We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for this good old Blades Micro Podcast. I thought I'd talk a little bit about tips and tricks or things that I find around the shop that actually help out quite a bit, and they're they're either time savers or they're um maybe help to make a more consistent finish and things like that, and so we'll just kind of get into it. Uh the first is CA or super glue. I use super glue so much that I have to buy little bottles of it all the time. Uh I don't know that I ever really get into a situation where it hardens up on me before I use it. Uh, some some really great uses for super glue are um if you are uh fitting up bolsters for, for instance, you can super glue the bolsters to the tang of the blade and you can you know lay things out, you can drill holes and so on and so forth. Uh another is that um when you're mating metal surfaces together to like grind them uh in uniform, uh like profile them or otherwise, you can super glue them together, and uh assuming that they're not heat treated, a little bit of temperature, like with a torch or whatever, will pop that CA glue off. Now you just remember not to like really breathe in the vapors because it can be a little bit noxious. Um, and I'm pretty sure in the state of California it's carcinogenic, whatever. Um, but in addition with that, if you want to not permanently bond materials together, what you can do is you can take a little bit of like blue painter's tape and put it on this the on two flat surfaces, and then in between that painter's tape, you put a little bit of super glue and you fasten together, and that bond is very, very strong. Um, I have uh put those uh type of bonds on things that I'm putting on the surface grinder, and it holds just fine. So, like a piece of metal um with a blue painter's tape, and then the material that I want to uh surface grind, and then um uh blue painter's tape on the back of that, a little bit of super glue in between, slap it on the magnetic chug, and then you know, like if I'm trying to surface grind something that is not very magnetic or is non-magnetic, I can surface grind it and um you know, super glue, right? Uh you can you can use super glue on small cracks and divots and handle material, although um there are times when you're not going to want to uh want not want to do this because maybe the handle material is too pitted, cracked or whatever uh for you to you know actually put on a knife. But things like desert ironwood, sometimes if you're using desert ironwood burl, it does have natural cracks and things in it that you want to fill. So what you do is you uh sand it a little bit, throw some uh super glue in the crack, sand it some more, and what you're doing is you're basically using like material to bond uh to the super glue, and then you're filling that crack and stabilizing it. Um, and that's very useful. Uh, there are some times when I've gotten into a blemish or a crack inside of uh some burly type of material, and doing that will uh will make it disappear uh pretty much. Uh you can finesse it. Um, kind of moving on, file guides. File guides are awesome. Um, there I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to line something up or I wanted to uh use it as a safe edge to be able to file against for fluting or any type of file work uh at all. Um you can use a file guide to help rest on a piece of material and use it as a guide for your files. Um kind of on that note, um, there's lots of different file guides. There's hardened file guides, there's ones with carbide edges and things like that. All of them are really great, regardless of whether you're using them for file work, whether you are using them as a grinding guide for your bevels, uh just you know, buy a few, uh get a few different types and sizes, and they will uh benefit you greatly. Uh, kind of on that same note, um, files that have safe edges. Now, I know you're thinking, well, where do I buy files that have safe edges? Well, if you buy a file, you can put a safe edge on it by put grinding that uh the edges off that you do not want to touch things on the grinder. So you take like a uh 120 grit belt and you zip off the uh uh the file um uh teeth on the areas that you don't want to uh cut into, and uh and you can uh safe edge things and and use the file to get into areas where you might not otherwise be able to get into with abrasive uh typically, and you can short edges up and remove only material that you select. You can make safe edge files all day long and have a selection of those to be able to do your work. Uh don't discount the work that files do because you know when you're zipping on the surface or on the um on the belt grinder, uh you can cause a lot of mistakes, and rasps and files help to remove material but in a very predictable targeted way where you can remove it and you don't have to worry so much about the speed of doing it on the grinder itself. So safe edges, files, they all work really well, especially in conjunction with file guides. Another thing is um there are lots of different options for natural materials and um their finishes, obviously. But um a few things that you might want to think about is if you're using like bone handles or stag or something like that, uh sometimes that that white bone type of look is a little