1st Knife, recycled junk.

Beile

Beile

Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
772
Hey there, instead of buying a new knife, I went out and bought a belt sander, picked up a bunch of junk in the garage and made a knife. I now have greater respect for knife makers! The steel came from a nuclear power plant cooling tower fan blade that was cut up and scrapped, new replacement blades for the fan are $12,000 each for a two foot section, so I have about $6,000 into this knife:D who knows what kind of steel it is. The brass from an old smashed buck knife and the wood for the scales is an old piece of tennis racket handle and the pins are welding rod. The knife handle started out looking way different because I made so many mistakes, accidental knicks and grooves while grinding and stuff like that so I've ground it many times, sanded and re-sanded it's getting smaller and smaller and smaller! What does everyone use to take the grind marks out of the blade? I've gone from 180 grit to 320 to 400 to 600 to 1000 and they're still there and they don't appear to be disappearing. I can't seem to make the pins disappear in the brass either. It still has a lot of finishing to go. Thanks, it was a lot of fun for my first.

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Cool recycled materials! You've got a nuclear knife! The way I normaly grind handles is to rough them in to where they fit me-I've got BIG hands- then finish by hand to where they are just a hair to small for me and fits just about everybody else. I still screw up handles and get them too small though so don't feel bad. The wood is softer than the pin stock so you need some kind of stiff backing to sand them flush.
 
Unique first effort. I'm not sure of the functionality you'll get from the blade though. Without knowing the steel type, heat treat, etc., it will be interesting to find out how well it will hold an edge. The wood in the handle is neat! As far as the pins in the brass disappearing, I doubt you'll be able to ever get them to completely disappear. Brazing rod is not the same material as the brass bolsters. Since they are two different materials, they most likely will polish out to two different looks. You might be able to get them to fade out more by cold bluing the bolsters.
 
Thanks guys, yeah I had somewhat of an idea drawn on paper and now it looks nothing like the drawing. I kinda chickened out on grinding and shaping the blade after screwing it up so many times and I've disassembled it once already. Oh well back to the grinder!
 
You'll make a lot more knives that got smaller and smaller and smaller. It's part of the learning process. And....... we all keep learning. The number of times that you make a knife that didn't get smaller will lessen, but it will still happen from time to time. Eventually it will get to the point where the ever reducing knife will become a rarity, but it will always be lurking in the shadows just waiting for you to have "one of those days"! Don't let it get you down. Just keep grindin'.
 
OK, thanks, back from the garage, now it looks like some kind of pirates of the carribean thing rather than a spear in the old picture. I think my 7 year old gets this one, he thinks he's a pirate:D .
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just make sure he doesnt take that to school. i dont think the teachers would like taht very much. looks great tho.
 
PimpinSquee said:
just make sure he doesnt take that to school. i dont think the teachers would like taht very much. looks great tho.
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Nope, only on the bus!:D Thanks, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be! I won't quit my day job!
 
the question is were you happy with the final result and did you feel like you needed to make another one afterwards or that you wanted to make another one afterwards? if you say yes to anything there then your pretty well addicted and will be posting more pics of your knives.
 
PimpinSquee said:
the question is were you happy with the final result and did you feel like you needed to make another one afterwards or that you wanted to make another one afterwards? if you say yes to anything there then your pretty well addicted and will be posting more pics of your knives.
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Yes, sorta happy, it's harder than I thought it would be and yep another starts tomorrow! Ony thing is my wife can't play tennis anymore and I can't run my nuclear power plant! On the upside, no need for tritium on this blade, it glows in the dark for some reason:D

Before
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After
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this is why women need to not buy and use wooden tennis racquets if their husband is a knife maker. cant wait to see the next knife.
 
next step is to make a matching one to see if you can duplicate it. if you can then your skills are very good.
 
PimpinSquee said:
next step is to make a matching one to see if you can duplicate it. if you can then your skills are very good.
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Man, that's a lot of pressure! Hopefully I can't, because that one was a BUNCH of mistakes! Maybe if I didn't learn anything I could.
 
If he could truly duplicate it, he'd be a CNC mill, not an aspiring custom maker. I like the subtle variations that come from each piece being made by hand. Just my $.02.
 
GibsonFan said:
If he could truly duplicate it, he'd be a CNC mill, not an aspiring custom maker. I like the subtle variations that come from each piece being made by hand. Just my $.02.
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Shoot, I can't even figure out a tape measure let alone a CNC!
 
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