Over this last weekend I was able to get quite a lot done on the Shard knife. The scales have been taken up to their final polish and the blade has been ground to 220 grit and ready to start with hand finishing. Here are a few pics of the progress.
Here is a cool little pivot lap that I picked up some time ago. It's used to lap my pivot pins and bushings to the correct length.
I use the pivot on my disk sander to speed things up.
Using the micrometer, I lap the bushing to the exact size that it needs to be. There is a little back and forth from the lap to the micrometer. I go slow so I don't over shoot the length.
I drill a pocket on the inside of the bolsters in order to keep the pivot screws hidden away.
Here's a look at the knife after its first assembly. I've also done the initial shaping of the bolsters and the scales.
Here's another look at the knife after taking the scales up to a 2000 grit finish followed by a quick spin on the buffer for a final polish. It fits the hand perfectly. Man those scales look awesome!
Here's a photo of the spine of the knife. Looks really nice and will look even better when the spacer gets textured and the liners are anodized.
It's time to get a start on the blade grinds. The blade is mounted in my shop-built file guide which will help to keep the plunges even on both sides of the knife. The blade is also coated in layout dye and a line scratched in where the grind will terminate.
Here's the blade ground to 120 grit. I'll go up to 220 grit and then switch over to hand finishing.
This is where I left off for the weekend. The blade is mounted in my hand finishing jig and ready to go the next time I get out to my shop. Thanks for following along with me on this build.
- Brandant Robinson