bit um not great. Uh I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes bone just doesn't look look that good. Um, it's just you know plain white. Um you want to put uh you know uh jig it or whatever or pick it and um and then color it. There are lots of different options. You can use leather dies. Um there are some clothing dyes that will work, but one thing that is a surefire is a potassium promanganate. Uh it typically comes in a powder form, and it is a uh a heavy oxidizer. So when you mix it with a little bit of water, um it has a purple consistency, but as it dries, it oxidizes the surface. So you can get a anything from a a little bit of like a tea wash color all the way down to a deep brown color, uh depending on how many times you apply it and how porous the material is. So uh potassium promanganate, it's not that expensive. You can buy a little bottle of it on Amazon or something like that, and mix it up with water. Just be very careful because it oxidizes everything, including your skin. And you want to make sure that you are either using gloves or you're very, very careful when applying it because it can be um a little bit hazardous and don't get in your eyes or mouth or things like that. Um, it also, I guess they've used it in the past as a water purifier because it kills everything uh bacteria-wise that it comes in contact with, but um, I don't know a whole lot about that otherwise. But idea at least is that in survival situations, I've heard of people using it, and it works really great on handle material, uh, especially like the bone, uh, the bone and natural type. So uh, you know, get a bottle of it, figure it out, it works pretty well. Uh not all blade lubricants, so when you're hand sanding and doing final finishes are created equal, and I'm not exactly sure um like your mileage may vary with this, but what I found is that um water works okay or or Windex for uh very high grits um and WD40, your mileage may vary. Um, goo goo-off works pretty good, um, kerosene works pretty good, and honestly, uh for the uh the ventilation factor of kerosene or goo-off, um, it's kind of a deterrent in some ways, unless you have really good airflow in your garage or shop or whatever. But I will say that I don't I don't know what it is about uh petroleum-based products, especially what's in goo-off and kerosene. But when you're doing a a relatively high satin, um like a uh you know 600 to 1000 grit satin uh hand pulled finish, uh kerosene and goo-off work exceptionally well at getting rid of the debris that's inside of the uh little scratches and everything and exposing where you need to do your work. And it also helps the paper uh the sandpaper cut exceptionally well. So, you know, use proper safety uh considerations when using it. Make sure you're well ventilated so you're not uh you know getting high off of it or uh you know things like that. But um it's definitely a uh a benefit uh that I have seen is in higher grit uh finishes and it and it looks really good. Lubrications for uh drilling things is never a bad idea. Um I see a lot of um comments on forums and groups inside of Facebook and whatnot about burning out uh drill bits, and a lot of that has to do with your speed and feed rates, but it also has a lot to do with uh whether your bit has a lubricant that's helping to dissipate heat. Now, when your speeds and feeds are good, um typically the heat is is uh converted into the chips that uh the that the drill bit is cutting off and it dissipates that out of your bit uh and the cutting surface, but you can help add uh an additional thermal buffer by using a lubricant. Now, um tap magic makes an extra thick lubricant that works really, really well, and I use it on everything, and it lasts a long time. I've had a a bottle that's uh 16 fluid ounces, and I've had it for a year, and I've used uh maybe a few tablespoons of it, uh, and I use it all the time. Um a 80 uh 80 weight, like so 80W 90 um gear lubricant works pretty well. You can pick it up at Walmart or um I don't know, uh Auto Par shop or something like that, and it works really well. Um, you know, obviously uh think about uh how much you're using it and whether you're really heating up your bits because it cre it can create smoke, which is uh not good for you to breathe in. But you know, you're uh you know you use it at your own risk. But as long as you're safe and you don't uh get it to its flash point, it's relatively stable. Um, you can use that and uh and you know save your drill bits a little bit of life and also not prematurely heat certain type of materials because um air quench steels uh specifically can act up depending on how uh low the the temperature is for it to start hardening. And you might find that as you're drilling into uh uh steel for uh putting you know pinholes or uh skeletonizing it or something like that, that you inadvertently heat treat it uh and it gets uh beyond the rock wall hardness of a high-speed steel drill. Um, if you're doing that, you're running the um you're running the drill bit too hot and you need to cool it down. Um you can uh you know continuously make your job more difficult if you're doing things like that and heating it up too much. So lubricant goes a long way. Use a sharp bit and um and cut to an appropriate uh speed and feed so that way you're