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Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Any and all knives or other edged things. Special preference for BUCK knives
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:38 pm

I moved to the bench and put the bases in place.

13 bases in place.jpg

With the tool bar in place, the tools are very well organized. It allows you to group the punches by type. Bevels, shaders, and specialty.
You can also group the types in size order. Putting these tools on the tool bar makes them so much easier to locate.

14 organized.jpg

In addition, it freed up a lot of space in the drawer, and allowed much better organization of the drawer, organization there by tool type as well. Swivel knives, measuring tools, etc.

15 drawer is more organized as well.jpg

Next trip out I will make some accommodation for the stack of reference materials, and do a bit more practice. I have watched hours of tooling and carving videos and need to put that to use and get some time in so I can get a sheath made. Then back to knife making... and more sheaths.
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markiver54
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by markiver54 » Thu Mar 18, 2021 12:48 pm

Looking great! Nice organized set up.
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:28 am

Back out to the shop this afternoon for some practice.  Whew... after the research I did on you tube I was looking forward to the work.  I found a pattern to work with and got the leather ready and transferred it.  Will use a pencil rather than the stylus.  Cleaner lines.

21 transfered.jpg

Once that was done, I could use the swivel knife to begin cutting in the lines.  You choose the swivel knife blade that you need for the task at hand. With a bold blade you cut in the main, outlines.

22 cutting in.jpg

Next step is choosing a bit finer blade and cutting in the tighter curves and the finer lines until the design is all lined in.  The next time through, I will cut in, in fact, TRANSFER only the main lines of the design... leaving the pattern less cluttered.  Keeping the pattern on the desk I can cut in the accent lines after the rest of the tasks are done, making working the design a lot easier.

23 cut in.jpg

The next step is working the edges with the beveler.  As you can see in the pic, this begins the process of turning a flat design into something 3D.  Once you have worked the edges with the beveler, you can work the vines and stems inside the design.  The beveler is used to bring depth to the design by showing which level each component is on.

24 beveling.jpg

After working the beveling tool, you would work the shading and backgrounding tools, as well as the pear shaders and others to bring the design to life with shadows and accents.  I am embarrassed to say that I forgot to take pictures of the finished work prior to screwing it up trying to dye it.  It looks like my six year old niece tried to color it prior to her nap when she was tired and grumpy.

Understand I am showing you this part, not because "hooray for me," but because it's only practice... and you have to fail, to learn.  :o :?
THIS is called a learning experience.  

25 not happy.jpg

One of my Sergeant's Major used to say, "I judge a man not by the way he wins, but by the way he handles losing."
Usually after someone screwed up.  :winkgrin:

Look Sergeant Major, I'm going back out tomorrow and make another mess.  :)
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:30 am

Seriously, it's practice and I learned several lessons from that piece.
Use a pencil to get crisp lines to cut in the design.
Cut the major lines in
Leave the accent lines til last.
My bevel lines need to be smoother.
The choppiness can be eliminated in several ways,
(I watched more video to discover them.) I will try them tomorrow.
Take more pics to show the work, some might want to see how you screwed it up so bad. :twisted:
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:36 pm

Back out in the shop yesterday. Tried to get some practice in. I watched MORE videos and tried to apply what I had learned. Sigh.... it went better than the last time, but still not there.

First step, transfer the pattern. This time I DID use a sharpened pencil. That worked better.

31 pattern.jpg

Once you have the pattern, you choose the appropriate swivel knife, and start cutting in the lines to define the pattern. This is the starting point and is the second most time consuming portion of the work. You have to work slowly and take your time. Minor mistakes can be corrected. A major slip and you have a slice across your leather, ruining all the work to this point. That piece of your project has to be recut. Really sucks if it's a high dollar piece of leather or a large section.

I have several knives here with different size blades, various thickness and widths appropriate for different sections of the carving. The blades are interchangeable. As I came across sales, I added extra knives to avoid swapping blades.

