2nd attempt with questions

[dax51]

Last week I posted my first attempts ... I think they came out just ok.
I found that making knives is like eating potato chips ... can't make just one!
I am Obsessed ... ordered what I though was better Steel (440C) and learned that I probably would need to send it out for heat treatment. the first knives were made from 01 and I heat treated here at home.

My questions are: How finely finished should the blade be before you send it out? Also I left about a 1/16 on the edge no bevel... Should I bevel the edge before Heat Treatment?

Any recommendations would be helpful. Pics to follow.

Thanks Dave

 

[Patrickknives]

I must admit I leave too much prior to HT, A friend just sent some really thin edged knives to Paul Bos and they came back perfect. I was truely amazed. I would not bevel until after HT, you will need to clean up the blade a little bit to get the discolor off from the temper.

 

[Deweyknives]

1/16" at the edge should be fine.

The closer to 'finished', the better. Sand while it's soft so you have as little finish work as possible in the 'hard' state. Stainless is usually heated in a foil pouch and 'plate quenched' so there is no scale clean-up after. It should come back looking just like you sent [maybe some surface color], only harder.

In MY OPINION, o-1 is a better steel IF it's properly heat treated! [but, it's not 'stainless!]

And welcome to the forum and the addiction!!!

 

[Jim Adams Customs]

Last week I posted my first attempts ... I think they came out just ok.
I found that making knives is like eating potato chips ... can't make just one!
I am Obsessed ... ordered what I though was better Steel (440C) and learned that I probably would need to send it out for heat treatment. the first knives were made from 01 and I heat treated here at home.

My questions are: How finely finished should the blade be before you send it out? Also I left about a 1/16 on the edge no bevel... Should I bevel the edge before Heat Treatment?

Any recommendations would be helpful. Pics to follow.

Thanks Dave

Dave
I Finish to 600 It makes my life easier. I finish mine down to .030 thick on the edge and polish to 600. But this is the way I do it.

 

[silver_pilate]

When I was first starting, I would always leave a bit too much at the edge prior to heat treating. And after it was heat treated, i was hesitant to grind too much more for fear of messing it up. That resulted in poor geometry for the cutting edge when I went to sharpen. Now, I leave .03" (1/32) prior to heat treating and usually take it down to .02" prior to sharpening. For stainless blades, you should be fine with as little as 1/32 at the edge. Do not put a sharpening bevel on prior to heat treating.

As for finish, I sometimes hand sand to 400 prior to heat treat with stainless, or for knives I know I'm going to grind a bit more on, I just grind to around 400-600.

--nathan

 

[dax51]

Thanks....
With all your good advice I will put a little more effort into the finish of the knife before I send it off. Will hold off on putting a bevel on the blade until I get it back from Heat Treatment. Will post finished pics ... think I will attempt hidden pins.

Thanks
Dave

 

[hellgap]

Im a hard core artifact collector and now a knife maker my kinda trade mark was to put one arrowhead on every knife but now I see how much better creeping vine and rope patterns are drop dead gorgeous. Ive done a few knives with the arrowheads all the way down the spine but it seems to get to buisy looking . Very nice knife, to anser your question do about 90 before heat treat as the steel is really hard after I go 95% and sometimes buff before heat.

 

[Phillip Dobson]

You can go surprisingly thin at the edge and still have the blade come back from heat-treat perfectly. I sent a thin (.012" edge) paring knife to Paul Bos and it came back just fine. The steel was CPM154.