Look what was dropped off at my house...

[stereo.pete]

Ok, after almost 18 hours of rest, the epoxy has not hardened. Clearly I did not put enough hardner in the mix so I have two questions.

1. Will it eventually harden if given enough time?

2. Should I just toss it and start over?

[stereo.pete]

Also, what brands of epoxy do you recommend for handles and making your own micarta?

[stereo.pete]

Ok, so I finally pulled the plug on this project, here are the results of the first failed "mycarta" batch.

Here's the sheet right out of the press... .
The sheet was tacky on the exterior and very flexible bending to 45 degrees.

I cut off a small chunk to try sanding on with my Dremel and layers would peel away from time to time, so clearly it would not make a good medium for sculpting a handle.



Granted I failed but I will say that I learned a lot and will change quite a few aspects of the process in the future.

[Dave Martell]

You're making micarta too? I've got to give you some applause here Pete!

[stereo.pete]

Blades were shipped off to Peter's Heat Treat, will update when I get them back.

[stereo.pete]

My Father-In-Law dropped off some steel a few weeks back that he found at a work site. It came in a clear plastic package with a label from Pacific Steel and the steel is designated as precision ground O1. Now this isn't my idea of precision ground but I feel obligated to use the steel for something, since it was a gift and the fact that it is identifiable makes it worthy of heat treat. The problem is that it's only 1/16th thick which limits the possibilities between pairing knives and steak knives.

I decided why not use it to make a chisel ground pairing knife but before I went through all of the work of manually sawing the steel, profiling the blank with files and yadda yadda yadda, I would test it out. There was a small piece of the steel that had been lopped off the bar already so I did a quick profile with a shoddy bench grinder, and then cleaned it up with some 80 grit sandpaper to rid the blank of the burrs from grinding. Now in my haste I ended up creating a single bevel for a left hander instead of a right hander ,but the concept is the same.

I was forced to use a dremel tool to create a terrible hollow grinder on the reverse side, although with my pairing knife I may not bother and see how she performs.






My freehand filing is definitely getting better with each blade so I am at least happy with that.

[stereo.pete]

Blades just arrived back from Peter's Heat Treat, O1 finished at R/C 59.

[stereo.pete]

I had some free time before I had to head into work today so I figured I would jump in and start working on a handle for my wharncliffe.

[stereo.pete]

So I have my Dad's knife that I am making waiting for the epoxy to cure on their handles. I decided to work a bit on my wharncliffe since I had some downtime today, here's a 600 grit finish.

[Mucho Bocho]

You're almost there Pete. thanks for the update!