[Gary Mulkey]

Recently I had the pleasure to spend some time with Ray Kirk in Oklahoma. He has created some dies for his press that make an integral much easier and thought that I would share with you. He has dies for both full & stick tangs. These pics will show the full tang version.

A few pics of his shop in Tahlequah:





[Note v-8 powered rolling mill in foreground .]



For this hunter he started with some 1/2" 52100 round bar (his dies take 1/2", 5/8" & 3/4"). This is the first squeeze in his dies:



A close-up of the dies:



Forging out the blade & tang:




Using second set of dies to align blade & tang:

[Gary Mulkey]

Profiling the blade:





Removing scale w/ angle grinder:

[Gary Mulkey]

Grinding blade & tang w/ a small wheel attachment:





I wasn't with Ray long enough to see this knife to completion but here is one that was done the same way:



If you are interested in the dies used here, I'm sure that Ray could duplicate a set of them for you. I'm sure that part of it is that he a master smith but he sure makes it look simple.

Hope that you enjoyed this WIP as much as I did my time in his shop.

Gary

[ABS Webmaster]

Thank you Gary and Ray!

[Rick Baum]

Thanks for posting Gary!

I think you're right in that he probably makes it look easier than it really is. It sure seems that pressing the steel in dies would be a lot less work than hammering... and hammering... and hammering... and hammering some more to form the bolsters.

By the way... your timing is impeccable. I just started my first integral. After all the work so far, I'd have to say that I'm a bit more than envious of how easy Ray's system makes it look.

I really like the small wheel platen setup for the radius transition from the blade to the integral bolster. I've been wondering how to create a nice clean radius. Unfortunately my shop is limited to round files and elbow grease.

Rick

[BrionTomberlin]

Ray has the integral thing down. He makes a lot of them in different styles and sizes. I have seen these dies in person and they are very cool and take a lot of the guesswork out of integrals. Thanks for posting this Gary and you have to love Ray's V-8 rolling mill. Seeing that beast in action is something else.
Brion