I have a question I am hoping you all can help with.  I know working with buffalo horn, if it warps I can steam it and flatten it.  Does anyone know if I can do the same thing with Ram or sheep horn?  Thanks for the help

@ Larry .. keep the one that currently does not lock OUT.

Blade peek doesn't have a real easy fix that I'm aware of. 

Could you post a pic .. a macro shot of the defects would be best.

Here's a pic of a Mikov leverlock kit .. the locking mechanism will be extremely similar .. there's a pin @ the end of the lever .. coincident w/ the rect hole in the frame.

For manuf reasons .. the L & R frames are identical .. the rect hole for said pin is visible in the frame half w/o the leverlock mechanism.

There are mating holes / slots in the blade. the rect hole in tang area of the blade is for securing the blade in the closed position. The rect slot in the blade is used to secure the blade in the open position.

The pin @ the end of the leverlock mech has downward (into the frame) force placed & maintained upon it by the leverlock spring. This pin goes through the frame & seats into one of the matching slots in the blade .. locking the blade either in the open or closed position.

... as assembled .. the frame halves are mirror images of one another.

Wow DALE!!!

Excellent information...Thanks

Hi, Terry.

Blade peek is when the tip of the blade doesn't sit beneath the liner when it is closed, like it is "peeking".  In other words, it doesn't close all the way before the lock engages.

Thanks Dale !

Great info here as always!

I never knew about Mikov..  Now I want to make one. I went to Mikovknives.com and the ordering process seems complicated, I think I will just try to make one from scratch unless there is an easier way to get a similar kit from someone else??  

Best to all!

Dan

@ Dan .. great to see you're still around .. I've been threatening to get one myself .. finally found a stateside source for the kits .. check here .

Note: I've not done business w/ them .. yet.

Larry, thanks for the explanation of blade peek.  I've passed up some great old knives because they had that problem.

Thanks again Dale!

I just bought one $46.90 includes shipping.

Yeah I am still around, god willing!  I have been real busy with work. I need more play time. :)

Thanks for the kit source!!

Dan,

@ Dan .. let me know how the order/delivery/prod received process goes .. as I'm ready to order one myself.

I was also put off  by the ordering process @ the Chech site. Believe it or don't .. he is improving .. he's got paypal now .. but just w/i the last couple months !!!

@ Terry .. for a regular slipjoint .. blade peak can be rectified by removing a few thousands of matl from the blade kick. It's a different story with an automatic .. blade kick is indicative of a worn part (often the lockpin) or a mis-alignment w/i the locking system itself (the resultant geometry of pivot pin/frame/locking pin/locking pin hole in frame/locking hole or slot in blade). While the locking pins should be as hard as the tang of the blade .. otherwise the softer of the 2 matls will wear by virtue of abrasion w/ the harder matl .. the locking pins are often softer than the blade tangs .. and become worn. When the locking mechanism is located this close to the cntr of rotation .. it only takes a few thousands of wear for the blade tip to begin peeking outside the frame.

With my resources .. there's not an easy fix to that one.

Dale, thanks for the tips on how to fix blade peek.  Very clear and detailed!

Picked up my son from college for turkey day this week .. just had to stop here.

a nice selection

DROOL !!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Does anyone desire to start a Laguiole kit? This guy has been selling the kits like hot cakes on e-bay, I have seen them go for as little as 8 - 14 bucks. I will join in if anyone else wants too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370571423907...

My Sweetheart got me this for valentine's day .. 

.. I should be able to finish that Mikov kit now !!!

SWEET!  That's quite a Valentine, Dale!

NICE ! ,, SOMEBODY REALLY LIKES YOU!

I anticipate seeing what you produce with this cool tool. You will need tooling, a good place to shop is :  http://www.littlemachineshop.com/

@ Dan,

Yeah .. I put about 70% of the mill cost into tooling .. 

