An Adventure to end all others

[RustyDogKnives]

One year ago I set out to design and make my own knife. This journey was prompted from the continued failure of off the wall production knives available from big box stores. One knife, a folder, had the liner lock fail and it cut my finger almost to the bone.

So one month ago the research and design stage of the process ended and I bought an old file to use for the metal. The past week I have worked in shaping the blade, which could have come out better but I like it anyway. It looks rustic imo. I plan to use homemade micarta for handle material and a pair of old shoes as material for a sheath. The only tools I have are hand tools and a drill. Money isn't in the budget for much more.

I will be heat treating the knife myself so any tips on this process would be greatly appreciated, I don't want it to warp too much and ruin my hard work. How thin should the edge be so ht won't warp it but it isn't such a pain to get sharp?

Here is the knife so far. I plan on rounding the butt a little more but other than that it just awaits ht. Feel free to criticize the design a little, as I am new at this and would like to learn.

Also, I wanted to keep most of the teeth from the file in the design itself as I think it adds to its character. I don't think it interferes too much with the function of the knife. It will mostly be used to cut fishing line that gets tangled up and cutting zip tied and such. What do you guys think? One last thing, this is a bowie inspired blade. Should I add a swedge or not?

 

[lonepine]

You will find most of your answers in the stickies. There is even one on how to build a knife from a file.

- Paul Meske

 

[BallewBlade]

Its a start but I would get a better bevel and plunge line established before going further. Round the butt like you said and maybe put more of a finger choil. As for heat treat that could go many ways, but me personally , I would heat the blade till non-magnetic and then quench in canola oil, then check to see if a file "skates" of the blade. Good luck and don't be discouraged from any failures because they WILL happen.

 

[LRB]

Non-magnetic heat is not really enough heat. You need to go another shade of red hotter to get a better austenite solution. The canola oil heated to 130° should work very well.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Welcome to Bladeforums.

If you want to build your knife from a file, so be it, I'll leave that discussion for another day.

The bevel needs to come up at least 2/3" the blade width. Right now you have a file with a sharpened edge. It won't cut well at all.

Leaving the file teeth on is mostly personal taste, but it will seriously encourage rust on a fishing knife. The less teeth, the better. This is another good reason to raise the bevel 2/3 up the blade sides.

Besides rounding the corners on the butt a bit, that should take care of the major issues.
Sand the blade with sandpaper backed with a hardwood block. Sand off all scratches and marks up to 400 grit.

The HT info can be found in the stickies. There is a dedicated sticky to making file knives, with several methods of HT. The very basic Cliff notes version is:
Heat the blade evenly to non-magnetic, and then heat to about 50-75 degrees hotter ( about one shade of red hotter).
Immediately quench point down into a gallon of 120-130°F Canola oil.
Remove after one minute, wash off gently with dish soap and running water ( it is very brittle right now).
Temper in a 400°F kitchen oven for two hours.
Remove and cool off in running water in the sink.
Put back in the oven for a second two hour temper at 400°F.

After the HT, sand the blade again ,starting at 220 grit. Take it as high a grit as desired, thinning out the edge to almost sharp ( if you look at the edge with a magnifier, it should still have a small flat surface). Put on the handle, and then sharpen the blade at about 15° per side.

 

[tryppyr]

I'll start by echoing everything Stacy said with the usual +1. You are not ready for HT yet. You need to slow down and do the research with the stickies.

Second thing is that using homemade micarta is fine if you know how to make it properly. However, there are much better materials you can use. I'll be happy to send you some (for free) if you want. I have many kinds of stabilized wood, natural woods (including lignum vitae) or G10.

As for the sheath, I have better leather I could toss in the box for free too.

Just let me know if you want any of this. No need for this first project to look like it was made from cast offs, unless that's the look you want.

Also, one more piece of advice. Since you seem to be in a hurry, I'd advise you to review the stickies looking for the words "blocky handle syndrome", because I'd guess you'll have that problem unless you slow down a bit and invest some energy and effort. It's easily avoided, and avoiding it will make the knife MUCH more comfortable to use. This will be especially important if you don't lift those bevels, because it takes a LOT of pressure to make a dull blade cut anything.

 

[RustyDogKnives]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I'll work on bringing the bevels up and reading all the stickies before moving on. I will keep you guys updating on my progress.