Catching Up

Been a few days...

A big purchase for me. A 10 ton hydraulic press from Baileigh. Such a nice tool! Very well made...and it's sure to get put through the paces. I've been wanting a press for a long time.

This idea has been in my head a while. A clamp that goes around the lanyard hole when I install knife handles.

The I.D. is 3/8" and 3/8" deep to fit over a 5/16" lanyard tube and the screw is 10-24. Then I can tighten the screw and let it sit while the epoxy dries. I'll probably make at least one more.

I started running low on handle material, so I cut some burlap and a liner to make a new block of micarta.

Two new Tacti-Hunters awaiting their turn in the kiln. As of writing, these are heat treating and awaiting handles. My grinder and I weren't getting along very well...and you'll see why momentarily.

I got bored the other morning and thought I'd check the edge retention on the first Tacti-Hunter. The oak never stood a chance! It did a fine job slicing the paper afterwards.

Um...yeah..so...like...screw it...the picture speaks for itself.

Pizza break on Saturday night! I'm ending my run of Saturday pizzas. I've explored my taste in pizza about as far as I'm ever going to. I'm going to find a new culinary adventure for my Saturday evenings.

Look close under the base of the square and you'll see a slight dip. This is the platen that I grind blades against. That dip is throwing off my grinds. Time for a little rework. It doesn't take much here to make the grinds get all wonky.

I had to take about .010" off the face of the platen to make it flat again. I will work on a harder platen surface to replace this with. I can use glass or maybe steel. I knew from the get-go that aluminum was probably the wrong material...but you gotta go with what you got.

While I was working on the platen, I put radii on the corners. This will change the plunge grinds a little bit, but will also take some stress off of my grinding belts when cutting plunges. We'll see when the next batch of knives is finished up.

The two on the top left weren't going the way I wanted. I thought I would just start a new batch of blades and forget about the others.

Time for a classy beer break while the kiln is doing it's thing.

Some red burlap handles about to be born! This should look awesome!

Four new outdoor knives ready for finish grinds. Two of these will get that red burlap for handles. The other two will get the handles that were originally intended for the pair they are replacing...which will be regular burlap.