Official Luthiers Forum!

I could watch you do this all day. Thanks for preserving an old world art and letting us watch you do it!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Great stuff Phillip! Reminds me of a wonderfull PBS (I think) show chronicling the old world making of a samurai sword. Love these kinds of demonstrations.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks guys, I'm glad you're enjoying this.

Dennis, the purpose of the twisting is to manipulate the layers of steel to produce the desired pattern, it doesn't affect the performance. This is a variation of the basic twist pattern, where you twist a single bar. Another twist pattern I like is turkish twist. Here's an example of that pattern:




And here's a knife with the same pattern as the chisel will be:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Here's what I got done this morning. First, I ground the bar clean. When twisting a square bar, you make deep grooves, almost like screw threads. The bottoms of those grooves can get forged into the surface, and if you don't grind them out before final forging, you might be in trouble.




Then I started drawing out the tang:




Then the blade part is drawn out width-wise. I was shooting for a finished width of 3/4", so I want it a bit wider to allow for grinding:






Now the whole thing is thermal cycled a few times. This relieves stress and refines the grain.



Once that's cooled down, I'll start grinding.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

The knife with the twist pattern the same as the chisel will be is un-freakin-believable! I absolutely love it! I see one of those in my future. Gorgeous Phillip. Just gorgeous.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Phillip, I see you are making a tanged chisel this time. I've been wondering up to this point whether it would have a tang or a socket. If you have also made socket chisels, would you post a few pictures? I'd be very curious to know whether you would forge or lathe a socket. Many thanks for this excellent demonstration.
Patrick

Wow, this is very cool. Makes me wish I had a chance to win!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

just wanted to chip in and say that I'm really enjoying this thread too!
What a prize!

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

Every time I see stuff like this, I get the urge to build a forge.

Then I price everything out and realize I don't even have enough hours in the day to do half the things I've already got on my wish list, and figure I should just enjoy watching other talented individuals work.

If I don't win one how much to just buy one?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

+1, but when I don't win, how much to buy one?

I haven't made any socket chisels yet. If I did, I'd probably try to forge it close to shape, and use a guide for grinding and filing the rest of the way.



About $175.

Thanks everybody else for your comments, and I'm glad to facilitate a walk down memory lane, Filippo.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Ok, time to get working on the handle (actually, I made the handle a couple weeks ago, it's just easier for me talk in the present tense ).

I'm making this handle out of scraps of knife handle wood I had laying around. Arizona desert ironwood and african blackwood.

First step is to clamp the pieces in the four jaw chuck on my lathe:



and drill all the way through one piece, and most of the way through the other:




I'm using a piece of bronze between the two pieces of wood to add contrast and to keep them lined up right:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Now the pieces are all glued together (using CA):



then ground clean:




Then I hog off the material where the ferrule will be using the bandsaw:




Then chuck it up in the lathe again and turn it round:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Now for the ferrule. I'm making it out of bronze also, and the only turning stock I had was 1.5" diameter. But, it was partly turned down to size from a previous project.






Now the ferrule is cut off, and glued to the handle blank:






And the handle starts to get shaped:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Initially, I shaped it with a thumb stop:







but didn't like the way it felt, so I ground it off. The spacer in the handle is a different kind of bronze than the ferrule, and is very hard to machine, so all the shaping after the above pics, were done free hand on the belt grinder.

After rough shaping, it was sanded with slack belts through 600 grit, then buffed:








Tomorrow, I'm hoping I'll be able to heat treat the blade.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

It's so amazing to me to watch people with real talent. Were I to win the chisel, it would become one of my prized possessions. What a work of art!!!

that is so cool!!!!! looks great!!

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MK5acoustics.com

So nice!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I can't believe I just now seen this thread. Thanks so much for posting this step by step tutorial. I've enjoyed it very much!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

There needs to be a knife-making subform. I could look at pictures like this all day long.

...or I could just go find a knife makers forum. Bah, like I need another forum to go to.

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

That is beautifull work Phillip . This is by far the best thread of the challenge LOL

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Well, I didn't get around to heat treating until Friday, because I wanted to get a bunch of knife blades ready to do at the same time, to conserve energy. So here's the chisel:



and here are the knives I did:




The gray coating you see is anti scale compound. It protects the surface from the effects of oxygen at high temps.


Here it is after quenching. The steels I used for the chisel are shallow hardening, so require a fast quenchant. Traditionally, this was done in the urine of a red headed virgin, but it's hard to find virgins nowadays, so I use a quench oil designed for fast steels. It's almost as fast as water, but without the risk of cracking, which would be very disgusting this far along...




After tempering, which is done twice at 350 degrees for a couple hours, it's back to the grinder to clean up the grinds, trying to make everything symmetrical and straight:




I finished up on the grinder with 240 grit, then went to 400 grit by hand:

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Then into the etching tank. I etch in ferric chloride. I like a fairly weak solution, because I think it looks nicer to do many slow etches, with light sanding in between, than to do a couple deep etches.



I etch for 10 minutes, and here's how it looks:




Then sand with 600 grit, etch for 10 more minutes, then buff with a fairly hard wheel and green chrome compound:






Then etch for another 10 minutes, then it goes into the neutralizing bath, which is just water and baking soda.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

I think you might make more money by building custom guitar chisels for luthiers ! Amazing work Phillip .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/