a piece of Mystery steel made my FIL cry

phorizt

phorizt

Joined
Aug 26, 2013
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358
Sometime last year I decided I'd start dabbling in knives. I started out just buying some really rough old butcher knives for a couple of dollars at antique stores and restoring them. After I did a few of these my in-laws came down to TX to visit for Christmas and my FIL handed me a box with some old kitchen knives and a few old files in it. He said my wife told him I was making knives(at that point I hadn't made any knives) and his grandfather had just passed away so when they were going through some of his stuff he took the files and brought them to me.

Once they left I decided I'd try actually making a couple of knives out of these files(I hadn't read all the comments about how beginners shouldn't use "mystery steel" at that point so I was ignorant of some of the difficulties I could run into with HT etc). I didn't have a grinder, drill press or anything like that so I made a hand filing jig and built a forge and got to work. 95% of this was done with files, a rasp and sand paper.

I once made a knife about 16 years ago in HS after my family visited Tom Lewis at his home/shop in NM but that was the only knife I've ever made and I'm not sure it actually qualifies as being a knife...more like a sharp piece of metal stuck in a piece of deer antler.


Here's the first knife I made from one of the files that my FIL gave me. This one is sitting on my desk in my home office and makes a great little "desk knife" for opening letters, trimming finger nails, and any other little thing I can find to cut on during the day.

8" OAL
3.5" blade made from a small file
Handle/sheath is made from Cocobolo wood and Gaboon Ebony.
Stand is made from the same cocobolo and ebony wood.
I didn't have many materials at this point so the SS ferrule/spacer you see is a piece of a 6" SS ruler I found in my garage.

So this is the first "knife" I made since 16 years ago when I was in HS. The pictures are kind of poor and make the colors look washed out but it's a pretty cool little knife.

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At the same time I made this first knife I also took one of the larger files and profiled it and filed the bevels on it. Then I started reading about "mystery steel" and decided to scrap it and put it on the back of the work bench and ordered some real steel to work on. I made 1 knife out of some 01 that I ordered and then went back to finish the other file knife just to get it out of the way. I planned on giving it to my FIL as a thank you for the stuff he had given me.

I finally finished the knife the other day and shipped it off to my FIL. He didn't know i was doing it but when he got the knife he called me up and was literally in tears saying how much it meant to him and how he would now have something like this that he could remember his grandfather by and cherish the rest of his life. He even called me an artist. Now I've seen some of the work you guys on here do and this is a pretty basic knife and I'm no artist but that's a pretty rewarding feeling to know that I made something that is that special to someone. I've never had that experience before with anything I've made.

Blade is about 4" long and probably a little over 1/8" thick on the spine at plunge line with distal taper to the tip.
Cocobolo scales and contoured handle.
white liners
brass pins
blade hand rubbed 1200 grit finish
file work/jimping- bad mistake but I did that when I first profiled the handle and couldn't go back an undo it :( There will be no file work or jimping again by me anytime soon.
Really stinkin sharp and easily the best cutting/slicing knife I've ever had. The blade was ground down very thin before putting the edge on it(I don't even own a caliper yet so couldn't tell you how thin). I finally bought a little 1x30 grinder which I used to put the edge on this and sharpen it. Put the edge on w/240 grit belt and sharpened progressing up to 1200 grit then stropped with a leather strop I made.
Sheath- the 2nd item I've ever made out of leather. Turned out ok but not even as good as the first sheath I made. Top needs to be wider. I need to wait until the dye dries before stitching because the white thread looks dirty. The edges look bad because the edge beveler I bought ended up being a lot bigger size than I need so it cuts too much material and makes the side look more rounded than I would like.


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I think the dark stuff on the tip of the blade is the reflection of a tree

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I don't really like how straight the blade and handle are but was limited with what I could do due to the size of the file it was made from. I guess I could have heated the handle in the forge and bent the handle down a little at the back but wasn't sure if that would cause any future issues or not. The contoured handle and thin/sharp blade make it feel really good in the hand when cutting though.

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Sorry for the long post but just wanted to share 2 of my first 3 knives and see what you guys think. I'm always open to positive or negative criticism/feedback and I'm well aware that there are a lot of imperfections in these 2. I'm hooked on knife making now so I'll be around here for a while I imagine. Just trying to scheme up ways to get a real belt grinder now...
 
While I'm at it I might as well post knife #2 as well.

This is a little 3 finger utility knife.
1/8" thick 01 tool steel
Acid etched blade simply because I wanted to experiment with acid etching. Not a great success but turned out ok.
Bolsters are black paper micarta.
Red vulcanized paper liners
spalted tamarind scales with brass pins and lanyard tube. Tru Oil finish.
sheath made from 8-9 oz leather. This was the first thing I've ever made from leather in my life and it turned out ok but the knife is a little looser than it should be in there.

