Thread: What are you working on?

Top to bottom: O2, XC130, XC130, wootz, tamahagane.
The top will be a more traditional design. The next one down will be a predator design, and the next 3 will be my Ottoman design.

Nice, Bruno. Was the Tamahagane new or reclaimed?

Paul-You can't go wrong with a Boker. I'm sure you will fix that heel right up!

On my day off, I'm working on this NOS Herder 76 that will be going into Bolivian Rosewood scales. The brass-lined same-wood wedge is currently clamped together with epoxy (I haven't had much luck with CA using this technique, especially on the oily tropical hardwoods). More later.

I also have about 7 others (including a couple of twin sets) in progress laying around my bench giving me the stink-eye. Patience, my pretties!

Nice Aaron. I like the shape of that blade. I have a Westby That's kind of similar to that shape from I believe sometime in the 1840s.

It looks later than that to me but from the research I can find on Westby that's about as close as I can narrow it down. I decided to go back with the Buffalo horn like yours with a same material wedge.
Love to see some pics of when it's finished!

I'm really interested to see how those ottomans turn out Bruno. I always really like that design. It has a really butch kind of look to it.

Nice looking blades Bruno.
AA-Ron, you have only seven razor projects feeling abandoned on the work bench? I hope to be back to the razor work bench and down to seven real soon.
I like the shape of the Westby and the horn scales.

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

Nice, Bruno. Was the Tamahagane new or reclaimed?

It was new tamahagane which I got from Bob Kramer via a mutual friend.
I do have some pieces of ancient Japanese swords for tamahagane, as well as raw tamahagane nuggets from Daniel O Connor.

Thanks Shaun. Back to your point in Razors: my thread about the Wade and Butcher reshape. I wonder if this one is also a regrind. That would explain some things. It had very old looking horn scales on it which looked like they were from the 1840s but the blade seemed newer than that Even though the history clearly shows that the Westby with no first name and no sun or son's attached was earlier and consistent with 1840s. It's possible it could have even been a wedge that was entirely reshaped, grind, point and all. One thing that I noticed is the jimping on top of the tang looks very different from the jimping on the bottom. Perhaps that was added afterwards during a regrind. That would make this make a lot more sense also. It's hard to see and these photos but the jumping underneath looks hand cut. Very well done but hand cut while the jumping on the top looks machine cut

I could be wrong on this but I think jimping is done before hardening the blade. It is difficult/impossible to do after the blade has been hardened.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

I could be wrong on this but I think jimping is done before hardening the blade. It is difficult/impossible to do after the blade has been hardened.

Bob

Difficult but not impossible. I cut hardened steel all the time. If you do it correctly with the right type of cutter It's not as big an issue as you might think. In fairness it's certainly not something you'd want to do by hand. Most safes are rated based on their drill time which is normally in minutes. Map and plan safes like they use in the military are rated in hours and that's in time of actual contact between the drill point and the metal not including the time setting up your rig or changing bits. There are some that have ball bearings embedded in the hard plate. Hardenef steel like a razor a file will skate off of. Ball bearings are so hard that you'll strip the teeth off of a file with them and not even polish it. They make a bit called a ball buster which you put in a hammer drill. You drill with a carbide tipped safe bit until you get to the ball bearing then switch to the ball busterbecause the ball bearing is harder than the carbide and it will wear the car by out or break it. What it does is shatter the ball bearing then you pick the pieces out and continue drilling with your bit for the hard plate steel. It's normally suggested that you use a mechanized drill rig. I've done it by hand pushing the drill. That's not a lot of fun. I just about extruded my cloaca in the process.

It's hard to see it in this picture because it's inside a plastic package with a wax coating over it but that's what it looks like.

Edit:I got so busy talking about the bit that I forgot to include my point about the ball bearings. Even is hard as the bearing is you can still cut it with a Dremel and a cutting wheel or an angle grinder. There's virtually nothing that a diamond cutting wheel won't cut.