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hobbies Shorerider's Workshop.

Shorerider said:
Here is my latest knife I made for a friend's son as a birthday gift. 
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It is a "skinner" style of blade made from 1095 forged Damascus steel with a hardness of 57-61 HRC. I purchased the knife blank (there is no way I am about to hand forge Damascus) and made the handle with olive wood and 5mm brass pins. It has two coats of satin varnish for a natural look.
 
SR.
 
Wow!  That reminds me a lot of the Shun Ken Onion paring knife that was calling my name a few years back.  Unfortunately, I resisted the siren's song.
 
I made this knife for my nephew's birthday. I only had one week to finish it, and ran out of time in the end. I'm reasonably happy with it, but another week would have been better. 
 
As with the previous knife, 1095 forged Damascus steel with a hardness of 57-61 HRC was used on this one. Handle was far from straight, so some grinding was necessary. 
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Scales glued on. The wood type is some sort of hardwood I found, unsure of what particular type. 
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Rough shape. 
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Shaped, sanded and oiled with one generous coat of Tung oil. I would have preferred more coats but time wasn't having it....
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I may have to make one for myself soon.  :P
 
SR.  :metal:
 
My latest project, as some of you may have already seen, is this old bench vice I picked up a few days ago.
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Time to strip the many, many layers of paint with some paint stripper. In some spots the paint was over 4mm or 1/8" thick.
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The paint stripper worked great, all that was needed was to scrape off all the paint.
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I'm guessing the original color was maroon, not sure if I should stick with the original color or go with something nicer like blue. Next step will be to wash off all the paint stripper and hit it with a wire wheel.
 
SR. 
 
I'm long overdue for an update, sorry. 
 
Here is the vice all stripped of paint, and given a quick once over with a wire wheel on a drill. That's not rust on the main body, just remnants of the old paint. The rust on the main shaft and lockups was just on the surface. 
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Dismantled and ready for a final cleanup of all the surface rust with a wire wheel. 
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I didn't take any restoration pics beyond this point, at this stage I just wanted to get it done as it was taking me way longer than I had planned. 
 
The end result. 
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I am reasonably happy with how it turned out, I was hoping the blue would have been a bit darker though. I lost count of the number of coats I put on it, the casting was quite rough and with each coat the paint kept settling into the lowest points of the casting leaving the high points with the metal visible (some are still visible). Although the finish looks rough, this is just the casting showing through, in actual fact the paint did a great job at smoothing the surface out.
 
Now I have to find the best mounting point on my workbench. 
 
SR.
 
Some may remember an air compressor restoration I did some time ago. This post isn't so much a restoration, but just a fix up of sorts.
 
I saw this air compressor advertised for $10 online, so I went to look at it.
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I was told that it ran, but had an air seal issue, and wouldn't hold air or make any decent pressure. Upon inspection, it wouldn't even run, so I offered AUD$5/US$3.55 which was accepted.  :P Once I got it home and plugged it in, it ran fine. I'm guessing it was an issue with the sellers power source.  :rofl:  The air leak was there, and coming from underneath the pressure switch. So, I took the pressure switch apart and found this diaphragm was damaged.
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I was able to make a new one with some scrap rubber, and fitted it in place. 
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Once the new diaphragm was installed, the air leak stopped, and the pressure held and rose steadily. 
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Now I have a spare air compressor for the total sum of $5.  :dance:
 
SR.
 
Here's a quick restoration I did on a jewelers vice I picked up at a swap meet a few weeks back. 
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The overall condition was very good. Although it was bound up with rust, once cleaned up everything was tight and showed very little wear.
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Here's the end result with two coats of hammertone blue.
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SR.  :metal:
 
Thanks guys, it's a labor of love. The biggest problem is finding the time.
 
I'm going to check out an old shed full of very old automotive and mechanical related items tomorrow. I'll post back with anything I end up bringing home. The last thing I need are more projects, but this opportunity is too good to pass up. Stay tuned......
 
A while back I saw this screw press advertised for sale.
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I've had it in the back of my mind for a while now that something like this would be very handy in my workshop, so I jumped straight on it.
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The guy I bought it off told me he made it many years ago as an apprentice. He made the base out of very heavy gauge steel, and the upper section is from an old water valve.
 
So, now on to the restoration......Firstly, I had to strip the many, many layers of paint off. I had to apply paint stripper three times, and still had to end up removing paint from stubborn areas with a wire wheel.
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Bolts, before and after. 
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After everything was free of paint, I applied two coats of hammertone grey.
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I also polished all the brass bits.
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I'm really happy with how it turned out, it will get many years of use.
:metal:
 
 
 
 
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