H5685 - 4" Rotary Table w/ Clamps                 

G3658 - Titanium Drill 115 pc. Bit Set                             

G9761 - 10 pc. 2 Flute TiN End Mill Set                         

G9891 - 6 pc. End Mill Set - 2 Flute, Small        

G9892 - 6 pc. End Mill Set - 4 Flute, Small                

G9682 - Two Flute TiN Coated End Mills - 3/16" Dia.     

G9671 - Multi Flute End Mills - 3/16" Dia.          

H7661 - Quick Vise                                           

H7575 - 3" Heavy-Duty Drill Press Vise   

T10081 - 4PC PIN VISE SET                       

T10080 - 3PC TAP WRENCH SET           

G5747 - Steel Stamping Set - 1/16" A-Z            

G5745 - Steel Stamping Set - 1/16" Numbered      

H5923 - Carbide Scribe                                         

H1413 - Cutting & Tapping Fluid 16 oz.     

... then I managed this for just under <$20 from Amazon ...

I have many of the required measuring instruments from re-loading & my Engineering days. 
This is going to be a fun project .. getting the mill set-up .. it's still sitting on my garage floor covered in varnish.

I salvaged an old 6 drawer Oak dresser for a bench to mt the mill on. I cut the dresser down to about a 30" height .. managed to save 4 of the drawers .. dis-assembled & re-glued ALL the joints .. but, I've still a bit to do before mounting the mill on it.

The "lilmachineshop" link is pretty cool. I found it researching the mill & have already downloaded their "mill set-up" PDF file. It's in the 3-ring binder I've started on the mill. 

Dan .. I'm strongly considering a belt drive kit for this just right off the bat. Apparently, the fiber gears are designed as the weak-point .. failing before more expensive items.  From what I'm reading .. it's a common failure. Instead of stocking an extra set of gears .. I think I'll just get the belt drive kit & stock that as back-up. Also .. I'm open to suggestions on what I'll need for tooling. I'm just getting started & you can see what I've got @ this point .... more than I know how to use.... but, this is going to be fun .. the learning process !!!  

Off the top of my head, you will need parallel sets for your vice like these: http://www.travers.com/product.asp?RequestData=CA_Search&navPat...

And a "t" slot clamp kit to fit your table like this:  http://www.travers.com/skulist.asp?RequestData=CA_Search&navPat...

As far as the belt kit, thats your choice, my thought is as long as you stay within the limits and capabilities of your machine, you should not dammage the gears.

Here is a good place for educational videos: http://smartflix.com/store/video/91/MiniMachines-101-Mill

Dale,

Your sweetheart really IS a sweetheart.  Congrats

Dan .. some nice links there  ..   Thank You !!!

The mill came w/ 2 t-slot nuts & bolts .. one of the vices comes w/ a couple .. and there are 2 more w/ the rotating table that I was hoping would be enough to get me started .. not sure they’re all 7/16 though .. but, I do know what you mean !!!

The parallels .. they’re to get the piece your working on closer to the head .. or within the range of the head .. very precisely ... ??? correct ???. 

Dan, my background is Engineering w/ 17 yrs of that in a steel fab environment. However, I spent more time behind a monitor designing & 3D CAD than I did hands on in the prototype shop. Twas a great experience though & will hopefully give me a leg up on this machining fun !!!

Nice link on the videos .. Thank You !!! I've never "trammed" a mill.  I was involved in paralleling the head / bed of some old Danly presses ..  6’ * 8’ bed size .. that we ran in production. Some smaller Minster presses too. I may rent the video which covers the tramming procedure .. since it will be one of the first things I do after cleaning & initial set-up.

I don’t need to re-invent the wheel on any of this .. i.e. it would be good to watch somebody that knows what they’re doing do it first before I get into it !!

You have a point on the belt drive. And .. this mill is so I can make knives .. which isn’t exactly going to require hogging off a ½ inch of matl just to get a thick chunk down to wking size. I’ll certainly be cutting 0.062” brass sheet & flat stock  .. the same for some SS for liner lock mechanisms .. but nothing much thicker than 0.125”.  It should be easy enough to stay w/i the specs of the machine.  So, you’ve a valid point. I will eventually upgrade to a belt drive .. as the budget more readily accepts.

