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I did a little research on knife blades that are available on the market and with the help of this article (http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/cSchwarz/z_art/markKnives/markKnives1.asp) I felt I had a good grasp on what I wanted to make.
I got further inspiration from Derek Cohen’s article at:
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/A Knife for Marking Dovetails.html
Derek’s method re-purposes jig saw blades for the marking blade, something many of us have around our shops. Benefit is that they are cheap, hardened, and thin for getting in tight spaces (like shown on the last page of that first article).
I picked out a couple of used blades from my jig saw box and decided to start with them. In the end, both turned out well and didn't feel I needed to use a new blade.
I started out on my oscillating belt sander with the teeth pointing in the direction of the belt rotation I grasped the blade with some vice grips and began sanding the teeth off.
Next, after a bad attempt to get a 55* to 60* bevel by eye, I chose to use my thread gauge as a template and mark off the correct angles (I think the thread gauge is 60* if I remember correctly)
A little more trial and error I finally got some rough angles and bevels I was happy with, then went over to the bench and started hand honing the cutting edges. I got them close and decided I'd have more control if the blade was in it's handle, so I moved on to making the handles.
I started with some tiger maple I've had around for a few years. I got lucky a few years back and bought a 1/2" x 10" x 84" piece marked at the same price as regular maple at the local yard, been using it for special projects over the years and have about 3' of it left. I was able to use some scrap for these.
I started by measuring the width and thickness of the blades, both measured about .05" thick and .25" wide.
continued...
I got further inspiration from Derek Cohen’s article at:
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/A Knife for Marking Dovetails.html
Derek’s method re-purposes jig saw blades for the marking blade, something many of us have around our shops. Benefit is that they are cheap, hardened, and thin for getting in tight spaces (like shown on the last page of that first article).
I picked out a couple of used blades from my jig saw box and decided to start with them. In the end, both turned out well and didn't feel I needed to use a new blade.
I started out on my oscillating belt sander with the teeth pointing in the direction of the belt rotation I grasped the blade with some vice grips and began sanding the teeth off.
Next, after a bad attempt to get a 55* to 60* bevel by eye, I chose to use my thread gauge as a template and mark off the correct angles (I think the thread gauge is 60* if I remember correctly)
A little more trial and error I finally got some rough angles and bevels I was happy with, then went over to the bench and started hand honing the cutting edges. I got them close and decided I'd have more control if the blade was in it's handle, so I moved on to making the handles.
I started with some tiger maple I've had around for a few years. I got lucky a few years back and bought a 1/2" x 10" x 84" piece marked at the same price as regular maple at the local yard, been using it for special projects over the years and have about 3' of it left. I was able to use some scrap for these.
I started by measuring the width and thickness of the blades, both measured about .05" thick and .25" wide.
continued...