32 swivel knives.jpg

Here you can see the comparison in the portion of the pattern that has been cut and that portion that has not. Also note the finer detail in the center of the rose that was cut with the finer, smaller blade in a different knife. Trying to cut that with the thicker bold blade would have lost the detail. (I still botched the detail a bit, arthritis. A little slower and I may have made those tight turns. Practice.)

33 began cutting in.jpg

In this pic the cutting in has been done, ready to get started on the detail work.

34 all cut in.jpg

In the pic below, the real detail work has begun. Look at the top flower where some of the beveling, shading, and detail work has been done. You can see the definition starting to take place. I have not yet gotten this down, but you get the idea. The beveling on the lower portion of the pattern is mostly complete.

35 shaping and carving.jpg

Here, I have done a lot of the detail work and this includes a new technique for me. Outlining the edge of the leaves. It worked well on some, on others I didn't tilt the tool enough and over shaded the leaves, ruining the effect. Meh... practice. I might buy an extra one of these tools and grind the texture off the bottom so it's smooth. OR just make one from an old screwdriver. There is another tool I saw in a video that's $15 that I will attempt to make, it's basically a screwdriver with a bevel cut and polished on the end. LOL. I still have work to do to "Finish" the piece if I was to decide to do so. I might decide to just toss this piece and start over on another practice piece, concentrating more on the relationships of each element of the flower and the other portions of the pattern.

36 better but not great.jpg


Again, I wasn't really happy with the outcome, especially compared to the results I see on the videos. Then I remember that I am basically starting over. I remember how happy I was with MY woodworking, then I'd come onto the woodworking sites and see the other's work and think how poorly I compared. These days I have another fifteen or twenty years in... and I am very happy with much of what I do, but I can still log on and see the results of some of the other's work and think... Wow.... I'll never get there.
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:50 pm

The more I look at it, the less I like it.
I'm thinking oak and acorns or something.
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:07 am

Had to drive to OKC this morning for a VA appointment. The Tandy Leather shop is about ten miles from the hospital. Since it's a two hour drive, I took advantage of being in town and got there early enough to swing by. I picked up a yard of heavy leather for the real projects once practice is over. Three reference books with how to and patterns. I also picked up a background tool and a lifting tool (carving) I needed. :D

A note for anyone wanting to try the knife project... Woodcraft will have three kits on sale for April. The Tanto is 50% off starting 4/1. :D I'm going to order at least one of each.
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Fri Mar 26, 2021 6:45 pm

I got out in the shop yesterday and worked a bit on a practice piece, and then back out for a little this morning and worked a bit more, including antiquing the piece to highlight the work I had done. I am a lot happier with the work compared to the stuff I had been hacking at when I restarted, but NOT happy yet. :smirk: Here is a look at the finished small practice carved piece.

41 another piece.jpg

Then this is the piece after the antiquing paste has been applied and then rubbed off, leaving the paste in the carving and shading areas. It really brings out the details.

42 stained piece.jpg

I went back out after lunch and started another practice piece, once again taking my time and laying out the best I can. I try each time to eliminate the mistakes I made in the past. THIS time I tried drawing in the design of the flower and the leaves freehand. Not too bad for the first attempt. FAR from perfect. As you can see, I have the border cut in and worked, the flower worked, and ONE side of the leaves worked. NOT finished yet. Still more accents to be done and one side of the leaves need done.

43 in progress practice.jpg

Practice. I'll probably practice in the morning on the leather, then may start work on the two knives. I still plan to order knives when they go on sale on April 1st.
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JEBar
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by JEBar » Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:55 pm

its clear you have a talent for leather working .... thanks for showing us the process you are going through
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: Woodcraft Tanto Kit

Post by BrokenolMarine » Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:16 pm

Yeah, I didn't show you the four pieces I tossed. :cry:
Two were just disappointing, one was downright embarrassing. :lol:
The last in the group showed a little promise, but nothing worth wasting the group's time over. I have also been practising the transfer of designs and creation of patterns. That really IS embarrassing. :P
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