Here is a pic of the wedge I just got and the scales I am going to put on it. I made the scales for something else but I decided to use them for this. The only markings on the blade tang are R. Hibbard Sheffield and it seems to be flat.
Printable View
Here is a pic of the wedge I just got and the scales I am going to put on it. I made the scales for something else but I decided to use them for this. The only markings on the blade tang are R. Hibbard Sheffield and it seems to be flat.
Beautiful! What kind of wood is that -- is it snakewood? Great pattern.
That is curly maple. It came from some maple floring that just happened to have some area of curl in it.
I will love to see the after pictures. Beautiful scales.
I found that those scales are too short to use for the wedge. Too bad. I pre drilled the holes in those. I won't do that again. I am going to use black walnut instead. It won't be quite a nice but it will have to do.
It would be a shame to use the curly maple on the wedge anyway. I have found that the rust pits are very deep so it is not going to polish up as well as I hoped. I will jewel the blade to disguise the pits. Mack
What do you mean by "jewel the blade"?
The tang of a Wonderedge is "jeweled" or about as close to it as razors come..
Many bolts on rifles were "Jeweled" with conjoined swirls
Here is one I did. I do it with a small end brush dremel tool. I put it in a drill press and put polishing compound and oil on the blade. I then lower the brush and make a circle. Then overlap by about half and make another and on and on. A slow process. It is also called high speed engine turning. It is used on rifle bolts on high end rifles.
That's interesting. I guess I've never seen that on a blade, and I can see how that would help hide pitting
That's neat...in other areas we call that 'engine turned' I like the effect...you can get a engine turning drill bit at Eastwood for your drill press but I like your dremel idea..
very nice! OOPS okay re-read that and see you mention engine turning..
I started doing that on knives back in 1982 when I was a full time knife maker. I took some to a knife show in Canton Ohio and sold out. Until then my knives were not selling that fast. I have been a knife maker for many years but did not, and still do not own a proper belt grinder. Cant afford one, so my blade grind was always a flat grind. I was not able to do a hollow grind. The jeweling made the blades look great. It is a little harder to do on a hollow grind since the end brush does not want to seat flat on the blade. I love the look. It serves the purpose on rifle bolts of keeping oil on the surface of the round bolt. The oil holds on to the almost microscopic swirls. Mack
Can't wait to see how the blade turn out, should be very nice.
Can you post a pic of the Dremel end brush you use to make those high speed turning circles please.
Do you start near the edge or the spine?
Here is one of my knife done that way (not by be).
Thanks
Where you start is up to you, but I do not want to go all the way to the edge, so I start near the edge to control the line. Here is a pic of the end brushes. They have to be the wire brushes. I use the steel ones. Haven't tried the brass ones but I tried the bristle ones and they don't work.
I simply scrape some of my polishing compound into a small container and add oil for the slury.
Neat, I had a '78 Trans Am with the fish eye dashboard that looked like that.
Jeweling is a lot of fun but the hard part is getting the circles to overlap all the same and the next row overlaping the previous and keeping the line straight. It helps if you have one of those cross slide vises to keep the lines straight. Myself, I just hold it by hand because I don't have one.
You still make it up to Canton? Here's the Eastwood engine turning kit...sorta like a 'metallic chalk' that goes into a drill to be used. I used it once to do a custom aluminum dash cluster cutout for a full sized Cherokee Chief, (Jeep). Some people make jigs for their drill presses to use them ...I didn't.. The smallest diameter at eastwood is only 1/2 inch, so I like your idea more and more.
Engine Turning Kit 1/2" Diameter
Thanks for showing this. Personally, i like the look restricted to the tang, but i agree that in this case it's done a great job disguising the pitting.
I have a feeling that if i were to try, mine would look a little, ummm.....freehand!
Thanks for all the complments.
Wedge,
I used to live in Ohio and so a trip to Canton was easy, but now I live in
Florida.
Very neat looking! Have you tried to restrict the swirl by rubber banding the end of the bristles of the brush? Brownell's sells a kit like that. I have also heard of folks doing this with polishing compound and a pencil held in a drill. The eraser is what does it.
Actually that is the way I did the first one. Went through three pencils with it. The eraser wears down fast. That is why I went looking for another way.Quote:
Originally Posted by EMC45
The bristles do spread out but that is what I like about it.