Member postings for Irbailey

Cheers.

Not sure about the blade yet. I think I'll blacken the handle and guard first and see what it looks like.

The original first pattern knives were polished, as William E Fairbairn believed that a shiny blade gave a man a psychological advantage over an opponent. The later patterns were blackened.

To be fair, the most action this knife will see once it's done will be sitting in my desk drawer and possibly opening the odd envelope!

I have toyed with the idea of blackening it and giving it an 'antiqued' look.

Like many of my projects, it's very much a bit of a 'make it up as you go' kind of affair!

Ian.

Well...after a lot of reading and thinking, I decided it was time to have a go. I've got plenty more brass in stock.

I basically ran the chuck as slow as possible, and moved the knurling tool along by hand whilst trying to keep an even pressure on it by constantly adjusting the tool post.

Not an easy task.

Anyway, here's the end result. It's not great, in fact it's far from great, but it is at least nice and 'grippy' in the hand.

I think I'll keep it until my Birchwood Casey brass black turns up, and see how it looks once it's blackened. If I'm not happy, I'll probably take it off and make a ribbed version, or perhaps try separate knurls interrupted by grooves. Until I get everything loctited up and peen the tang thread, I can experiment a bit, which is all part of the fun.

Funnily enough, I did toy with the spring idea, my thoughts being making some sort of spring loaded tool holder with an old airgun spring.

Certainly an interesting project. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Cheers,

Ian.

Thanks Clive.

That makes sense.

Using a tool post mounted knurling tool in the past I've made one pass with fairly light pressure, then added pressure and reversed the feed to go back over the work and so on until I'm happy with the depth and cut pattern.

To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure how to go about my handle, but I've learned a fair bit today and everyone's help has given me food for thought and some different ideas on how to approach it.

Thank you all for taking time to reply to my question, it's very much appreciated.

Ian.

That looks like a very useful tool.

Daft question, but I'm assuming it pulls itself along the work?

Even dafter question - does a normal tool post mounted two wheel knurl also pull itself along the work if the carriage is free?

I'm 100% 'self taught' on lathe work and I've always knurled by running the chuck on the lowest RPM and the same with the feed rate (it's a Myford ML7-R)

I ruined a lot of material before I was able to get a nice diamond pattern, but I'm now wondering if I've been doing it correctly and possibly making life hard for myself.

Ian.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Much appreciated.

I'm still not sure which direction to go, but the groove/knurl combo is looking like a possible option.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'll post the results (good or bad!) once I've decided which direction to go in.

Cheers,

Ian.

Thanks for the advice. I was still replying to the first comment before I realised there were more!

This will most likely be a one off, maybe not, but certainly not something I'll be making batches of or repeating on a regular basis.

These are some original handles for an idea of what I'm trying to achieve. Obviously making the grooved version would be easier, but I do enjoy a challenge!

Edited By Irbailey on 19/03/2023 10:15:48

That would definitely make things easier.

The originals were knurled in one and after studying pictures, some of them do look as if they were done in sections, some better than others! This was the 1940's, so CNC wasn't involved. I'm guessing how well they came out depended on the lathe operator. I can see why they changed from knurling to grooves in the latter production and current handles, as it must have simplified production tremendously.

I wondered whether slowly moving the pressure on the work and edging it along with the carriage would work?

Ruining it after getting this far would be a bit depressing to say the least!

Ian.

I'm looking for some advice on knurling.

I've done plenty of normal knurling on steel, brass and aluminium, but this project is a little different.

I'm making a Fairbairn-Sykes style Commando Knife which requires knurling on a curved surface.

I made a test piece from aluminium and tried it by placing the knurling tool on the work, then removing it, moving along and repeating as required. Whilst it sort of worked, I wasn't happy with the result as it was a bit of a mess.

I've included a couple of pictures of the brass handle I wish to knurl. The two blue lines are the area I wish to knurl (the end line is where it will be parted off)

Any help/suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Ian.

Hello Brian.

I pretty much stick to making knives, although I do tinker with other bits and pieces.

Here's a few random examples.

Cheers,

Ian.

Hello.

Where do I start? Well, I'm not a model engineer, but I do like playing with metalwork.

I'm an electrician by trade, and in my spare time I make knives.

I'm 'self taught' by way of many broken tools and a lot of wasted materials.

Quite often I've googled things I need to know, and this place has often given me answers. Thank you!

Thought it was about time I signed up and hopefully learn a bit more.

Ian.