Trinket Box

Trying something different after the display box in my last post, I made a general purpose trinket box.

The majority of the box is made from Sepile wood, which has a deep red colour. The stripes on the lid are alternating Sepile and Beech. These strips are glued onto a backing of simple Birch plywood, just to provide some rigidity. The base is from the same plywood. After sanding and assembly I polished the box with several coats of beeswax, giving a smooth, glossy shine. The inside base is covered with felt and there are small magnets inserted in the front corners of the base and lid to help keep the lid closed securely.

Overall dimensions are:

Length 225 mm (8.86")

Width 135 mm (5.31")

Height 75 mm (2.95")

Enjoy the photos.

Knife 15 and Display Box

I'm back to tell the story of my latest creation - Knife 15, which is a gift for Richard, my friend of many years.

The basic shape of the knife is similar to one I have done before, which I know was one of Richard's favourites, but with some adjustments.

The blade is my old reliable O1 Tool Steel, full tang design.  The bolsters are aluminium with aluminium pins.  The scales are English Oak with brass pins.  The decorative wavy design continues all the way around the tang between the scales, created by using black epoxy.

Dimensions are:

Blade

Length = 140 mm ( 5.51" )

Height = 45 mm ( 1.77" )

Thickness = 4 mm ( 0.16" )

Handle

Length = 125 mm ( 4.92" )

Height = 37 mm ( 1.46" ) at its maximum

Thickness = 20 mm ( 0.79" )

The blade flat surfaces have been polished to a mirror finish.  The bevels have been polished, but the grinding marks have been left for visual effect.  The Oak has been treated with Lemon oil polish to enhance the rich natural beauty of the wood.  The bolsters have also been polished to a shiny finish.

This time, instead of a leather sheath, I decided to make a wooden box to store and protect the knife, as well as being a display feature in itself.  The box is made of Beech wood, sanded smooth with a slight chamfer around the top surface of the lid.  It has been polished to an extremely smooth glossy finish using beeswax.  The overall effect makes it feel a bit like glass to the touch.  Inside there is an insert of grey foam with a recess cut out for the the thickness of the handle.  The inside surface of the lid is lined with green felt.  Tucked inside the edges of the lid and base in matching positions are a few small but very strong magnets which help to keep the lid closed, minimising the chances of it flipping open unintentionally.

Box external dimensions

Length = 292 mm ( 11.50" )

Width = 84 mm ( 3.31" )

Height = 48 mm ( 1.89" )

This afternoon it was handed over to its new owner who seems very pleased with the result.

Enjoy the photos and videos!

Blade template glued onto the steel, ready for cutting

Cutting out the rough shape with an angle grinder

Rough blade shape

Grinding the blade to its correct shape

More cleaning up of the blade

Blade cleaned up and smoothed off

First stage of marking and shaping for the wavy decoration around the tang

Arcs filed in all the way around

Rough shape of the aluminuim bolsters - I cut and shaped them together as if one piece to ensure they were identical in size and shape.

Bolsters in place to check for initial size and fit

Parallel score marks down the edge of the blade to show the centre, ready for grinding the bevels

Blade on the bevel grinding jig with the first few passes of the bevel ground in

Bevel grinding jig in position for shaping in front of the grinding belt

Items ready for heat treatment

The forge ready for heat treatment

Video - Heat treatment.  Note how I check for the correct temperature by checking the magnetic transition before quenching in the oil.

Video - Checking the hardness.

The file skates over the surface of the steel without biting in.

Heat treatment complete and initial cleanup done

Wavy design cleaned up ready for fitting the scales

Blade cleaned up and polished

Bolsters shaped and ready for fitting

Bolsters fitted in place, clamped while the epoxy cures

Scales glued and pinned in place, clamped tightly while the black epoxy cures

Scales smoothed off to their approximate shape

Assembly complete, scales shaped and smoothed.  Bolsters and blade polished.

Top of the handle showing the wavy design along the spine

Bottom of the handle showing how the wavy design extends all the way around the tang

Scales drying after being polished with Lemon Oil polish

Putting the final sharp edge on the blade

Beech wood before I started the box construction.

At this stage it was so rough I did not even know that it was Beech!

Same piece of Beech, planed all round using my new planer/thicknesser

(see my previous blog post)

Same piece of Beech, cut into pieces for the box and lid

Box construction - inserts for the hinges

Box construction - Base sections glued together

Box construction - Base and lid assembled and sanded smooth

Box fully assembled and polished.  Note the chamfer around the edges of the top.

