Unfortunately, this is the end of the work that's well documented in photographs. My buddy Ryan hadta buzz back to the other side of the continent. Something about having a life....
So, here I am with a rat-tail tanged dagger blade, an ugly, crude iron guard that doesn't fit it (it only goes about 2/3rds of the way up the tang at this point), and a butt that doesn't thread on.... Alrighty then!
First, I mark the centre of the butt as best I can. Then chuck the appropriate drill into the press, and set the depth stop. A drop of oil, and the bit chews thru the wrought iron like soft lead. Nice. Then a bit more oil, and I run the tap thru till it bottoms out. Good. A test fit on the tang is successful. Nice smooth-running thread, and the hole was within 1mm of true center. Good enuf. I chuck a piece of #12NC24 threaded rod in the drill press, and true up the face of the butt with a file. Using a drillpress as a lathe is a favorite trick!
Next, fitting the guard. The guard blank is horrid. Thicker at one end than the other, crude and ugly. Bench grinder reduces the worst of it, and half an hour later, I'm filing a pretty nice little piece. Fitting it to the tang is tedious needle file work. Stroke, stroke, stroke, test fit.... Repeat ad-nauseum. Eventually, it fits well enough. A little sloppy, but I'll live with it.
Finally, I can get to the bit I started this for. A year ago, a friend in Arizona sent me a few pieces of Desert Ironwood (both burl and branch) he'd picked up on a desert walk near his home. I'd been saving the best burl for this project. I'd never worked desert ironwood before. I was in for a treat!
***Ironwood Burl***
The burl was about 7x5x2.5" in bulk dimensions.... But much of it was unsound... And much I had to guess at. I hummed and hawwed over it for a while, and finally penciled some test-cut lines out. With a fine tooth blade in my bandsaw, I worked ironwood for the first time. It cut surprisingly well. Luckily, I'd guessed well, and was able to extract a good handle blank from the burl. I was left with a few other usable chunks for the future too.
Blank cut, I bored the tang-hole thru its centre. Used a 1/4" x 12" long bit in the drill press. Ironwood is a bitch to drill.... It cuts easily, but the bit cannot clear chips. I hammer the blank off the bit a couple times before its drilled thru. Close call. I then enlarge the hole with appropriate bits to clear the smaller 2/3rds of the tang. The blade end of the handle hole will be fitted by file and trial, to keep it as tight as I can manage. This goes easier than one might expect.
***bandsawing handle blank***
Finally, I use the bandsaw to rough out the handle, leaving it about 1/8" larger in every dimension than final. I can now assemble the knife to get a feel for what I have...
***testfit handle***
With pencil marks on the handle outlining the guard and butt as guides, I chuck a drum sander into the press and begin shaping. Let me tell ya something here: Desert Ironwood smells weird. Best I can come up with is a mixture of fresh horse manure and burnt peas. The dust is fine. I shoulda worn a mask. Instead, I blew brown boogers for 3 days. Sanding went from the drum to the orbital, with grits progressing from 100, 220, 320, 400, 600 and finally 1500. This stuff sands BEAUTIFULLY!!!!
Once the handle was shaped, I assembled the knife, and adjusted the lenght of the wood thou by thou until the butt clocked properly on its threads. The knife was now complete, minus sharpening. Sharpening has to wait until there's a sheath to keep the kids fingers off the sharp bits....
***pre-finished knife***
....Which brings us to the end game.... A wooden sheath.
I've made a couple knives now with wooden sheaths. Done carefully, the result is durable and spectacular. If you managed to make the knife symmetrical, the sheath will even fit both ways.... People wonder how it's done. It's all to simple.
First, I had to do some finish work on the blade... Yeah, I said it was done, but we left it in a file finished condition from back before hardening and quenching. Finish work was just like the file work, but now the file is wrapped in wet/dry silicon carbide paper, used wet. 220, 320, 400 grit. Inspired by Mr. Davidson's 400 grit belt finished blades he's shown here lately, I tried to duplicate the effect by hand. Using tightly wrapped paper and being careful of the stroke angle, it looked pretty good. A few hammer marks stare thru the brushed-looking finish... They're "good" mistakes - ones I can live with. The blade is finally in its finished condition, less edges...
I had a piece of Desert Ironwood left of similar dimensions as the burl the handle was made from. THis piece is mostly light "straight" grained wood, with a swath of dark heartwood thru it. It's my only hope for an ironwood sheath, but there's a problem.... To make the sheath, I must rip the piece cleanly on my tablesaw in order to get as clean and accurate a glue joint as possible... But I won't rip a 7" long block on a TS! That would be stupid. Finally, I decided to glue the block to a suitable piece of 2x6. This make-shift jig worked well. I ripped 2 clean planks 12mm thick from the ironwood.
Laying the blade on the planks this way and that, I decide on what bit will make the sheath and give the best mix of soundness (desert ironwood is riddled with cracks and fissures and bugholes) and aesthetics (wanted to catch that dark streak!). I sketch the outline on the planks, stack them (matching them together as well as possible, in the interests of a clean glue joint), and cut both at once on the bandsaw.
Blanks cut, I trace the blade outline on their inside faces. I've left a margin of about 1/4" all around for the glue joint....
I chuck a drum sander into my dremel and begin to relieve inside the sheath. I test fit the blade frequently, and continue until the 2 halves clamped together will just let the blade squeek in, a nice friction fit. Brown boogers are a real problem now. Once I'm satisfied with the fit, I glue the sheath together, clamping firmly. Regular old cabinet maker's glue. Test fit blade.... Errors are difficult to fix after this...
Once dry, I shape the outside of the sheath with the drum sander on the drillpress, graduating to the orbital and finally hand sanding. Again, to 1500 grit.
Around this time, I find online that Desert Ironwood can be polished with a muslin wheel and white compound. I have the compound, and pick up a new wheel for the task. The results are NOT a disappointment! The wood is astounding in bright light!
The last step is to make a leather frog to carry the piece. I made a template from construction paper, and then cut and sewed, rivited and dyed, and finally wet formed the leather to the dagger and sheath, wrapped in saran wrap to protect the wood. The clasp is just a wooden stud, turned from a dowel, and rivited thru. Simple but effective. Stitching is by hand, 2 needles, artificial sinue.
Everything else done, I disassemble the knife, and sharpen the blade. I filed them damned near to edges with the primary grind, so it's quick work on the #800 waterstone. About 25-30 degree edges. Strop on the red-rouged leather strop, and both edges will shave if coaxed a bit... Which is enough for a dagger in my book. Finally, reassemble and here's the result:
***final pics***
And that's how I do it. About 30 hours of work in this piece. Next one will be better, but this is the best knife I've made to date (even if it is ultimately unpractical...).
Hope you enjoyed this! I'd love to hear any comments you have, answer any questions, and hopefully a few of you can suggest ways to make my work better.... The gods know there's room for LOTS of improvement!
J
