Hunting knives and related projects

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  • montana
    Chieftain
    • Jun 2011
    • 3209

    Looking great as always. Your leather work is also top notch and it always helps to find better methods to help ease and speed up production. I couldn't be happier with my light hunter and it has replaced my other knife. It holds an edge very well. I have yet to sharpen it after much use. You obviously have learned your craft very well. Looking forward to my companion boner knife, thanks again Von Gruff.

    Comment

    • Von Gruff
      Chieftain
      • Apr 2012
      • 1078

      I did a short video of the hot waxing of the sheaths this morning

      http://www.vongruffknives.com/

      sigpic Von Gruff



      Grendel-Max

      Exodus 20:1-17
      Acts 4:10-12

      Comment

      • Von Gruff
        Chieftain
        • Apr 2012
        • 1078

        Three new ones for me.

        These three are quite special for me for the people they remind me of.

        The boner with 4 3/4 in 15N20 blade has scales from a walnut tree I felled on my late fathers yard in the early 80's.



        The light hunter with 3 5/8 N690 blade has buffalo horn bolsters from a friend in South Africa and end grain olivewood given to me by a retiring knifemaker friend.



        The field scalpel with 2 3/4 N690 blade has buffalo horn scales from a few horn tip given to me by a friend in the US.



        http://www.vongruffknives.com/

        sigpic Von Gruff



        Grendel-Max

        Exodus 20:1-17
        Acts 4:10-12

        Comment

        • sneaky one
          Chieftain
          • Mar 2011
          • 3077

          Awesome talents. I'm glad this is going so well for you buddy, I at first thought that I helped you ruin your retirement plans for taking it easy.

          I'll contact you when things slow down a bit for the knife I envisioned for me to use and hand down to Jr.

          Comment

          • Von Gruff
            Chieftain
            • Apr 2012
            • 1078

            Look forward to the coaboration s1
            http://www.vongruffknives.com/

            sigpic Von Gruff



            Grendel-Max

            Exodus 20:1-17
            Acts 4:10-12

            Comment

            • Von Gruff
              Chieftain
              • Apr 2012
              • 1078

              I had sent a PM (on the Aus blade forum) to the supplier of the gas equipment for my forge asking about the setting as I didn't seem to be getting the heat at the same rate or the intensity that he showed on his 'how to' video. He got back to me and asked for my ph no and he rang yesterday (from Aus) so we had a good yarn with the advice being to drill out the jet from .7mm to 1mm. Because of the slightly different gas between AU and NZ I could get the gas flow with less pressure. When I did that it was night and day different so I had a crack at forging a couple things I needed. The first thing was a slag hammer as I had been given a stick welder on permanent loan, so used part of a small jackhammer chisel, cut the top off, forged the chisel end out flatter and made a point on the other end. Some of the videos I saw had them drift a hole through the chisel and taper the handle then rivet it on the other side of the head but that was more than I decided was necessary so I simply welded the handle on. Not too shabby for a first effort I thought.


              I had a bit of trouble holding the chisel when I was hammering on it as while my extended handle pliers would open up wide enough, the handles were miles apart and not able to be held in one hand so vice grips sufficed even though I had to double handle everything to get it out of the forge and then take a grip wth the vicegrips to take it to the anvil so the next thing I really needed was a set of tongs that would hold something larger than flat stock. I had picked up some 1/2 in round rods so cut a couple of pieces and went to it. Again it was difficult to hold but eventually a rudimentary set of tongs emerged so I was reasonably happy. Will try a different tack next time as the full tong from 1/2 stock makes them quite heavy so will try to do the jaws from the full size then forge the reins down through 3/8 square to 1/4 in round at the hand grip.
              At least these will help to get the next set underway.

              Having done that I put the head of the pliers in the forge and when they got to heat I simply closed up the handles till they would hold the knife blades with a single hand grip. Really leased with them and will continue to use them for placing knives into and retrieving them from the forge.
              http://www.vongruffknives.com/

              sigpic Von Gruff



              Grendel-Max

              Exodus 20:1-17
              Acts 4:10-12

              Comment

              • Von Gruff
                Chieftain
                • Apr 2012
                • 1078

                While I have a couple of ball peen hammers and forging work can be done with them, I see thatmost of the serious "smiths" have a special hammer that is flat on one end and radiused on the other, weighing about 2 1/2 to 3lb so I thought I had better get one as well. At the scrap yard last time I wanted a bit of round stock to make one and the guy asked if an old sledge hammer head would do as they had a few 'out the back'.
                I found one that was about 4 lb so thought that would be a good base to work from.

                I needed to shorten it a little to lighten it and after a while of cutting on one end it struck me that it would be hardened so I fired up the forge and when it had got to heat, put it in a bucket of sived ash for the night to anneal it. Made the cutting a little easier so rounded one end and radiused the edges on the other and after a bit of a clean up, put it back in the forge to heat treat, did the quench in water then tempered it in the cooling forge. Found a suitable piece of beech and knocked up a rudimentary handle and now have a hammer that weighs right and swings nicely.



