This was a really helpful video for me. I'm a college student and in my limited spare time I have started getting things to gather and started making a couple of knives. I really like the look of damascus knives and knives with a hamon. Due to my limited equipment and time making damascus it out of the question for now. I was wondering if you could make a video or a series of videos about making a hamon on a knife that includes things like what steels take the hamon best, what time of clay to use, and of course how to do it? Thank you very much for all of your videos they have been a big help for me.
poor kid, anyone could have said just use 1075 and buy some heat tolerant cement. make knife same way, paint on cement in wave of squiggles on the spine. heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until you get a nice ruby color. Then the most important part. WATER QUENCH. pull out when you think its between 500 and 600 degrees and pop it in a preheated 410 degree oven for 4 hours. Done. ive done this at least three times and it never fails. etch with instant coffee lime/lemon juice or ferric chloride.
Started using a brand and i fell inlove with it, it's a bit of a slow hardening epoxy (not 30 min but sure as hell not 5) and the color is something like bone white, it says max temp being 90 degrees C but it survives way more than that, once i used some of the excess on a piece of wood some sheet metal to glue them up and test it to it's limits, started grinding it until the metal started shining red. No bubbles, no cooking up and not a tide bit opening between the wood and the metal, keep forgetting the name though, I will go buy some tomorrow anyway and if you want i can throw you the name just in case you'd like to test it.
Gunsmiths would find this info equally interesting, I believe. Epoxies are used by them for perfectly bedding an action to a stock. I have used a product by Devcon for this with great success; what you have talked about here gives insights into the properties of that particular niche use.
Walter, you keep saying in your videos (which I greately enjoy!) that one should not squeeze handle scales too much, as not to squeeze out too much epoxy, so there would be too little left to do any glueing. Frankly, this is not the case at all. The idea of resin bonding is to transfer any force on one part, via the resin, to the next part (like handle scale -> glue -> tang, etc.). Since both the scale and the steel tang are much stronger than the resin (the bond between molecules), you want as little epoxy (the weekest stuff in the chain) as possible. Besides if you would squeeze so hard as to push all the epoxy out, you would mush your scales to pulp long before that happens. But don't take my word for it. Ask any professional fiber glass parts manufacturer - like boat hulls or automotive racing spoilers and such. They will tell you that they try to get as much epoxy out of the laminate as possible, since the fibers are the strong part, with the resin "only" fixing them in place and transfering the forces from one fiber to the next. When they use epoxy to fill gaps, they always mix it with chopped fibers - never pure - for that same reason. However, your advice is still sound (as always), but for a different reason. Pressing very hard will push any air bubble left in the joint (no prolem) into a flat, but large disk of air (big problem- no bond there). With fiber laminating this is no problem - air is "milked" out. But with hard and plane surfaces that are parallel, this may be an issue. So rather keep a tiny round bubble than a flat but large one. But I think discussing what is too hard pressure and what is right - hey - that's like .001% a mistake one can make - considering all the other ones lurking out there to bite you. In my experience, both the advice about de-greasing and mixing ratio are extremely important. I bought one of those small jewellers digital pocket scales to weigh the resi and hardener (when the ratio is stated by mass). I also use the syringe-trick for those where volume is asked for.
ive seen some epoxy's that come in big gallon tubs, with a push top like you get ketchup out of at fast food stores, do those degrade over time as well
Walter, how can I keep my epoxy from burning and turning black while doing the final grind? Is it burning from prolonged friction on the belt, or is it the blade heating up too much that's causing it?
I have just go huge problems, stopping the edges of the handle stopping to curl away from the tang when using wooden scales on a full tang knife. It only happens when i use unstabilized wood like beech. Honestly i have no clue what im doing wrong, could it bee that the wood has to be stabilized?
Could I use this on a wooden handle knife to make the handle stronger on my butterfly knife cause the wooden handle tended to break acording to reviews
I have a couple questions. One, how would I make teeth for my knife? Also, what metal would you recommend I use if I were to use the knife for decoration? I'm going to regret saying this, but as in a metal that would look pretty/beautiful?
Hi, just beginning to make knives with my son out of old saw blades and files. Stuffed up last night with a file knife, forgot to temper it before putting the handle blanks on with 2 part epoxy. Does anyone have a simple way to soften the epoxy so I can remove the blanks and do things properly? The wood is really nice and I don't want to waste it. Thanks
I found this surprisingly interesting, actually! Do you use exclusively 2-part epoxies? Have you experimented with others, like Gorilla glue, for instance? Also, was it just me or did anyone else cringe at seeing the lacquer thinner on the cocobolo? I'm sure it doesn't matter, but I'm picturing a dry brittleness that makes me feel funny..
Mike Jones Knife & Tool just my experience, gorilla is a decent glue. However it tends to expand when it hardens, and almost bubbles. This creates air bubbles in it, and it tends to spill out of where you want it.
I have experimented will a bunch of adhesives with and without amalgams but keep going back to west system 2 part epoxy. It takes a few hours to kick and works well for filling in cracks and other material flaws when mixed with powdered metals and crushed stone.
When you prep metal for epoxy or painting you want a "break free surface" any beading on the metal is a sign that there are oils or wax still in the surface of the metal. The metal should carry a continuous film of water. the spot where it breaks first is usually the least cleaned part of the metal.
why do people always show their mugs ? I guess its their way of being a star. Rocket Science- not ! Read the label, use common sense, most craftsmen know this !
Gunsmiths would find this info equally interesting, I believe. Epoxies are used by them for perfectly bedding an action to a stock. I have used a product by Devcon for this with great success; what you have talked about here gives insights into the properties of that particular niche use.
