Back at the grinder.

After the canoe trip it was time to get back to work. Meaning some knife making!

Forged a set of puukko blades. If you're interested in few blade forging pics, check the bottom pics of this post from a month back! After forging, grinding, heat treating, and grinding again it's time to fit the brass bolster plates.

Being hand forged, every blade is slightly different. Outer lines of the tang are marked on a piece of brass bar.

One hole is drilled from the front side of the plate.

On the backside I drill two more holes, that don't go all the way through.

Then I use needle rasps to shape the slot.

Slot is shaped to follow the blade shape randomly, but being slightly smaller.

Sides of the slot are ground slightly wider on the backside. Makes it easier to drive the plate down the tang, and it's easier to get a tight fit as well.

First fitting. I drive the plate on the tang by using a hammer and a wooden block. Blade tightly secured on a vice.

Checking the result, and from where to remove material.

Forcing a bolster plate on the tang will form some ridges on the sides of the slot. They'll be removed by sanding the surface back to flat. Then I use needle rasps again to remove some material where it's needed.

These steps are repeated, until shoulders of the blade sit firmly on the brass plate.

After all the bolsters are fitted I shape them slightly on a belt sander. Before starting to build the handle, bolster is taken off one more time, front surface hand sanded to a finer grit, and finally the blade polished as well.

I'm planning to make wooden handles for few of these, and the rest will have birch bark handles. Some coming for sale as well, so stay tuned!