| Project by Karson | posted 299 days ago | 1187 views | 5 times favorited | 14 comments |  |
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About 4 or 5 years ago (who can remember those kind of details) I bought 4 marking knife blades from Hock Tools I bought 2 of the 1/4” marking knives and 2 of the 3/4” blades. I kind of sharpened them up and put them back in the package. After giving one of the 3/4” blades to a friend. He has probably used them the same as me. (Never)
On February 7, 2009 the Mason Dixon Woodworking Club is having a “Hand Cut Dovetail Class” So I figured that this would be a good time to find the blades and use them. They were in the top drawer of my workbench. (Great Planning).
Now i started to think what kind of scales that I wanted to put on them. I went looking for my exotic pen blank box. I got sidetracked by an unopened box that hadn’t been opened since my move 3 years ago. Inside was a box of Snakeskin Wood. Cut-off pieces from someone else’s shop. They were selling their scrap.
I picked through the box and came up with a few possibilities.
I guess the harvester of the Snakeskin wood logs cuts off all of the sapwood, so they don’t have to ship wood that no one wants. There must be a lot of splitting in the logs because the pieces I’ve got is representative of that.
I then realized that I had another package of Snakeskin wood. So in all of the years I’ve had it, I never got the two packages together. So this was the time.
It had some longer pieces. I only needed about 9” of wood 4 1/2 on each side of the blade.
So I made my selection.
The scales for the 3/4” knife were about 3/8” thick and the 1/4” size is about 1/4” square.
I took the larger piece and cut it to size and I drilled 3/16” holes to match the holes in the blade. I put a brass rod through the pieces to keep them aligned for glueing.
I wiped all pieces down with Lacquer Thinner to remove all of the oils. I then used Epoxy glue to glue every thing together. I put the block in the vise to clamp it.
After Lunch I took the knife out of it’s clamp.
I then started to sand the block on a power sander then hand sanding. I used the Beall wood polishing system to put on the gloss. There is no finish on the wood just polishing and waxing.
While I working on this knife the smaller one was in the clamps.
I then did the sanding and polishing on it.
The handle looks a little strange, but is comfortable to hold.
I’ve not yet put the brass rivets in the larger knife because I want to do a little more finishing to size and remove some of the fine scratches that appeared in the buffing process.
I super sharpened the marking knives using my Sharpening Station
I’m ready to goto class, at least on the marking knife process.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
14 comments so far
itsme_timd
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676 posts in 727 days
posted 299 days ago
These lool like very nice marking knives. I always emjoy the great details in your posts!
-- Tim D. - Woodstock, GA
Dusty56
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3470 posts in 584 days
posted 299 days ago
You’re always doing something creative and your blogs are so informative , Karson …thanks for teaching me some more tricks : )
-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .
John Gray
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1753 posts in 781 days
posted 299 days ago
WOW beautiful job!! Thanks for the idea to get me moving.
-- Only the Shadow knows....................
OutPutter
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321 posts in 886 days
posted 299 days ago
Thanks for another informative post Karson. I need some marking knives too. I looked at your sharpening system and couldn’t help noticing the similarity to the Worksharp system. Have you considered a copyright infringement suit? ;2)
-- Jim
Dick, & Barb Cain
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7037 posts in 1195 days
posted 298 days ago
Very nice Karson.
You ended up with a couple of beautiful tools.
-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1
cabinetmaster
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8590 posts in 454 days
posted 298 days ago
Karson, I got a couple of old planer knives I’ve been looking to put to good use. Now I have my answer to what to do with them. I needed a marking tool at work yesterday. Thanks for the timely post. Great looking tooll you have there. I also just looked at your reference to the sharpening station and now I know what to do with all that MDF I have laying around. I never would have thought to use MDF as a buffing wheel.
-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps
lew
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4490 posts in 651 days
posted 298 days ago
Great Project, Karson!!
I like that you made the blade to work in both “directions”.
Lew
Roger Strautman
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534 posts in 1029 days
posted 298 days ago
Thanks Karson! I liked the looks of the snakeskin wood. Those are keepers!
-- " All Things At First Appear Difficult"
Rob
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197 posts in 563 days
posted 298 days ago
That’s great. Thanks Karson. This is going in my favourites.
motthunter
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2079 posts in 695 days
posted 298 days ago
thanks for the details.. interesting!
-- making sawdust....
dustyal
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447 posts in 371 days
posted 298 days ago
Okay, now I know what I’m up against. Custom hand-made marking knives? You just happen to have some blade blanks and brass rods laying around plus a couple of bundles of snakewood that you forgot about? Then, I read your blog about your “sharping station”? Argggghhhh! Maybe I should take my plane and chisels to your shop for a little honing of my skills BEFORE the dovetail class. ;)
And I thought I was doing good to cut a rabbit in a piece of popular today to repair an antique cabinet that fell apart at the seams in our last move… and the customer wanted that fixed, last year.
I’m looking forward to seeing you and these knives on Feb 7.
-- Al H. - small shop, small projects...
Grumpy
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14926 posts in 747 days
posted 298 days ago
Nice job Karson. Tools that will last forever.
-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python
jm82435
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508 posts in 638 days
posted 298 days ago
Good job Karson. It must be like a candy store in your shop. You seem to always have interesting materials just laying around for your projects…
-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever...
jockmike2
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7322 posts in 1142 days
posted 297 days ago
Nice job Karson. I made one using an old spade drill bit. It still works great and sharpens easily. I had to make a round handle. I love all the multi colored handles, very cool.
-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com