Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday vacation. I sure did. In between family activities and celebrations I slipped out to my shop and got the Jaguar and Virtue so close to the finish line that I can almost taste it. Here are some progress pics for you to enjoy.
The first matter at hand was to get the blades heat treated. I heat treated the Damasteel bolsters for the Jaguar too. Damasteel takes a much better etch when it's been hardened.
Testing the hardness of the blades with my portable Rockwell Hardness tester. HRC61, nailed it!
Here is my setup for grinding in the lock ramp on the back of the blade tangs. I use a 10 degree gauge block to set my work rest up to the correct angle and then grind in the lock ramps.
Here we are at the mill, cutting the lock bar in the Virtue liner. This setup works great and gives an accurate, straight cut.
While I'm at the mill, I went ahead and jeweled the insides of the liners. It really catches the light and makes things interesting when one looks inside the knife.
Here's the Jaguar blade ground and hand finished. I tried something new to me on this one, that of blending the plunge lines into the riccaso. I think it suites this knife quite well.
Here's the Virtue blade all finished up.
The liners for both knives get anodized for a subtle pop of color.
A dark bronze for the Jaguar and a nice soft blue for the Virtue.
The faces of the lock bars get carbidized to help limit lock stick. In actuality, a thin layer of carbide from an old end mill gets welded onto the lock face. It really helps to keep the lock running smooth and reduces wear.
The Damasteel bolsters for the Jaguar get dunked into some muriatic acid for etching.
Nice! The bolsters took the etch really well.
My maker's mark gets etched into the blades with my electroetcher that I shop built using a stencil.
Time to turn a couple of thumb studs. I do this freehand on the lathe using small files, followed up by a polish with sandpaper.
Here's a final shot of all of the parts for the knives finished up and ready for assembly. I'll put these together and break in the knives over the next couple of days. I'll make any last-minute tweaks and, when satisfied that they are ready, I'll take some final pics and video and ship them off to their new owners.
Thanks for following along with me on these builds. Have a great week!
- Brandant Robinson