had a bad back this week so have been off work, moaping around the house feeling sorry for myself, and needing a little project that didn't require too much physical effort. So yesterday i set about making a bit of a skinning knife.
i was talking to my father inlaw a few months back and got onto making blades. i told him i was always looking for good steel to make knives and that if he came across any old tools or toolsteel to grab them for me. at that he put down his beer, walked over to the wall of his shed a pulled out from between the corregated iron and hardwood shed frame, an old pair, of what looked to be well used hand shears.
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after sitting them on a shelf and threatening to do something with them for a few months i finally had the opportunity. i had drawn on a few shapes and designs over the months but hadn't set my mind on a final design.
i cut one side of the shear off, and finalised a shape i like. i love skinners for some reason and thats the shape i ended up going with.
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taking my 4" grinder and a 1mm cutting disc i carefully and softly followed my blade outline, cutting only a shallow groove in the surface of the blade. the idea being to make a shallow channel to follow with future runs with the grinder, but not overheating the metal too much.
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now i continue to follow the groove with the grinder, doing one pass at a time, then letting it cool for a couple of minutes.
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the previous is a times taking step so it's a good opportunity to find a piece of wood and start looking and thinking of the handle design.
the blades of the shears are slightly concaved on one side and have a slight bend in them running down the blade. a little carefull work with the calibrated knockometer and it came in pretty straight. the other problem i was faced with was how to attach the wood for the handle to the concaved metal handle of the shears. this was the biggest downfall of this piece.
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after a slow grinding session the following fell from the original shape.
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i chose a piece of wattle (of some kind) for the handle piece.
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now i had to carve the wood to fit up inside the concaved metal handle. i started with a very roughed out shape, and slowly worked it to fit better and better. i ran the grinder down the centre of the blade end to fit a tab of metal off the blade.
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...otis...
