beeswax

So, Andy, Don't leave me hanging ;) What's a french polish? Do I need to be french to do it? Cool sword display by the way. Do you ever make your own?

GA

I didn't. Mighta passed that one over though depending on the rating...

mmm. Have to experiment with that one. What happens when you scratch it though? Can it be polished out?

Heard of the superglue thing before... somthing about it soaking into the wood better? Most superglue that I've seen comes in really small bottles though. Does it polish up glassy bright?

Discovered that sanding the Danish oil on wood will clog up paper in a big hurry. Same with the super glue? Never would dream of using Aluminum Oxide on wood though. Don't you get discoloration?

Cool! I got two handles I'm doing right now. The hatchet and the Utility knife. I just got through placing and shaping (yeah, did it in that order - never again) the bolsters on the Utility blade. Been getting by without a drill press up to know. Doing bolsters is not real forgiving of the kind of slop that comes with a hand drill though :/ I accidently oversized one hole trying to countersink it and got another a bit angled. Had some other weirdness occur. Fortunately the brass material is easily cold forged so with everything in place, I hammered the $&?#! out of it and then sanded and filed. Dumb ass bit of work but it's starting to look OK now. The pins don't blend in like they should but it's doable. Learned some valuable lessons... Got to get both blades finished by Christmas then I can get back to the swords ;-)

GA

Shellac is an ingredient. French polishing is a technique. All french polish uses shellac, not everything done with shellac is a french polish.

French polish has several techniques, but the core of it is the application of a great many, very thin coats of shellac, rubbed out between coats. Generally it's applied with a "rubber", a cloth pad, rather than a brush. Because the surface is built up from so many thin coats, you get a very high sheen and good clarity to the timber beneath.

For the rest of it, read Flexner's book (probably the best all-around woodfinishing introduction) or George Frank's (probably the best on french polishing).

Display ! That's the ready-use rack. The display-only swords are on the other wall. Those two are remounts for iaido, because I wanted a katana with a real handle to it, not just a short one (I normally use one of my WW2 shin gunto). I haven't used them in those mounts yet as I still haven't done the handle wraps.

Years ago I (badly) forge welded a Norse pattern welded sword. I don't really do much smithing. Most of the metalworking I do is cut-weld-grind in sheet or tube to make furniture, but these days I mainly do wood.

Yes.

Super glue may give you a super shine as a wood finish, but I wouldn't use as an adhesive in knife making. Super glue bonds get rather brittle with age and a hard knock can cause the bond to break.

Let's put it this way: Super glue is what's used to fill the minute voids in boulder opal before the stuff is polished. So yes, it will polish to a glass-like shine.

The preferred brand among lapidaries is "Hot Stuff". Comes in a number of different grades.

If you want a glass-like shine on a knife handle. Personally I'd just wax it after finishing and buff it out for a temporary shine. That way you can have the shine for display, but if someone wants to use the knife, they're not stuck with a slicker-than-owlshit handle.

Some, but not as bad. If I was going to use super glue on a piece of wood I'd take it through all but the last stage of finishing before I applied the super glue.

--RC Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent

Thanks for the info. I rather suspected that was the case. I'll have to try it some time. Having observed that Danish oil didn't seem to go in too deep or create a very hard layer I had just recently soaked some handle material in it. Turned out to be a bad idea. It soaked in alright but is still weeping after several days. Thought I'd try baking it in the toaster oven and then decided I'd better check the warnings on the lable. That was a better idea to a REALLY bad idea. Harmful vapors, Rags spontaneously combust (looking sideways at the rag I used to wipe up a spill on my bench), cancer causing agents. I think I'm going to use other things in the future. Heard it was good stuff but I'm not impressed.

Sorry, wasn't implying anything ;-) I've got a co-worker who wants to be a collector and has one authentic piece. He keeps telling me I should buy one and I keep telling him I'd rather make it. Don't really have a use for one beyond display purposes. I'll keep one or two around the house to hang on the wall and maybe have handy in the unlikely odds my house gets picked for a home invasion, but once made, they'll probably end up as gifts like the knives I've made to date (or sell for more tools and supplies). Not good or experienced enough yet to consider actually marketing them. Lots of fun to do though.