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I go back and forth on the handle thickness on this. It is thicker at the butt than at the bolsters which helps balance the knife in your hand. The blade is probably a little longer than it should be and a thinner handle would have a negative impact on the balance and it feels pretty good in your hand. A thinner handle would look better though imo.
 
Really good looking stuff there for your first few knives. Can't wait to see your future work! Keep it up!!!
 
I really like the clean file surface on the ricasso of the knife for your FIL. The sheath looks nice too. Bravo.
 
Thanks guys.

Salem, the contrast between the file checkering and the finished blade turned out looking better than I expected. It's almost smooth there on the ricasso but still just enough teeth left to give it a nice look. I've seen some file knives where there's a lot of tooth left on there and it just seems like it would get filled with a lot on stuff if you used it much and might not be very sanitary for something like a hunting knife or anything used for food prep.

I wonder if there's a way to do something like that on the ricasso of a regular piece of steel? Maybe with some type of a checkering tool? or if you're forging you might be able to heat it up, lay a file over it and give the file a good whack to imprint the pattern into the knife blade? Might have to give it a try.
 
That's a great story. You did really well on all 3 knives, I agree the ricasso of the file knife came out great. How did you go about doing a heat treat on the file knife?
 
Nice work, I like the shape of the utility especially.
I wonder if you could use a knurling tool to create those file marks.

You might need some mechanical assistance to force the steel between the wheels, like a fly press or something.
 
91wm6 said:
That's a great story. You did really well on all 3 knives, I agree the ricasso of the file knife came out great. How did you go about doing a heat treat on the file knife?
Click to expand...

well I have a small forge I built so I heated it in there past magnetic, gave it a little soak time then quenched in canola oil. Tempered at 400 for 2 hours I think. Obviously that's probably not the best heat treat ever but the blade hardened and I did a bunch of cutting and chopping with it afterwards and it held an edge really well so I think it turned out ok.

I just finished the HT on my 2nd 01 blade(knife #4) which I was sending off to my brother up in Alaska. The first time I did the HT I ran out of propane right as I was ending my soak time so I pulled out the knife and quenched but it didn't harden. I think the temp may have dropped a little too much before I removed it and quenched. Plus I think my quench oil may have been a little too warm. So I did the HT again and before epoxying the handles I notice that there was a very very slight warp in the blade. I tried straightening it and snapped the blade in half:( That was really annoying as I had put a lot of time already into that one and I was excited how it was turning out. I'm not sure how to tell if something was wrong by looking at the grain but it was a very fine grain in the break.

Now I need to get a temp sensor setup in my forge. I know using a propane forge isn't the ideal HT method but I really enjoy that part of the process, don't have funds for a HT oven, and don't want to send them 1 at a time to get a pro HT and spend $20 apiece to do it and I'm too impatient for that too. I think with a temp sensor and using a muffle pipe in my forge I can get a pretty good HT on some steels and I'll feel confident in the results.
 
Phorizt, love the style of that first blade.... Looks much like my fisherman series I'm making. For your first few knifes they are VERY good. I'm still an amateur myself.

Where have you found a temp sensor that goes that high besides an EGT gauge? I am in need of the same thing to monitor temps.

Keep up the good work!
 
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I watched some videos from a guy who had a propane forge with this temp sensor hooked up:

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=282

I think you would also need the ceramic sheath for the thermocouple to protect it

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=40

Right about $100 for the whole setup shipped. THis is at the top of my list of items I need to get now even though I don't have a lot of tools. If I can't control my HT better it doesn't matter how fast I'm making knives.
 
here is the video showing the temp gauge setup


[video=youtube;PepUjiPGCsU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PepUjiPGCsU[/video]
 
phorizt said:
I think you would also need the ceramic sheath for the thermocouple to protect it
Click to expand...

Hey Phorizt, thanks for sharing my video. The sensor does come with a ceramic sheath. Actually it comes with 2 types and both can be used. I opted to just use the "inner" set of ceramics. It came with a bigger sheath that completely encased the whole sensor. I have it but I use it for sharpening knives. figured I would throw it in if I ever experienced a problem. Worst case I will just need to replace the sensor which should be very cheap.
 
You've done a fine job on these knives and done a very generous thing for your FIL to boot. The sheath looks very nice as well. Best thing is you learned a lot. As far as being an artist, that is a relative thing (no pun intended) and generally in the eye of the beholder. If your FIL thinks you are an artist, you are an artist.
 
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