Thank you! I have to go to the ranch for another stay and unfortunately will have to put all this on hold until I get back.
Huge snowstorm here today... I might have enough time to saddle-stitch and burnish that Arctic Hunter sheath before I git, it's almost done. It's been my most challenging leather project to date. Learning some new skills with that one.

Glass cutting board? Oh my - brutal on a knife edge. We have gone back to wood. Yes, they are higher maintenance, but worth the effort! We use block oil on them, and
they stay nice.

I finished that sheath for the Damascus Arctic Hunter. I'll need to take some time tomorrow and update with pics for anyone interested in the rest of that process or how it turned out.
Next on the bench is this large kitchen knife. This is a pre-made blank that I bought and is pretty nice quality. All that I'm going to do is shape the tang and attach handle scales and it'll be done. I'm just a "Cutler" on this build, not a "Maker". If it turns out nice I'm going to send it to Ma for her birthday in a couple of months. I'm going to be using Ironwood for the scales. It's possibly the hardest wood on the planet and I bought some "presentation grade" so it should buff out nice. Part of the reason I chose Ironwood is because it's the name of the town I grew up in (good ol U.P.) and where my parents still reside!
In this pic I'm just getting started. I don't like the shape of the handle tang so I'm about to take the Dremel to it and make some fluid curves that are more ergonomic, comfortable, and purty. I used a green sharpie to outline what I plan to remove.... just gotta find a bit that will eat it.
Hard steel - Japanese 440C stainless.

Custom ironwood handles going to mom in Ironwood. That is some really hard wood, I bet this project will be a sweet one when finished too!
Look forward to seeing it.

theres NOTHING better than something you made for your parents! it shows that your still thinking of them when you made it! thats "priceless"

I can't wait until you done with that, either. And I'm still waiting on the pic's of the Solingen Bowie and new sheath!

You better get some more popcorn then cuz it might be a while on that one. Everything I'll be doing will be "out of pocket expense" so it's lower on the food chain. Maybe in the next month or two? If biz gets bizzy again the bench will have to collect dust though. Trying to utilize every minute of free time to stave off the cabin fever with these projects for now, keeps the gears turning.
I'll definitely update when I get rolling with that though!

I'll go stock up! And hope that you get bored...... you'll finish it then!

:) Quality takes time! :) thats why im so slow!:)

I got a great deal on this 4X36 belt sander from Harbor Freight last week and it's going to speed up my work considerably.
It's not mean enough to work metal but so very nice for woodworking. Will make handle shaping a breeze!
Also has a 6" sanding disc for the side but I haven't mounted it yet... I'll use that for leather work. The belt tilts from vertical to horizontal and everywhere in between. About 1200rpm.
With a coupon I got this thing for only $59! Really gonna make my life a lot easier.

Nice!!!!!

Nice Chris! I have a Ryobi(sp) and it sure does cut work time in half, I used mine for some metal shaping(welding) but I have a different type of belt, its called diamond Carbon something or another, I'll see if I still have the package and get that info to you. You are going to love this thing!

I forgot to ask, do you sharpen the blade before you polish it or after- i was thinking after. My son and I are working with a blade from an old knife and I'm going to have to grind down the edge as it has some nicks in it. Finally found a nice piece of deer antler for the handle, I'll try to post photo's this weekend on what we've done so far. Thanks for any advise you can give us.

Hi!
If you're working on a knife with an old blade... you are working on hardened steel. I would highly recommend 'not' to put a mechanical grinder to that steel unless you have 2X72 belt grinder with specialized belts. Any other mechanical device typically removes too much metal fast and generates friction heat that can radically effect the temper of the steel thus leaving you with either a brittle edge or one that is too soft and won't hold an edge.
If you can re-establish or resurrect the original cutting edge, I think that would be best if possible. You should be able to do that with good sharpening stones. If it's in rough shape with nicks, dings, etc you'll want to start with a coarse stone. I use a Smith's Tri-Stone for this which has coarse, med, and fine stones. I'll be having to do this on the Bowie restoration that I pictured earlier. That one's in ruff shape and will probably take me at least an hour with the coarse stone alone. Probably at least a half hour with each of the other stones and finally a sharpening steel for the final razor edge.
I'd love to see some pics of your project!

Thanks for the feed back Chris, I didn't think about possibley over heating the blade, I have a good stone kit so I'll just take the time and work it with that. I'll try to get some pic's up soon, was way to busy today. Once again thanks for the info.

I've found that with any power tool from harbor freight if it doesn't break the first time you use it then it'll probably last a good while if you treat it right. I'd steer clear of their sanding belts though, I bought a pack for my hand held belt sander and they were junk. Which is surprising, their regular sand paper (especially the fine grit) is actually pretty decent for the price.

Chris, if you decide you want to upgrade to a proper belt grinder I think I have some plans floating around in the garage for a homebuilt one, it'd be a good excuse to get out the welder and make something.

there are plans/pictures of one bilt on treasurenet.com in one of the forums. i dont need one but id like to have one for tinkering around. on Harbor Freight tools, if you treat them right and dont use them everyday for makeing a living, they should last a good while. i think Swizz useing on handles and light sanding would work fine! it was cheap($$) enough! i had bought some tools that i wanted to use just a couple of times (?) and some worked fine while others (air impact hammers spring) kept breaking! i followed all the directions and they all broke! But they did replace all of the many broken springs that i bought to finish the job.i even turned the air down real low to help prevent this from happening. it broke about 8 springs and they all were made in china. so i guess that answers the big question!

Oh sure Russau, blame the Chinese!

swizz, sorry I haven't put up any photo's yet, but will. question, we are using a tang or stem style blade. So with using the deer antler, lower half of main beam W/burr end, do you drilll a shaft/void for stem to fit in snug and then brass pin/glue or just glue? not sure the epoxy will hold without pins. Thanks for your advise.

