Over the past month I have spent several afternoons with
Sandy from Jacklore Knives as he shows me the process of building one of his
Jacklore Classics bushcraft knives. It
has been a pleasure to spend time with Sandy at his workshop and film the build
of my knife.
This is the knife that Sandy has built and gifted to me.
The knife was customised by enlarging the handle length and
slightly reducing the blade length.
The German O1 tool steel was first roughly cut out on a
metal workers band saw before the finer shaping work was done on the knife
makers grinders.
Sandy uses several different wheels for the contours of the
handle. Watching Sandy using the grinders
I could not believe how quickly they can remove material when O1 tool steal was
in is softer pearlite state.
Once the handles had been drilled (for the pins and assist
bonding for the scales) the blade was coated with an anti scale compound to
stop loss of carbon to oxygen when the knife was in the kiln for the hardening
process.
The knife blade was placed in a knife maker’s kiln for heat
treating and quenching. The blade was
check for any warps but all was straight and true.
Liking a dark wood for a knife handle I choose some walnut
for the scales of the knife which had previously been stabilised by Sandy. These were prepared and keyed up for bonding
with the blade.
Before I left for the day the knife was placed in warming
oven for its first temper cycle, returning a week later Sandy had completed the
second and third tempering cycles.
The blade was then tested on a Rockwell hardness tester and
measured 58/58.5Hrc along it length.
Back to the grinders to place the bevel on the blade, this
was done at 28 degrees rather than Sandy’s favoured bevel angle of approx. 25
to 26 degrees.
The scales were keyed up ready to attached to the blade and
clamped in place to cure 24 hours.
But it was another week before I could return to the
workshop for the final stages of the build as Sandy shaped the handle adjusting
to best suit my hand.
I was an absolute pleasure to spend the time with Sandy and
a good friendship has grown though the building of this knife.
The finished Jacklore Classic
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