Swarfy Goodness

[Valkman]

Or "The Birth of a Super Camp"

I've got a bunch of orders for the knife that was in Blade but haven't been doing well as my feet hurt from arthritis, my right shoulder has something wrong with it and my left elbow is about useless for grinding since a bad bursitis attack last year.

When you draw out a knife on a bar of steel there's a lot of steel that has to be removed to make the outline of the knife - that's called "profiling". Well I can't stand at the grinder and the bandsaw is a POS so I went to the Grizzly mill I bought last year. This is probably the slowest way to profile a knife but at least I can sit while doing it.

Mill with DRO and power feed:

Milling the "Bowie Slant"

Milling the curve of the blade - I don't have a rotary table so I just go as close as I can. I actually drew a kind of "tangent line" that I could follow to allow me to get pretty close. Mill was running when I took this!

It took me a bit over 2 hours to get 2 knives milled but only about 5 minutes to complete the profiling on the grinder:

I grind all 1/4" "sides" to 220 grit so I can apply blueing and mark lines for the blade center. This steel is .250 wide and I want my lines .030 apart in the center so .250 - .030 = .220. .220 divided by 2 gives me .110 which is the setting I put on my calipers and make my lines:

I also measure the blade lentgh or where I want the plunge cut to be and make a mark with a silver Sharpie. This is a 7" blade.

Now I can grind my bevels down to the lines I etched on the blade and false edge. Then full grinding of the blade, some finishing and handle hole drilling and they're ready to go to Paul Bos for heat treat:

Sorry about all the pics - hope you enjoy the process!

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Excellent!

Sorry about all the pics

Yer kidding, rite?

The pics completely make the description work.

Pics rule.

Thanx for sharing!

 

[JTW Jr.]

Dam bro , 2 hours ? You need me to come show you the Rinaldi speed profile technique , bar stock to profiled in under 60 seconds.

50 grit and WFO open on the grinder with a 8" contact wheel. I dont even bother to use my bandsaw anymore for profile work.

 

[Valkman]

Yea but my feet hurt and I'm low on belts. Plus it's like the first time I machined D2 and it went perfect! I must have accidently figured out the speed/feed thing.

 

[JTW Jr.]

3 phase converter is going in the shop this weekend , mill should be in by next weekend hopefully , power feed on X,Y & Z !!

 

[Valkman]

I would really enjoy a power feed on the Y axis. I've never had a mill without a power feed and can't imagine feeding by hand on some cut that takes 20 minutes of slow feeding.

You won't need the PF on the Z so give it to me for my Y axis!

I had the DRO on even though I didn't need it, and it wound up helping as I'd watch how fast the numbers changed while using the power feed and then when I had to feed by hand on the Y axis I'd try and match that rate.

 

[redneck]

Dam bro , 2 hours ? You need me to come show you the Rinaldi speed profile technique , bar stock to profiled in under 60 seconds.

50 grit and WFO open on the grinder with a 8" contact wheel. I dont even bother to use my bandsaw anymore for profile work.

I don't have a bandsaw, so I use 40 grit 977's


Nice thread Valkman, you're turning out some really nice knives these days

 

[Valkman]

Thanks! I have 3 Super Camps ready for heat treat and 4 more waiting to be ground.

Normally I profile on the grinder and only mill the bottom of the handle - makes it perfectly straight and a 1/2" end mill is perfect for the front end where the curve is.