Stick tang.... I'm definitely not an expert on these as this Bowie restoration is the first I've worked on. If the tang is flat you can either give it one pin toward the front of the tang (near your guard), or put a pommel at the end of the handle to keep it on. If it's a rod shaped tang you can't pin it... will need a pommel on the end.
Yes, you'll need to bore a hole in that antler lengthwise to snuggle the tang into and fill er up with epoxy. Use a very good epoxy like Acraglas or Gorilla (Devcon, Locktite, JB Weld not recommended). If you choose to drill the tang it may be very difficult depending on the hardness of the tempered steel of that knife. Typically drilled prior to heat treatment.

Thanks swizz, it is a flat tang with some holes already in it, we were planning on using Gorilla, I think that we may put the pin towards the front as we may put a brass cap before the gaurd just to make it flow together, once again thanks for the info.

That sounds like a good plan!
Here's where I'm currently at with the Bowie restoration.
Stabilized stacked leather handle, red/white/black vulcanized spacer material, brass guard and pommel. I still have a LOT of shaping left to do on this handle, mostly with Dremel.

Regarding the guard, if you decide to use one. Fitting and placing a guard is a project within itself. I used jeweler's files to fit the brass one pictured.... it took a long time to get it to fit well, the slot needs to be as perfect as you can get it. Once that's accomplished it should be soldered (or JB Welded) in place before assembling the rest of your handle.

really nice stuff u got here swizz, i wish i had the proper equipment for this kinda stuff, i buy my tools one project at a time, construction worker on a budjet, the last project i had was i painted my own car, mainly cuz everyone doubted me. for some odd reason most pople think if u can paint a house you CANNOT paint a car. haha but i think it turned out great hahaha

I like it!

ur next project you should really go balls out and do something extreme like this

I'm not into the fantasy stuff but there is a whole genre for that. I'd rather go balls out on a drop-point hunter or skinner that I can use and abuse.

Chris - that Bowie is looking great. I also agree that the fantasy stuff is out there, but you'd be surprised at just how good a large animal deterrent a good mace makes!

swizz, you couldn't see yourself attacking those wood piles with an axe like that one! you would feel like Conan the Barbain chopping fire wood laughing021:

not to mention the work out you'd get swinging one like that!

Come on Swizz, nothing screams "I am all that is man" like a battle axe!!!

Currently shaping the handle on that bowie restoration.

It looks AWSOME! Nice job, Chris.

Thanks Scott! I still need to round out that handle some more and I'm going to do a little shaping of the brass pommel.
Then a ton of hand sanding, buffing, and polishing.
Such a nice day up here today I feel guilty for being inside.

I'm heading out to plant some trees..... American Filberts, plus maybe a few others....

That Bowie knife looks spectacular so far Chris, nice work! Going to be a sweet one when finished, look forward to seeing it done.

your project looks so good i can almost feel it in my hands!

Looking good Chris! Going to be one sweet knife when your finished!!

Thanks! Still a ways to go. I'm using the dremel to shape that brass pommel now.

Looking great!

Very nice Chris! You also use the Dremel to polish it out when your finished shaping it right? Was using our Dremel to polish out the pick of destiny with the homemade polishing bit and it about ate off the skin on my fingers with just 2 minutes of using it.
Need to think of a better way to work the pieces without holding them like you do.

Yup, definitely lots of Dremel work on that Bowie pommel! That Bowie is 100% done, sheathed, and ready. I'll do a photo session with it soon.

Meanwhile... here are pics of the kitchen knife and sheath I made for my Mom's birthday which is the middle of May. It's ready to ship!
I made a counter-top type of sheath and I figured she can safely transport it to their cottage up there if she wants to.

Mom Knife 1 50 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Mom Knife 2 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Mom Knife 3 50 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Mom Knife 4 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Stunning!! Nice work Chris, I bet Mom's going to love the gift.

That is very beautiful work, Chris! Your mom's going to love it.

Thanks! It was a really fun project.
I forgot to add a pic of the mosaic pins that I used. They are made of Brass and Nickel Silver. I did not make the pins.... there are artists that specialize in this and depending on pattern and diameter the pin/rod material can cost a lot. I paid about $40 for a 1ft section of this style mosaic, I think it's 3/32" dia.
1ft will go a long way with knifemaking though... several knives.
Mom Knife 5 Mosaic by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Here are the pics of that Bowie resto-mod that I did and the sheath I made for it.
The owner bailed-out on me halfway through the project so it's officially mine! I paid him $20 for the Solingen since he mentioned that he paid $10 or $15 for it at a garage sale when it was in such rough shape. I like it and will wear it on my gun belt at the mine to be used as a utility/camp knife.
I didn't fight the pitting on the blade because I like the patina. It took a full day but I resurrected a very good cutting edge on it as the last step. So sharp it scares me.
Anyway, here's the final product.
Bowie R 1 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Bowie R 2 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Bowie R 3 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Bowie R 4 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Bowie R 5 2k by ghostcreekmine, on Flickr

Now, THAT'S a knife! (said with a very exaggerated Australian accent) Very well done, Chris, very impressive.

Fantastic work Chris! Mom will cherish that one forever!! The detail is superb on your work, I can't even believe that is the same knife that you restored...... Incredible difference!

Thanks! I think my Mom would like the knife even if it were crummy. She's a sweetheart.
I'm still cooped up here because it's been snowing with high winds since Saturday, driving me nuts... my log project is shut down until weather breaks.
So...
working on a new sheath design this morning

even with the pitting on the blade ,thats a fine knife and some wonderfull work youve added. to bad the "old" owner bailed on you,but itll be a fine peice to carry!

I'm glad he did!