I'd like to do forge welding at some point. First I want to make some Mokume to use for fittings and such. The best thing about the hobby is that it opens up a lot of avenues for crafting in general. My daughter wanted a loop to make a Dream Catcher - I said "I can do that!" and had it nocked out in stainless steel in nothing flat ;)

GA

English made, funny accents;) and rated R for sure. (sort of?) True story so it's cool as anything that way. :)

I suppose it can, either be "level" with the woods surface or built up very thick or anything in between. Brownell's is really into all that specialized wood finishing stuff and is prob'ly -the- place to go for shiny wood finishes and information too.

Got a Brownell's catalog?

I'm not into "coated" wood. I don't want the finish to be higher than the original wood's surface. That limits what I know about any of this business. :/

Andy's way ahead of me there, even if he has a funny accent. ;)

The best stuff I've seen so far, Andy and others claim epoxy can be had that can soak-in better, problem is, I have no idea where to get any of that thin-pure-type epoxy. :/

For any sort of production (like selling knives) I'd look seriously into Andy's thin epoxy.

That hasn't presented a problem to -me- so far. Actually the other way around, regular thin-glue turns into gel if it sets around too long. BTDT with a couple brand new plastic-bottled "brush applicator inside" ones turned to gel before I got around to opening them the first time. :/ Metal tubes for me from now on. :/

Kinda disapointed, I thought I was fixin' to be shittin in tall cotton with that brush and the larger quanity too. ;)

I guess it can be, I'm not into that really. :/

Scot Slobodian (sp?) is where I first heard of SG's use on handles. GA you might consider trying out the "knife-list" email list if you have time for it. That's where i first heard about it, SS said he used SG for his handles.

Well it is plastic, so I can't say it doesn't, but it surprized me how cool super glue was too sand. I have some heavy-papered 600 grit reddish colored AlOx Norton sand paper I got from brownell's about 15 years ago.

Are you confusing AlOx paper-for-wood with SiC wet-or-dry paper?

Emery is a black form of AlOx and it's for metal and usually glued to cloth. I don't like it. Never did anything for me I couldn't do better with something else. Cloth backed clear AlOx (usually brown cloth) is another story tho, they seem to take more care in the sifting of the grain size there. Emery cloth is a half-assed excuse for grit sizes? Since it doesn't use numbers... fine, medium, coarse and extra coarse is all I've ever seen it in. :/

And for rough work the black emery grain seems too "friable?" too. Black emery is a natural product they dig up somewhere and glue it to cloth. ;)

Drilling is tricky sometimes. :/

For pocket knife blades I drill first then shape everything around the hole.

You mean counter sink the edges right? (not ream it out)

Do that by hand. I have counter sinks (even a dremel sized one) mounted in old key type drill chucks.

Since I was a young guy, I figured the main difference between skilled and un-skilled crafstman was the skilled craftsman can cover up his mistakes and make it look like it was supposed to be that way all along. :)

Ok so a guy learns not to make so many mistakes but that's never eleminated and the skilled guy saves it. (?)

Don't know how true this is anymore but read about a knife maker that lathe-like-cut his brass pins down from brass machine screws because it was the only stuff that was the same color as the available bolster material. It was in a knifemaking book.

I don't have a drill press and don't plan to get one. :/

What I use are 1000rpm (max) single speed hand drills and special extension cords I've made with a light dimmer in series. The speed is controlled with the light dimmer and it's set and stays put until I re-adjust it, as opposed to a couple pretty nice variable speed drills I have. They vary in speed even like the one with a screw to limit the trigger pull, the speed still varies some, sometimes.

I can't use a hand drill any better than anyone else... I won't give up my single speed drills with the light dimmer, they make drilling a nice hole, easy as pie. They make me look like I know what I'm doing. :)

A drill press could be better but then the skill switches to the setting up part of it, not the drilling. So hobby wise, it's less handmade?

