Spalted Maple End Grain

M

Mike Jones

Google Master
Just finished my 11th knife today. I am aware that the blade finish is not perfect, and that one plunge grind sucks. For the specs:
1084 Steel
3.5" blade
7" Overall length
Full Flat Grind
Spalted Maple End Grain
1/8" Brass Pins


I picked up a ton of spalted maple from my local supplier, and before sending any out to be stabilized, I decided to try some out first. I took two 3/8" scales, put them under a vacuum in a solution of danish oil and naphtha as a thinner. These scales have lots of spalting "cells" showing.

So now I have 45 blocks that I will be sending to be stabilized, and will have many of them for sale.

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Comments? Opinions? Any help is appreciated.
 
Mike that is some beautiful spalted maple. You seem to know the problem areas so looks like you are coming into your own.
 
Mike
You have made am improvement on every knife, and the fact that you reconize your problem areas and you are willing to put pics on here for critique shows that you desire to get better. I think you are doing very well and look forward to see how far you can go. I wish I had gotten involved when I was your age.

Sean
 
Looks good Mike; as the others mentioned, each one shows improvements from the previous.

The wood looks great too. I just sent away some spalted maple for stabilization, and I'm excited to use it on a knife as I think it's really cool stuff.
 
Mike,

This helped me alot with my plunges.

Clamp a file guide on the blade and keep it on during your rough grinding.

Put it just a little forward of where you want the plunge to end up. About 1/16 should be good.

When I get to 220 grit I'll take the guide off and adjust the plunges to even them up as I finish grinding.

The reason this helps is because once you get the plunges "set" during the rough grinding they should be deep enough to stop the belt from riding over the plunge line.

-Josh
 
Thanks for the compliments!

Josh Dabney said:
Mike,

This helped me alot with my plunges.

Clamp a file guide on the blade and keep it on during your rough grinding.

Put it just a little forward of where you want the plunge to end up. About 1/16 should be good.

When I get to 220 grit I'll take the guide off and adjust the plunges to even them up as I finish grinding.

The reason this helps is because once you get the plunges "set" during the rough grinding they should be deep enough to stop the belt from riding over the plunge line.

-Josh
Click to expand...

I had actually thought of doing that -- after the fact of course. I'll definitely have to use one of them for my next knife!
 
Looking pretty good for a first, Mike! Nice wood, too.

What grinder are you using? Be sure to break the edges of the belt before you do plunge lines. That will help a lot grinding your blades.
 
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