Thread: Imitation & flattery...

I bought myself a mini metal lathe a few weeks back, & have been having some fun with it. I really ought to be finishing several other more pressing projects, but well, I'm easily distracted!

I needed to use the 4-jaw chuck, & decided while it was mounted that it would be ideal for turning some brass cheeks for marking knives from the multiple small scraps of 1/8th brass I've accumulated. The scraps were lightly soldered together with a bit of brass in the centre equal to the thickness of the knife. This was then centred in the chuck & turned to a slight taper - the rounded ends are easiest done with a file (keeping fingers clear of the spinning jaws!).

Then off to the wood lathe to make a handle - shamelessly copied from a very nice one Derek made for me (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... ).

Hmmm - not half as nice as Derek's (that's his in the top of the first pic). Mine is downright clumsy-looking It needs a much finer taper.

Couple more goes - I was using some old cartridge cases for ferrules, but thay are too big & clumsy-looking, so rummaged about & found some smaller tubing. I finally ended up with one that's close to the original in looks (bottom of pic 2). My tendency to over-engineer let me down, & I just didn't turn them fine enough. The idea of the brass cheeks is just to make fitting the blade much easier - all it takes is an appropriately-sized hole, then push blade & cheeks firmly in. No glue required, & easy to replace the blade if necessary - perhaps in 3 or 4 lifetimes from now!

So I got to play with the lathe, & have a couple of spare knives to give away as gifts, & now have even more respect for Mr. C's fine eye for a line!