                The rounded end is for moving metal and making a thinning process a little quicker then the flat end is used to planish out the dips and hollowsthat the rounded end caused.
                http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                sigpic Von Gruff



                Grendel-Max

                Exodus 20:1-17
                Acts 4:10-12

                Comment

                • Von Gruff
                  Chieftain
                  • Apr 2012
                  • 1078

                  I had got a few other projects up to a stage that I could get these blades cut out of the flats stock today, so should get them all profiled tomorrow. On another forum the guys decided they should do a group buy so these will all be done together for them.
                  http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                  sigpic Von Gruff



                  Grendel-Max

                  Exodus 20:1-17
                  Acts 4:10-12

                  Comment

                  • montana
                    Chieftain
                    • Jun 2011
                    • 3209

                    Nice job with the hammer, I love how you turn common and discarded tools into specialty tools. After all these years I have never seen waxing of knife sheathes. It really makes a difference stiffening and making the leather water resistant. Thank you for the video. I'm sorry your retirement may be slipping away but I'm happy to see other people are discovering your talent. They are in for a very nice surprise.

                    Comment

                    • Von Gruff
                      Chieftain
                      • Apr 2012
                      • 1078

                      Retirement is just no longer HAVING to work every day. Making stuff has been a passion all my life so this playing in the shed is a pleasure and seems like a reward for the lifetime of working for a living.
                      I have had my shed lighting all redone and apart from no heating is about as "play friendly" as it could be. I am going to look at one of the smaller deisel electric burners to make it a little more pleasant up there as the winter is drawing on with some heavy frosts lately which makes the uninsulated block walls and iron roof hold the cold.
                      http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                      sigpic Von Gruff



                      Grendel-Max

                      Exodus 20:1-17
                      Acts 4:10-12

                      Comment

                      • montana
                        Chieftain
                        • Jun 2011
                        • 3209

                        I insulated my shed last year and it is amazing how well it stays cool in the summer and heated in the winter. After working for years in the cold and heat it makes for a much more enjoyable time with a reasonable temp. Many people here use waste oil heaters or wood heat. We use diesel for our shops. My wife asked me when I thought I would retire and I answered, "when I die". I have always enjoyed my work, "well most of the time" but being able to pick the work and days one chooses is true retirement. You obviously are very talented creating things and you also have the benefit of enjoying the process. Life is good

                        Comment

                        • Von Gruff
                          Chieftain
                          • Apr 2012
                          • 1078

                          It was another hard frost this morning so I looked through the local ebay and bought this heater. It will run on waste oil as well as deisel so it looks like this winter is going to be a little more comfortable in the shed. I do know that when I have the forge going it is very plesant so to have the burner going all the time will make things better.
                          Last edited by Von Gruff; 05-10-2017, 04:50 AM.
                          http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                          sigpic Von Gruff



                          Grendel-Max

                          Exodus 20:1-17
                          Acts 4:10-12

                          Comment

                          • Von Gruff
                            Chieftain
                            • Apr 2012
                            • 1078

                            So all profiled with coarse belt today. Nine round butt skinners on top with a pair of boys knives, 2 light hunters, a reverse angled hunter skinner, 2 wapiti hunters and 3 boners. May get the egdes all tidied up with fines belts tomorrow and start cleaning up the faces.

                            http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                            sigpic Von Gruff



                            Grendel-Max

                            Exodus 20:1-17
                            Acts 4:10-12

                            Comment

                            • Von Gruff
                              Chieftain
                              • Apr 2012
                              • 1078

                              It was a good day in the shed today with 13 blades having the main bevels ground in and taken to 240 grit but the grinder motor was getting warm enough and I needed a spell from leaning over it so left them for today.


                              And moved on to another project I had needed done. I have a dozen 18 in bar clamps but that is not enough to do the handles on this group of blades if they are all ready at once so I got a length of 4 inch channel iron at the scrap yard and had it cut into 1 1/2 in strip. This afternoon I started the process of turning them into handle clamps by drilling and tapping a hole in one end for a 12mm threaded rod. I had got a couple of 1 metre threaded rods and will cut them into 110mm lengths.

                              So this is the ones that have been tapped and the rest waiting to be done.


                              The end of the threaded rod is turned down on the grinder (no lathe for me) and a groove is made to except the head of the clamping piece which is just a short length of 20mm rod that has a hole drilled to suit the turned down end of the threaded rod, then a cut each way with the cut off disc on the angle grinder


                              And the cut ends can be taped into the groove to make for a clamping piece that is able to swivel and or clamp up to slightly uneven angles. All that is left to do is to weld a handle on the end of the rod and maybe a washer on the end of the clamping head to increase the size but that may be unnessary.
                              I will have to clean them all up of rust etc but this one is just put together to test the theory.
                              http://www.vongruffknives.com/

                              sigpic Von Gruff



                              Grendel-Max

                              Exodus 20:1-17
                              Acts 4:10-12

                              Comment

                              • montana
                                Chieftain
                                • Jun 2011
                                • 3209

                                The clamps were a great idea. I have made similar clamps but never figured out the swivel end you made. Drilling out a bigger piece of all thread with cuts for a swivel was genius. I'm really enjoy seeing your solutions for tool making. I think it was Bruce Lee, "of all people" who stated simplicity is the last step in art form. How true. Thanks again for sharing these ideas.

                                Comment

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