Tradgang Member WIP

[4dogs]

[buckcrazy825]

wow, looks awesome. love the high grind on the blade also the arrowheads in the file work

[Emmons]

Hello Everyone,
First I must thank 4dogs for his patients and apologize for the slow progress of this build.  Life (work/family) has been very demanding this summer.  My shop time has been very limited.

Now let continue!!
 
I now set the carbide faced file guide exactly where I want the plunge line to be.

 


Then I grind in the plunges on my home made platen.  This makes the plunges exactly the same on both sides of the blade (angle, radius, and starting point).   The platen has a machined radius and the file guide controls the starting point and angle.  I lay the bevel flat on the platen and push in until the carbide touches the 120 grit j-flex belt.

 

 

Perfect plunge lines, just don’t sand them away.

 


Next I hand sand the blade to 600 grit.  I normally do not need this step, but because this blade will be mirror finished, I want to remove any large grind mark while the steel is still soft.

 


Now I clean the blade with dish soap and hot water.  After that it is wiped down with denatured alcohol.  It is then placed in a stainless steel foil (tool wrap) envelope to protect it from scaling during heat treat.   I heat treat CPM 154 by placing the blade in my heat treating kiln and bring it up to 1400 degrees, I hold this temperature for 15 minutes then increase the temperature to 1950.  I hold it at 1950 degrees for 30 minutes, then plate quench between two 1” think aluminum plates until I can handle the blade with bare hands.   Then the blade is sub-zero treated (-100 degrees) in a bath of acetone and dry ice for 8 hours.  The blade then gets tempered at 450 degrees for two cycles of two hours.

 

 

 

Next I will be hand sanding the blade to 2500 grit, then buffing to a mirror finish.

[madness522]

Excellent build along James!  Don't want to interupt your build along so when you have a minute or two could you post more pics of your plunge grinding jig?  I think that would be helpful to a lot of makers who have a hard time getting the plunge lines to match.

[4dogs]

Very nice James!

[Emmons]

Here is the blade sanded to a dirty 1000 grit.

 

I like to etch the blade now at the 1000 grit.  When I finish sand the blade to 2500 grit it will clean up the etch and give nice crisp lines.

 

This is my homemade etching unit.

 

Here is the etch before clean-up

 

This is a pic of the blade before buffing.  It is finish sanded to 2500 grit.

 

[4dogs]

Gettin closer! Lookin GREAT James.

[Emmons]

Continue!!

Blade is taped to protect it from scratches.  I meassure the area where the guard will go with micrometers.  You can see in this photo the collet and end end I will use, along with the travel in both directions.  Th guard slot is milled to the same thickness as the blade.

 

 

I mount the guard and drill the pin hole.

 

Here you can see my half template of the guard, it indexs to the blade to make the guard shape symetrical.

 

 

[Emmons]

The guard is shaped using a combination of the band saw, grinder, files, and dremel tool.

 

 

Next the guard pin hole is tapered from both side with my homemade reamer.  The pin is cut to size and ground with points on both side.  Then it is peened to permently attach the guard.

 

 

 

[Emmons]

I just the angle of the front of the stag scales to fit the handle shape.  I then clamp the blade to the scale and use it as a template for drilling the handle pin holes.  The 1/16" holes are done by hand, where as the larger 3/8" holes I use a fixture and the drill press.

 

 

 

With the scales pin to the blade I draw the handle outline and trim using the bandsaw.

 

 

[GWV]

Thanks for sharing.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

[amar911]

James,

I wish I had the talents you and other TradGang knife makers  do, but some can make knives, while others are limited to making money to buy these beautiful knives. I love the one knife of yours I own. It is wonderfully created and frighteningly sharp! The one you are making in this thread is fun to watch as it comes together. Thanks for letting us see your handiwork.

Allan

[skullworks]

Awesome work James!!!!!

[JEFF B]

that is a real  work of art  james  

[Emmons]

Lets finish this up!!

Blade, pins, and stag all prepared for glue-up.

 

After 24 hours of curing the epoxy I shape the handle. Sorry guy I got on a roll here and did not take many photos.  I used a combiination of belt sander, files, dremel, and sand paper.  Once shaped I sand thru the grits starting at 220 and finishing at 2500.

 

 

After buffing the whole knife first with green chrome compound and then finishing with pink compound this is what it looks like.  Sorry for the crappy photo, I will take better photos in the light box when I complete the sheath.

 

 

 

 

[kansas stik man]

thats a nice knife . lots of work involved i am sure of that. great job

[4dogs]

WOW!

[ron w]

                Very nice job!!

[Emmons]

Well photobucket has really been giving me trouble lately, but I think it is working now.  Here are the final photos of the completed knife and sheath.

 

 

 

The knife has been delivered to Mark, I hope he is happy with it.

James

[Lin Rhea]

That turned out beautiful.