Box internals - foam insert and green felt

Box with the knife in place

Close up of the box corner showing one of the small magnets

Wood Planer / Thicknesser

Several weeks ago I bought a new workshop tool.  The company had a scheme whereby employees could award recognition points to their coworkers for a job well done, which could be traded for a gift or reward of their choosing.  I used the points I had received to buy this machine.

Known as an electric planer/ thicknesser, it is used for planing the surface of wood to a smooth finish, or for reducing the thickness of wooden planks to a desired size.  The guide at the top can be angled to plane the wood surfaces at any desired angle.

I have already used this during my next knife project, with extremely satisfying results, but I will tell more about that in the next blog post coming soon.

Enjoy the photos!

View from the front.  The wood you see is on the exit side of the planer table.  The cutting blades are below the safety guard in the centre.  The black pipe is connected to the dust extractor.

View from the left side.  You can see the area below the planer table where the wood is fed through the thicknesser section.  For this function the rotating blades are above the wood, which is fed in from this side.

View from beneath.  You can see a plank that has been fed through the thicknesser.  This is the exit side.  The panel that the wood slides across can be raised and lowered in small increments until the wood reaches the desired thickness.

Before and after photos of the same piece of Beech wood.

Leather Crafting Workshop

Some time ago, around the start of the Civid pandemic lockdown, I was given a ticket as a gift to attend a leather crafting workshop.  Lockdown caused that session to be cancelled, but eventually today I was able to attend the re-arranged workshop.

This was the "beginner" level class but I wanted to attend it anyway because all my knowledge of leather crafting has been self-taught and I wanted to see whether I have all the basics right or if I may have picked up some bad habits along the way.  Happily I learned that most of what I am doing is on the right track, at least at beginner level, but I also learned a few new things today.  For example, optimum use of some of the tools, some tool sharpening techniques, use of colour dyes and better methods for attaching press-studs.  Things like stitching will be covered in the "intermediate" level class, which I hope to attend in the near future.

During the class today we learned a few of the basic techniques, which we tried out by making a simple keyring and then moved on to making a small pouch suitable for carrying a few credit cards, ID cards or business cards etc.  Of course these had to be decorated, colour dyed and riveted closed once the leather was folded over.  A photo of my finished pouch is below.

Big shout of thanks to Laurence White of "Shedtime" for running the class and to Katy-Jayne and team at "Heritage Lincolnshire" for organising the workshop, which was held at their premises in Heckington.  Very enjoyable afternoon.  Well done to you all.

Knife 14 and Sheath 6

I was recently reminded by my lovely wife that I had not yet made a knife for her ... so I rectified that situation.  This is the story.

This one would have to be pretty, feel good in the hand, unusual (i.e. special) and "fit for a lady".

I decided to use stainless steel this time because, although I wanted it to be sharp, it did not need to be hardened or able to retain a razor-sharp edge.  The overall blade shape is a "recurve", which is when the blade curves twice along its length.  It is a full tang design but before assembly I drilled many holes through the tang to reduce the weight.  The blade is finished to a fine satin finish all over.

The scales are olive wood.  I had not used this material before and I must say I like it.  Although a fairly hard wood, it is quite easy to work with and it returns a beautifully smooth, tactile surface finish.  I found it interesting that the wood has a natural slight oiliness to it, not really surprising when you consider how oily olives can be.  The resulting effect was that it was not necessary to apply any wax or oil to polish it at the end.

For decorative effect there are 3 cubic zirconia set into the wood on each side,  2 amber and 1 mauve in the centre.  The scales are attached with epoxy glue and 2 x 6mm brass pins (0.25").

Overall dimensions are:

Blade - 150mm long (5.9"), 30mm (1.6") at its widest point, 4mm thick (0.16")

Handle - 100mm long (3.9"), 17mm thick (0.67")

Overall length - 250mm (9.8")

I took a different approach to the sheath for this one.  Instead of a single piece of leather folded in half, I used 2 separate pieces for the front and back, separated by an all-around welt.  (The welt is a strip of leather inserted between the 2 sides of the sheath to provide a spacer to allow for the thickness of the blade.)  For further decorative effect I created a woven effect on the front by cutting a series of horizontal slits not quite all the way to the edges.  From a different piece of thinner grey leather I cut 5 long strips and wove them through the slits creating a grid pattern.

I glued all the pieces together, keeping them tightly pressed overnight.  Instead of saddle stitch, this time I used blanket stitch all the way around the perimeter of the sheath.  This one has neither a belt loop nor a handle clip because it will never need to be carried on a belt - remember, it is a lady's knife!  Hopefully the result will be acceptable to the new owner.

Enjoy the photos!