Jan & Terry ………………. Yuppers .. I do love that girl :)

Clamping kit. Oh yeah .. I forgot about those handy .. (really really handy) .. step devices. They made clamping dies down in a press real easy. They're on the wish list now !!!

Dale, this should answer your question about parallels:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlLVEXXlFnY

Dan, I'm having difficulty viewing the entire video .. the connection's been slow lately .. I'll just need to keep trying. I'm getting just enough to be tantalizing. I did however Google & find some text  explanations (sales lit) to refresh my memory.

Now I remember one of the distinct advantages to having parallels above/below a die box. Among other things .. going in between the parallels made slug removal pretty easy .. w/o adding height to the die. I've also seen bolster plates that look like swiss cheese .. I don't want to do that to my table. Parallels are on the list !!!

And one way or another .. I'll get the video downloaded. Thanks again, Dan !!!

So did I somehow miss the pics of the completed knives?

I prchase this 1850-1870 Pre Civil War  Knights Head Malitia NCO Sword from an antique dealer this week.  Should I restore this piece or leave it as is?  Looking for suggestions & comments.

Just finished restoring an old, really beat up "hunting knife" called a Siberian Skinner and made by Anton Wingen, Jr. of Germany.

I found one for sale on-line and the seller was kind enough to provide some information about the knife and its maker, and I quote:

    "Anton Wingen Jr. ceased operations and closed their doors in the early 1990's.  However, for nearly 120 years they were one of Solingen's finest makers and produced some knives of incredible quality.  In addition to their own high-quality knives, Wingen also made knives under contract for other top makers including Kershaw.  I've collected and researched Wingen knives extensively for many years and I've never seen another example of this knife.  I could also not find any examples in any old Wingen catalogs, so I really don't know how old it is other than to say that it likely pre-dates 1960 by quite a bit."

The seller must not have looked very hard for other examples of this knife, because I found a number of them on-line.  Also, they are being reproduced today by Linder, but not in the same exact configuration.  For example, the repros have only a half guard, and it's made of nickel silver, while the repros' pommel is made of brass instead of the original aluminum.

I found this knife in a local antique store, and it was in pretty bad shape cosmetically, but very sound structurally.  The blade was badly pitted with rust, and was heat treated so hard that I couldn't remove all the pitting even after about 6 hours of electric and hand sanding.  That's OK though, because I preserved most of the stamped labels on the blade, especially the knife's name prominently displayed on one side of the blade.  I love the lines of this knife, but can't help but wonder if calling it a "skinner" was an attempt at "political correctness", considering the length and shape of its blade, which is just under 8 inches long and too long for skinning.  I suspect this knife was actually intended to be a fighting knife, and not a skinning knife.  What do you folks think?

Terry,

I think you may be correct.  I would hate to try to skin an animal with it.  You did some real fine work in bringing it back to its beauty.  Do you have any pics before you started?  Would love to see how it was

Jan,

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a "before" photo of it.  My bad!  Thanks for the kind words.  It was really a labor of love and respect for Wingen's craftsmanship.  I didn't try to replicate the sheath that was originally provided with the knife, which is shown in the photo below, because I didn't care for its design that much.

The lower half of the sheath is apparently some kind of animal hide, but I have no idea what kind.  (Horse hide, maybe?)  To me, this sheath is really ugly, not to mention a mystery as to how it was put together.  For those reasons, I chose to design and make my own.  I had a hard time deciding what kind of hide or fur to use, but finally settled on simulated bobcat fur (made from rabbit skin), which I coated with a leather preservative to make the fur lie down flat and shine.

Terry,

Knife and sheath look  great! Interesting curve on the blade. I can really appreciate the work that goes into making a sheath. I just finished resturation on a German throwing knife and case .  ( sorry no pictures ) Blade made with solingen steel, it was rusted and pitted, Pits are there to stay, it adds character I just buffed them to shine.