of drawings started with the Chris Reeve Nyala Insingo.
There wasn't much to connect with it when I started sketching, though.
I was messing with a version of the Randall Gambler at the same time, and there was an inevitable mashup.
I was pretty happy with those for a while, until I saw a post about the Great Eastern Cutlery "Whaler" pattern. I figured I'd try and riff off of it, because those things are seriously expensive.
I came up with what's on the right, but I can't leave well enough alone. So, I started bending proportions and importing concepts from the other stuff. I came up with something that seemed like it should be called the Fishbone.
I have no idea why. The one on the left is a later sketch, but it fits in with the general pattern of the next couple.
And now, I'm stuck. I've found a shape that I don't think I can improve. It's too simple to remove anything else.
Now what?
Well, bite off of other people's work, of course.
Miller Bros Blades does some big, rough, nasty looking combat knives, and short of going full Dark Ops, this is about as far in the other direction as I can go.
These drawings are actually one stage removed from the "original".
Why am I sharing this? The hell if I know. The only reason I can think of is that it helps me map the process, and hope that gives me some idea of either how to move forward, or figure out where I get stuck, so I can stop it from happening. Maybe the uneven progress is a result of this being completely stream of consciousness.
Why should you care? Beats me, son. This is the internet. How you waste your time is your business.
Last Edit: Jan 27, 2019 10:13:15 GMT -8 by Shorttime
More graph paper dickery. I present, the Shoebill.
Wait. Um...
Yeah, there it is. The resemblance is kind of hard to see, unless you park them side by side.
I have no intention of ever trying to fabricate this chunk of cutlery. I guess it would weigh about 24 ounces, the blade is 5.25" across the guard, and the balance point would be right about where the ricasso ends.
The problems are not so much it's impracticality, as the pure pain it would to fabricate.
I know that, through the magic of the Internet, I could sell this monster, if I cut it out. 5 1/4" across the width, and just under 17", on the long axis. The intention with the bevel and the fuller is that it's supposed to look like somebody cut down a bigger knife to make something for serious social purposes.
Is any of that obvious from the finished drawing? Nah, probably not. I guess it's enough that I know what I was trying to do.
Those bevels would be impossible, and I would need to have a one-off tool, and somebody with a big Bridgeport, to get the fuller right. Needless to say, this was a design exercise.