October Project - Stag Hunter

[BrokenolMarine]

As promised, a picture of the magnet bar, loaded up. Helps get some oft used items out of the drawers and off the other benches. The allen wrenches go to the various jigs or the sanders for adjustments. Now all in one location.

10 bar loaded.jpg

This first pic is the Knife Guard Polished to 400 grit, starting to look better.

11 to 400 grit.jpg

I still needed to round the edges, and I did that one the new 1 x 30 sander, very cautious not to touch the moving belt. THAT move hurts every time. I have the scars to prove it. Rounded the edges, and polished the pommel a tad, the guard in the pic is at 600 grit.

12 shaped and to 600 grit.jpg

I have these parts marked to be rough cut on the bandsaw. I also cut some of the G10 carbon fiber parts I'll need, so they can all go to the drill press for the centering hole.

13 marked for bandsaw.jpg

I'm sure many of you have a drill press, but how many have given a thought to the safety of it's use. Cutting smaller items, or metal, you should always clamp them and not try and hold them by hand. If they snag and get spun, you can get a very bad cut. Don't ask me how I know this, but I have the scars to prove I learned THAT lesson the hard way as well. There are videos showing some of this. Also, DON'T wear gloves, a thread can get caught in the spinning bit and pull your hand into that shaft and break your fingers, your wrist or worse. NO, didn't need to learn that one.

14 safety first.jpg

I drilled the large center hole thru the antler in three steps. Pilot hole, then opened it up a bit, then the final size. Much easier than taking a chance on cracking the antler and having to start anew. The very small pieces I used a small drill press vise made for them. But, a through hole would hit the anvil. Adapt and overcome.

With all the pieces ready, I test fitted the pieces then quit for now. I'll preshape some of them, then glue them up and prepare to start shaping the handle.

15 test layout.jpg

I love that part... that's when, like the A-Team, the plan comes together.

[MuddyWaters62]

Luv your work! I could sit here and watch all day. LOL I have a coupleof blanks I need to start. Here on the Red River, most of September and October, the day time temps were in the mid-nineties. I have AC in my insulated shop, but the shop sits in the sun most of the day. It sure keeps heat real well but it sucks at keeping the cool. I may one day attach some 2 inch Formular insulation.

Muddy Waters

[BrokenolMarine]

Luv your work! I could sit here and watch all day. LOL I have a coupleof blanks I need to start. Here on the Red River, most of September and October, the day time temps were in the mid-nineties. I have AC in my insulated shop, but the shop sits in the sun most of the day. It sure keeps heat real well but it sucks at keeping the cool. I may one day attach some 2 inch Formular insulation.

Muddy Waters

My daughter is right there with you. She lives on the Oklahoma side, and her husband works on the Texas Side at Shepherd AFB. They cross back and forth over the river on 44 into Texas to Wichita Falls all the time.

[MuddyWaters62]

Come on downstream to I-35 and turn rt into Gainesville. My best friend has a medium ranch on the west sideof I-35 near Davis,OK. He grew up in Henniepen,OK. He has a nice hobby farm. He invites me to come up and shoot and fish with him. We have been co-workers for about 25 yrs. We have hunted Archery and gun down in Big Bend area and also Auodad sheep. We have also hunted mule deer and we also went to Palo Dura canyon for Auodad. In summertime we would ease over to the Lake south of Davis with our wives. Good Times! Sure do like the A&W ROOT BEER store at I-35 west of Davis.

Muddy Waters

[rickhem]

More good stuff! I love that you spread out to a pretty wide variety of styles with your projects.

I have a couple of the Harbour Freight tool-holder magnets, one in my garage, and one down in my reloading area. A while back you could get them as a freebie with a coupon, but I haven't seen them free for a few years. When you put them in the right place, they end up getting filled with tools pretty quickly, which is a testament to both their utility, and the location.

[BrokenolMarine]

I had to run out to a med appointment this morning, just for labs. But of course, they made the appointment for 10, so the early morning was shot. After I got home and got a bite to eat... I got to work. First up, I decided to shape the wood trim piece that would go against the blade guard. I put it on the shaft of the blade blank and marked a profile, then cut off the excess with the bandsaw, leaving plenty to shape on the oscillating sander.

Working carefully, I sanded to what I thought would be a great looking profile. I was wrong.

16 oops.jpg

Oops was right... I had taken off way too much, and the darn thing was WAY too small for the transition.

17 too small.jpg

This was one of those Adapt and Overcome moments.

[BrokenolMarine]

I didn't have another piece big enough to make another transition, but I did have a couple nice scraps laying on the bench. Hmmm? If I cut a couple dadoes in the pieces and matched them...?

18 scraps to the rescue.jpg

Cutting the dadoes and then matching them up would give me the basic width I needed.

19 cut dados.jpg

After test fitting I decided this just might work. I glued the pieces together and tried the fit. Looked pretty good.

20 just might work.jpg

I slid the stag on the blank and sure enough, it's big enough.

21 big enough.jpg

I sanded the pieces flat and got to work. It's got some nice color...

22 sanded.jpg

Marking the piece against the guard, I shaped it on the sander then sanded a bit more on the flat sandpaper on the bench. It's roughly shaped for now.

23 roughed out.jpg

[BrokenolMarine]

While I was in the shop, I went ahead and paired up the G10 and Carbon Fiber pieces, put a drop or three of glue between the three pieces, wax paper between the three piece sets, then clamped them. Glued up they will be easier to glue to either end of the stag. This will make the assembly easier down the road. My time for this session was drawing to a close. I dropped the roughed out spacer in a med cup of walnut stain for a couple minutes then pulled it out and set it aside to dry. Time to close down the shop and take that required break.

[BrokenolMarine]

Went back out for an afternoon session. First job, pull the clamped G10 out of the clamp. I had used the end bench clamp. You can put a lot of pressure on things with those clamps and they are very secure.

24 g10 clamped.jpg

I pulled them out and separated the two assemblies. They looked good. The odd edges aren't a problem as they are going to be shaped on the sander. If there were supposed to be final shaped before glueup, I would have insured matched edges.

25 G10 outed.jpg

I had given this project plenty of thought during the set up period this afternoon, and had another option in mind. This would use a slice of the cut off from the antler in the bottom of the assembly rather than the wood. No way to know how it would look without trying. I have an excess of time, SO... I cut a slice. Then I squared the ends and drilled the hole thru the center. This gave me an option one and option two. Input? Which do y'all like?

Option one uses the wood inlay at the bottom...

26 option 1.jpg

Option two will use the antler inlay in place of the wood inlay.

27 option 2.jpg

I'll give it some thought, and your input will help.
Still a lot to do, including shaping the G10 accent sections and the handle scales (Antler)

[CT_Shooter]

For what it's worth, I like the wood inlay at the bottom better. In my eye, it has a better balance. Love the project, regardless.