Alvin in AZ

I just bought about 8#'s for $2.75 a #. Dark and dirty still had some dead bees in it. Got it at a place called "Betterbee" in Greenwich NY (Upstate). I don't know if they have a web site or not.

enjoy

;) Not really all that hung up on ratings. Sounds like a movie I might watch. English humour is classic. Not sure how Andy will feel about that comment... My favorite modern comedy was "Office Space". Kind of like an exaggerated play off lots of real world elements of the folks I deal with at work all the time- If you tell anybody I said that I'll deny everything.

It's come to my attention these days that I'm "catalog deprived". Funny, I've always been aware of them in the environment but just never seemed to aquire them. Got the internet for that. But then you often need to know what you're looking for.

Seems like the only way to preserve some of the really fancy grains would be to put a glass like finish on them. I just tore down a kind of wood plate zylophone kind of thing we scrounged up somewhere years ago. The wife decided she wanted it gone since it's just sat in the corner for a lot of years. I realized the wood slabs that you tapped for tones were some really cool wood. Ebony or somthing really dark and reddish and HARD. Thought I was going to make scales out of them till I got to looking closely. They're cut pretty odd and the only scales of a usable size that could be made would have to be really thin stuff. Beautiful wood grain though. Make a good inlay material...

Had tube of two ton epoxy out in the garage that kind of seeped out all over the place. What a mess. I went and bought some Gorrilla glue. Thought I'd give it a try instead. Much nicer bottling.

I am on the list. Kind of just lurking at present. Not sure I fully understand how it works. I get email conversations in my inbox and have replied and got responces but I feel like I'm missing part of the picture.

Hmm. Could be. I use a lot of the black stuff they sell in the automotive stores 'cause thats the only thing I could find in the really fine grit around here for metal. :-) Just got a set of EDM stones from McMaster-Carr though (up to 600 grit). Can't wait to try them out.

Got a big roll of 1" wide red AlO that I use for all my first pass sanding and oxidation removal. Also a roll of the black mesh stuff that is a little finer. I try to stick with the tan wood sanding paper for handle material.

Don't think I have anything that is true Emery.

Thats pretty much what I've been doing. Most of the handle shaping is done in place on the knife. Don't have to glue it but with the pins holding it snug together I get a better feel for what I'm doing and can pull it apart to do trickier stuff.

The first is what I wanted to do and the second is what happened :/

Have to try and locate one of those...

Don't know about the skilled part but yeah, thats me ;) ... to greater or lesser degrees at times. I figure in the end you get what you get and try to do better the next time.

Not so worried about color matching (within reason) but I'm shooting for a tight fusion anyway. The bolsters in this case are not as seamless as I wanted but it's all holding tight. Kind of limited in material matching by what was available. Pins are my usual brazing rod and the bolster material started out life as a grease bearing. Maleable and brass looking.

Up to now I never really felt the need for one. Got a christmas present that I won't get to play with till after (you guessed it) Christmas ;-) It's a Craftsman All-in-One rotary thing that can operate as a plunge router, angle grinder and hand held cutter/grinder type thing (with the attachments). Should work well for doing more precise drilling among other things.

;-) So there really is some truth to the McGiver slanders.

I'm not adverse to using whatever tools come to hand, but in my limited space (and budget) I don't need a lot of large shop tools getting in the way. Pretty satisfied with my blade crafting capabilities but it's the Fit and Finish stuff that kills me. Would like one of them fancy bench grinders made especially for hollow grinding knives... ;) But as they say, its the skills that need to be developed, not the tools.

GA

Just picked up a bottle of stuff from the local hardware store that is a mixture of beeswax and Carnauba (and other things). Haven't had a chance to try it yet but it sounded promising.

GA

that it does,, I've also had the same thing happen when using 5 minute set-up epoxy,, but so far not with the 2 hour set-up epoxy,, even on fillet knives that have exotic hardwood slab handles just glued to a full tank handled blade. I do degrease the blade and the wood slabs with a short soak in laquer thinner and allow them all to air dry for a day before mounting the slabs. I do use superglue as a pore sealer on the slabs after they are ground to shap and finish sanded just before taking the knife to the buffer

The first rays of dawn make the mushrooms scream. I think with careful cultivation I can make them do "Ode to Joy".