20140227

SGT presents the final product for Run Ranger Run 2014

Folks,

My life is pretty crazy and when I was approached by GallantFew Inc to support the Run Ranger Run 2014 event I was a little unsure if I could do it. Glad I accepted and was able to complete the knife, its been a honor and a pleasure helping this organization who helps our veterans who deserve anything and everything for the sacrifice made during there years of service to our country.

The completed knife is called a "Inglorious Basterd" because it is made from a Made in the USA "Bastard" mill file. This Basterd is the fourth one ever made!

Once again thanks for the opportunity to help

RLTW!
SAR

Specs:
Overall length is 12" with 7" of cutting edge
Handle is Black G10 yellow vulcanized spacer and topped with lighting strike carbon fiber
Sheath is O.D. Green front and black back
Blade is satin finished and acid etched.






SGT presents the final product for Run Ranger Run 2014

Folks,

My life is pretty crazy and when I was approach by GallantFew Inc to support the Run Ranger Run 2014 event I was a little unsure if I could do it. Glad I accepted and was able to complete the knife, its been a honor and a pleasure helping this organization who helps our veterans who deserve anything and everything for the sacrifice made during there years of service to our country.

The completed knife is called a "Inglorious Basterd" because it is made from a Made in the USA "Bastard" mill file. This Basterd is the fourth one ever made!

Once again thanks for the opportunity to help

RLTW!
SAR

Specs:
Overall length is 12" with 7" of cutting edge
Handle is Black G10 yellow vulcanized spacer and topped with lighting strike carbon fiber
Sheath is O.D. Green front and black back
Blade is satin finished and acid etched.






Hit the finish line early "Mission Complete"

Ladies and Gents,

Really knuckled down to reach the final objective on the 2014 Run Ranger Run knife. The sacrifice is worth it knowing this helps our veteran brothers and sisters who deserve nothing but our best. This is the final installment on the build, I have pretty much shown each significant step in the building process of a one of a kind knife made from a USA "Bastard" mill cut file.


As you can see in the earlier post I started 2 knives in case something went wrong. Well "Murphy" showed up and things went wrong. I learned this lesson a long time ago, always have a back up plan!


The handle material I selected is black G10, yellow spacer, and topped it off with material called "Lighting Strike Carbon Fiber. A 12"x12"x1/8" thick sheet cost $120.00 dollars, its got a copper wire filament that when finished has a very incredible look. On the off side its hard to work with and really nasty stuff in general. All the material is cut and then epoxied together.


Gluing up the handles, they get placed between plates and clamped up to cure.


Then the handles get matched up with the knife and the holes get spotted for drilling.


Once the holes are drilled the handles get rough cut on the band-saw then fitted to the knife for profiling on the grinder.


At this point the handles are fitted, rough profiled and ready for refinement, going up in higher sanding grits. 

They come on and off several times, in this case its to profile the fronts!


At this point the handles are completely shaped. I hand finish from this point by placing the knife in a special vise and begin sanding think shoe shine! I take it to 400 grit, then it goes to the buffer and polished
 


Once the handles are done, I do the same thing to the knife and begin to finalize the grinds. Once again I continue to higher and higher grits. I decided at this point to turn it into a re-curved profile, which in my opinion is one of the designs that really stays sharp!


Once the blade is finished out I add my makers mark. The process is called "Etching", the material is a small stencil, a ground is applied and a pad with chemical solution is applied and it burns the mark into the steel.



 Mark is complete


Before the final finish is applied I begin making the kydex sheath. I chose O.D. Green front with a black back. The kydex is heated up and then it all goes in a foam padded press. When you clamp it all down the kydex molds itself to the shape of the knife. At this point I am marking the holes for the eyelets that will hold it all together. Once marked they get drilled and and then the sheath is cut, ground and finished.


In the next installment I will showcase the finished knife.

RLTW!
SAR






20140218

The Run Ranger Run knife is now!

"Hard as woodpecker lips"

Okay we lost a few days last week do to some really cold days. But we got the two knives into heat treat today. From here its al about cleaning up the grinds, and getting ready to select the handle material.

The knives went into the oven for a "Normalizing" cycle which helps refine the grain structure of the steel.

Pre-heat treat


 First cycle of normalizing


 Once the normalizing cycle is done and the knives have completely cooled, they go back in the oven and heat up to 1500 degrees for approximately 7-8 minutes. One at a time they are removed very quickly and placed into a very good quench oil called Parks 50


At this point they are check to ensure they are straight, because they are very hard they are or can be brittle. But with a small hand press you can make small adjustments to get them nice and flat.


Press setup for getting them flat and straight





Tomorrow they will go through a temper cycle to get them at the proper hardness which will be between 58-59 Rockwell "C" scale. Then we get going on finishing them!



Thanks and stay tuned for the next installment.

20140207

Putting miles on the Run Ranger Run knife with miles to go!

As promise is the next installment of the work in progress on the 2014 Run Ranger Run "inglorious Basterd" knives.

GallantFew Inc. webpage

Run Ranger Run Facebook

As stated the knives have already been  annealed (softened) drawn, shaped, cut, profiled and drilled.

Below I am measuring the thickness of the blade and then I devided it by two which gives me the exact center then I subtract another 15 which will give me two paralell lives to grind to. as we need to leave some "meat at the edge to survive the heat treat. We should also see a wonderful "Hamon" (HA MON) appear which will be a cloudy ghost like image in the steel! Have to show you what I am talking about later.




I set the height gauge to the numbers and scribe the lines


From there we move to the Knife Maker grinder (KMG) to begin the transformation from file to knife as we grind to the lines it starts to take shape





Then the main bevels get laid in and it will be ready for the heat treat which is really where the knife gets its soul....



So the next few miles is putting them in the oven for the hardening phase.

Thanks
SAR




Run Ranger Run "Your miles will change lives"

 GallantFew+Run Ranger Run+SAR Global Tool

All I can say is it is a outright honor to be involved in such a worthy event such as Run Ranger Run. here is a little history from the RRR  Run Ranger Run webpage and how this event came to be.

Cory Smith Run Ranger Run 2014  youtube video

  In 2012, 3rd Ranger Battalion veteran US Army Corporal Cory Smith, having deployed to combat twice, experienced having friends killed and wounded and with his own marriage failing decided to highlight the difficult journey home many soldiers have leaving the Army by undergoing a very public and very difficult journey home himself.  Cory decided to run 565 miles in 28 days with holding his daughter Elleigh in his arms the end goal of his run.

GallantFew Inc webpage 

Run Ranger Run Facebook page

GallantFew Inc Facebook page  

SAR Global Tool webpage 

SAR Global Tool Facebook page 

I was asked by the organizers if I could provide a knife for the event. As a Veteran who understands the struggle our service members face and having faced some of the issues myself I was completely on board. 

 So with that being said I decided to build the "Inglorious Bastard" design as I had a few already shaped out of American made Bastard Mill cut files. The original IB was 14.5" and these two are scaled down to 12". I am building two as a fail safe to ensure at least one is good to go, I am sure they will both be fine but we all know that "Murphy" can pop up at anytime. Not to mention Rangers always have a contingency plan!

Here are the knives at the start point


In the next few weeks I will be posting progress as we turn these files into hardcore working knives. So please tune in and if you can please support this event and donate to GallantFew Inc which is a great organization who's mission is to help Veterans and our Veterans deserve all we can do for them to ensure they continue to succeed in life.

RLTW!
SAR