What's going on in your shop?

AkWildman said:
Up at work for a few more days and were in a blow,if you have ever worked in prudhoe bay you know what I'm talking about,rebuilt a bunch of valves this morning due to the fact that my scheduled run was canceled, looking forward to going home and getting back to work in the forge, when I left I had just welded up this hawk with a 1084 bit and want th o get it done and i have a small frame handle Bowie to complete. View attachment 72450
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That’s gonna be a very nice hawk. Being a southern boy I have no idea what a “blow” is but it doesn’t sound like fun. Be careful up there. :)
 
BossDog said:
holey crap is that hard to do that clean. Nice job.
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Thanks Tracy. You're right....checkering isn't easy. It makes my neck/back hurt, strains my eyes and hurts my hands.

I'm not too proud to say that I actually started this with a walnut handle but totally botched it by being in a rush and too heavy handed. I had some bad over runs and crossed rows. I maybe could have saved it but it was starting to look like a mediocre repair job and I don't operate that way.

I started over the next day on a new handle which was very difficult to do when I wanted to just throw the whole knife in the trash. I grabbed a block of ironwood with nice grain with the intention of doing the checkering again, just making a nice handle with good colors and figure.

But I've successfully checkered handles in the past and didn't want to quit because I got knocked down so I decided to checker the ironwood too. Ironwood adds a whole new difficulty to checkering but took my time and it turned out pretty well.
 
Bruce McLeish said:
I really like your checkering blade handles and holding fixture. Oh, the checkering ain't TOO bad either!
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Thanks Bruce. Yeah the checkering tools come with an absurdly long handle and neck, in my opinion. Holding the handles, you were literally 6-8" away from your work. Not near enough control in my opinion. So I shortened them considerably.
 
J. Doyle said:
Thanks Bruce. Yeah the checkering tools come with an absurdly long handle and neck, in my opinion. Holding the handles, you were literally 6-8" away from your work. Not near enough control in my opinion. So I shortened them considerably.
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I agree with you. The supplied handles are way too long. I use an optivisor also. Do you cut your own blades?
 
Bruce McLeish said:
I agree with you. The supplied handles are way too long. I use an optivisor also. Do you cut your own blades?
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I wear 2 power reading glasses. I've made a few cutters that work decent but the stock store bought ones cut better for me......once I learned how to use them. There's a learning curve for sure.
 
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