Next project!

[Russ]

Was gifted this bar of 1095 steel. Im going to be working reduction to get the knife i want. Ill keep you updated 

[Russ]

Got a design! These two are keeping me working whenever i can! Keeps my mind clear and destressed for school. I see why people call bowmaking and stuff a type of therapy!

[DC]

When I went to school if we finished our Industrial Arts project we could work on our own stuff. I made knives. I made a Bowie knife with a 10" blade at school! Times have changed. Now a days if a student picks up a sharp stick he gets sent home for a week and is lucky if he escapes therapy.

[Russ]

Sad thing is thst there was a kid, about preschool age, his name was hunter, great kid i heard from my friend, but he was deaf. The only way to say his name was to make a gun with his two fingers. Teachers called that a threat and expelled  him. Dont know what happened after that.

[Hawkdancer]

I don't think playing "cops and robbers" or "Cowboys and iIndians" or soldiers damaged us too much!  Some of us wound up in the military and even Congress, went to college, and a few wound up in jail.
But we were the "pre-war kids", and not Molly coddled with a lot of experiential theories about how to raise or educate children.  The day after I retired from the Army, I started my ponytail, still got it somewhere.  As the country song says, "The Class of '57 had a Dream" - life lead us where we are.  I still size a person up on the basis of whether I would hunt with them or not!  Btw, I sign a little, and know about name signs - a preschooler doesn't understand about threats, either.  I'll stop rambling, and drink my coffee!
Hawkdancer

[Russ]

Hawkdancer! You habe a ponytail lying around?   Cool!  Rambling is my one way ticket to leaning without asking! Wow i can get off topic quick! Do you think the design is good?

[TimothyR]

What kind of scales do you like to use dh?

[Russ]

Dont really have scales, i was just gonna wing it with some spaltered wood or something.

[TimothyR]

Dont really have scales, i was just gonna wing it with some spaltered wood or something.

Get you some minwax wood hardener and seal the spalted wood in a Mason jar with the wood hardener.

[Mesophilic]

Dont really have scales, i was just gonna wing it with some spaltered wood or something.

Get you some minwax wood hardener and seal the spalted wood in a Mason jar with the wood hardener.

A while back on bladeforums, a bunch of knife makers who are much more talented than I came to a conclusion that soaking in wood hardner doesn't penetrate very far in to wood unless you pull a certain amount of vacuum.  I send mine off to K&G in Arizona to have them professionally stabilized, but it's not economical for for just a set of scales.

He could still gain a benefit though, if he were to preshape his handles before soaking. 

[Russ]

I could put the wood on the handle, shape it, then soak it, if that what you ment.

[TimothyR]

Dont really have scales, i was just gonna wing it with some spaltered wood or something.

Get you some minwax wood hardener and seal the spalted wood in a Mason jar with the wood hardener.

A while back on bladeforums, a bunch of knife makers who are much more talented than I came to a conclusion that soaking in wood hardner doesn't penetrate very far in to wood unless you pull a certain amount of vacuum.  I send mine off to K&G in Arizona to have them professionally stabilized, but it's not economical for for just a set of scales.

He could still gain a benefit though, if he were to preshape his handles before soaking.

Would heating the jar to seal it pull enough vacuum in it?

[Mesophilic]

I could put the wood on the handle, shape it, then soak it, if that what you ment.

You could use temporary pins to hold it all together while you shape it, then take the scales off for soaking.   The hardner will leave a residue on the steel if you were to soak it while they're attached.   I've read of guys trying to paint it on, but it hardens up the bristles of the brush and makes a mess in most cases...like trying to paint with super glue.

I played with it a bit back in the day.  I have a foodsaver with the jar attachments and found I could pull enough vacuum on a mason jar to see bubbles coming out of the wood while it soaked.  Not even sure what happened to those knives so I can't give you a comment on how they held up over time.

[Mesophilic]

Dont really have scales, i was just gonna wing it with some spaltered wood or something.

Get you some minwax wood hardener and seal the spalted wood in a Mason jar with the wood hardener.

A while back on bladeforums, a bunch of knife makers who are much more talented than I came to a conclusion that soaking in wood hardner doesn't penetrate very far in to wood unless you pull a certain amount of vacuum.  I send mine off to K&G in Arizona to have them professionally stabilized, but it's not economical for for just a set of scales.

He could still gain a benefit though, if he were to preshape his handles before soaking.

Would heating the jar to seal it pull enough vacuum in it?

I'm sure it would pull some vacuum.   Not enough to penetrate deeply to the core.  If I remember correctly,  to stabilize wood all the way through it takes something like -26 atmospheres of vacuum.   Don't quote me on that, though even if I'm not recalling it exactly right, it's still alot of vacuum.

With a preshaped handle scale it might just be enough to get it a little deeper in to those soft spalted layers. 

Just be careful,  you're playing with flammable solvents, so the kitchen stove might not be a good option.

[Woodely]

When I went to school if we finished our Industrial Arts project we could work on our own stuff. I made knives. I made a Bowie knife with a 10" blade at school! Times have changed. Now a days if a student picks up a sharp stick he gets sent home for a week and is lucky if he escapes therapy.

I remember years ago myself and another guy fixing the broken spring on my side folder switch blade.  Teacher did not mind it had a 3 1/2" blade. ..