getting the most out of your uh heat dissipation through chips. Etching and blackening agents. So uh NIBlack 40 from Sherfin S U R F-I-N. Uh it's NI Black 40 for stainless steel, works really well for uh if you're cutting your name in your in your blades, uh you can use that and and etch it and it makes it dark. Uh you can use it on nail nicks if you're using pocket knives. Uh, you can even, if you want to, uh wash it on the on the blade itself to get a black and uh color. So if you're doing like a steel wool finish or you're tumbling it or whatever, you can do that as well. So that works really well. Um you can also use ferric chloride muriatic acid and aluminum black or brass black works pretty well. Birchwood Casey makes them and you can get them in a lot of different places. Amazon sells it. I think Brownell sells a bunch of different uh brass blackening um agents, so you can use those on different materials. Uh, your mileage will vary. Uh, NIBlack 40 works really well on most materials, but uh specifically if you're doing it on high carbon or um brasses or coppers or things like that, you might want to try some of these other uh blackening agents. But uh suffice it to say that there's lots of nuances to finish on your blades and on uh embellishments and how you're using uh contrasting, shiny uh you know uh uh ground surfaces versus blackened surfaces, and you might want to think about a blackening agent. Um there's also um there's cold blueing and and hot bluing uh options that you have available to you. I believe that brownell sells kits and things like that where you can uh you can uh do hand blueing uh on your on your different parts. Uh so you know you have to like read the instructions and follow the steps pretty uh well, make sure that the the finish is good on the blades or um or uh uh uh embellishments or uh fixtures like guards and things in order to get it to look really good. But uh you can use all sorts of different agents in order to blacken things in order to provide a contrast in your design, so that's definitely something to think about. Layout fluid is your friend. Uh diecam in both blue and red have been an industry standard for a long period of time, and they uh they can provide layout lines, especially if you're going to drill things, but um a lot of operations inside of knife making uh produce heat like grinding profiles and whatnot. And what I've found is that die cam works alright, but if you know you're you're uh heating the blade beyond um what the die cam will tolerate, it basically almost burns it off or turns it into a lighter, lighter blue, almost a gray color. And where you can tolerate that a little bit when you're doing profile grinding and it shouldn't affect things like uh uh when you're heat treating, um once that's done, you can knock out your heat treat if you're getting the blade too hot. So um die cam, uh really good for that, especially temperature sensitive things, because you can kind of almost use it as a uh a telltale if you're getting uh certain areas too hot. But what I found more recently that works really well and it's not very brittle is uh sharpie. So you can get the uh the sharpies that are uh the big tip sharpies, those big fat things, and you can use that uh uh for layout lines and scribing things, and when that gets hot, it just gets it stays dark and it doesn't really uh change it, but it will kind of dye the surface of your steel, so you'll have to work a little bit to get that uh tarnish off or whatever, but it works really well and it's very durable. Um, so uh I do uh uh lay out an awful lot of my work to make sure that things are symmetrical uh and that uh I'm grinding to certain tolerances. The more you lay out your work, the easier it'll be for you because you'll have a guide on how close you need to get before you stop that operation and maybe go to hand filing or hand sanding, uh lay laying out things like getting a height gauge, scribes, uh various rulers, and uh you know using your file guides to uh be able to line things up and scribe them, uh, all really great ways to uh lay out work in order to get better symmetry. Um, all that starts with proper layout fluids and uh markers and things in order to be able to see your lines. So a great scribe line should give you a really good indices for where you are, but sometimes you can't dig that deep into a surface. So a layout fluid helps you to do light scribing. Obviously, pencils uh you know a lot of people don't think about those things, but pencils offer a temporary line structure that you can use on things uh to lay out and do work when I'm doing some hand jigging on handle on handle scale material and whatnot. Sometimes I'll use pencils. Um, I'll even use pencils um when I'm doing some uh profiling operations on handle material because I can lay them out and I get to that line, and then after that, I don't really have to worry about the graphite too much. So um I hope those ideas help. Uh, you know, shop tips are um many, and I'm sure I'll be doing more of those in the future. So uh you know keep uh an ear out. But there's a a lot more things that I'll be talking about on tips and tricks, and you know, try to get you some uh uh uh additional efficiencies in the shop so that way you can move on to the important thing, which is producing your art.