Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Beginning to make sloyd knives

Today in the wood shop, the 7th, 8th and 9th grade students continued making their coat hangers from tree limbs. We discussed the relationship between art and science. Before and after class I began making sloyd knives to replace the set lost last year when our woodshop was burglarized. You can see the beginning steps in the photos below. The first photo shows the use of the prototype to mark for the next steps. The second photo shows grinding the knife blade to shape. The third photo shows the first steps in sharpening the blade, and the fourth photo shows drilling the blank for brass pins which will hold the scales on the sides of the blade.


Next will come heat treating (shown in the photo below) and making scales (handles). These are not intended to be exact replicas of the sloyd knives made in Mora, Sweden, but are intended to use what I know how to do to supply the Clear Spring School children with knives for doing sloyd. I am making the blades shorter than a usual sloyd knife so they can be used more easily and safely by younger children.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:34 PM

    Nice work on the knives. How badly hit was the shop in the burglary?

    Mario

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  2. It was a very strange burglary. They took two of our 6 Veritas planes, the set of knives, an obsolete digital camera and its battery charger and case, a partially completed chess box, an old electric drill (plug in)and one hammer. Also, a set of forstner drills, 1/4 through 1 inch. Not enough to meet the deductible, and very odd in the assortment of things taken. Evidently someone was selecting things wanted for their own shop.

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  3. Anonymous4:18 PM

    That really was an odd assortment of tools. Someone doing their shopping in someone else's shop is not the usual pattern.

    Mario

    ReplyDelete