An introduction to me and my methods and knives!!!!

Jeff the Millwright

Jeff the Millwright

Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Messages
229
I have been in the unionized construction trades as a construction millwright for over 25 years. I’m 55 years old I live in the Niagara region in Ontario Canada and I am eagerly anticipating my retirement in approximately 3 years.

Being in relatively good health I plan on supplementing my pension and keeping myself occupied by doing some type of work and I expect that hopefully will include knife making. I have been making knives for close to a year and the vast majority of the information I have found to help me has been from this site.

I have to thank everyone who has contributed to this wonderful site because it is a treasure trove of valuable information and without its help my knife making journey would have been much more frustrating and difficult. It seems like almost every time I googled an inquiry about knifemaking I was brought to this site; it really is the definitive online authority on knifemaking!

So I am taking this opportunity to introduce myself and to post some pictures of my methods and knives I have created hoping someone out there may find them interesting

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This is my homemade heat treating furnace. I tapped into my natural gas line that goes into my garage for my radiant heater. This is much more convenient I find than using propane bottles. Natural gas does not burn as hot as propane but I still manage to get it up to 2150°F for s90v. I have a baffle plate under the inlet hole to even out the temp and not create a hot spot.

I put a 3/8 needle valve on the natural gas inlet line to finely control my fuel and I have a hair dryer hooked up to a dimmer switch to finely control my air flow. Controlling the air with a very fine adjustment enables me to keep my temperatures once things have settled down to about a 10°F range.

The yellow digital box gives me an accurate readout of the inside temperatures from the pyrometer I have inside the oven. So far this method has worked great for me. I have done 01, 440C, CPM 154, and S90V. And I have purchased some S35V but haven’t had a chance yet to use it.

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This ridiculous contraption was my first knife grinder which is obviously a belt sander in my homemade wooden rig with the jig I originally used. I quickly realized this was not the way to go and switched to a grinder in a box that I bought online and added a 3 hp three phase 220 V motor and variable speed controller. I am trying to keep my equipment to a min. to start but I see that as an essential piece and it sure made a difference, lol.

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I understand I am a beginner and I’m sure there are skills of members here beyond my comprehension but for the life of me I really can’t see how anyone could get a true full flat grind on a knife without some sort of a jig? Obviously I say this expecting to be corrected but being a beginner I found it necessary to come up with my own version of a jig to get a true full flat grind.

But in my defense I was watching videos on grinding and a Japanese grinding master on a large round whetstone was using a jig so I would be interested in the input about this controversy, LOL.

But this is my method. I have a 2 x 4 which I have drilled numerous holes that I determined the angle that a 3/8 iron rod makes when put in various holes when leaned against my platen. I go to an online program where I can determine the angle necessary if I punch in the information for the thickness and width of my blade to get a full flat grind. Then I simply put my rod in the corresponding angle and I’m off to the races.

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This is the jig that I use to hold my blade while grinding and all I have to do is make sure that I hold my blade jig flush against the rod that is in the hole on my 2 x 4 that determines the correct angle. It actually works surprisingly well and I have been getting nice flat grinds.
 
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I use the pen tool in Photoshop to design my knives which is particularly useful when making folding knives because using the rotate function I can actually open and close my blades to see how the parts fit together in the open and closed positions. When I am finished designing I print out a copy of the separated parts on paper and then glue the paper to my steel and cut them out with the band saw and finish them up on my to 2x72 grinder.
 
Congrats on the impending retirement, I'm 55 semi retired and also have been in the trades most of my adult life, millwright/machinist/fabricator/mechanic and all the trades involved so I know where you're coming from.

Looking forward to seeing some knives and how you progress. :thumbup:
 
So now I guess I might as well start showing some of my knives.

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This is my first knife done on my original belt sander jig which absolutely took forever to grind, LOL. It is 01 steel with a burl Maple handle which a fellow from work was kind enough to give me that was left over from his canoe making.
 
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These are my next attempts made out of 440C with a Kingwood handle. I didn’t use foil and instead just left the carburization on as sort of a different technique. I find it doesn’t cut as smoothly as a regular blade so I didn’t do that again with a paring knife.
 
Thank you for the interest T. Erdelyi. I am also “semi-retired” against my will because there just isn’t a lot of work around in our area, LOL. Knives to follow soon.
 
^nice! I like that king wood, looks like you'd got a good start of knife making
 
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This is my latest paring knife. It is a CPM154 blade with a Kingwood handle and brass pins with my own homemade Mokume-gane bolster made from brass and copper.
 
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I do enjoy making paring knives and I do plan on making some chefs knives but I seem to be kind of a masochist because I seem to need to challenge myself so I started making folding knives and put the kitchen knives on hold.

My first couple were basically ripoffs of other designs because I was just getting my techniques down so I think everyone will recognize where I got my design for my first knife, LOL.

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This is my first folding knife and is a very familiar looking lock back. It has a brass bolster with again Kingwood handles and a 440C blade and as you can see I did not put the blade in stainless foil but just left the natural heat treating carburizaton on it. I know I went a little crazy with the handle screws, lol.

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This is another familiar design this time I used CPM154 which I find just gets razor-sharp and brass bolsters again but this time textured using a small ballpeen hammer and the handle again is Maple. This one is a slip lock.
 
OK. He's a millwright in the the Hamilton hall. Sorry to ask in your thread didn't think till I hit reply. Nice work. Will be looking in the for sale section for your creations
 
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I found some used power hacksaw blades at a local wrecking yard so I picked up a bunch for dirt cheap and I believe they are probably M2 steel. Because M2 has such a high tempering temperature I felt safe to grind them without further heat treating. This is the machete I made which I photographed next to one of my paring knives for size comparison. I was really happy with the bevel I got.

For my final cutting bevel I always use progressive grades on my 2x72 up to 3000 grit. I find going to this fine a grit and then stropping with green compound on leather makes all my knives razor hair-shaving sharp despite what steel I use.
 
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VicV. I don’t know Rob Wilcox because I am in the Niagara local but I probably know him to see him because they often come down for our formerly Stelco now US steel shutdowns. And we often get up to their local for Dofasco shutdowns. I know a lot of the Hamilton guys especially the ones who have been around a long time because a lot of us served our apprenticeships together in trade school from other locals. I probably know Rob Wilcox to see but I probably just don’t know what his name is.
 
For my next knife I decided it was time to try and design my own flipper from scratch. I made two of the same design but put different handles on them. They actually flip open beautifully. I did not use bearings because I don’t have a milling machine to countersink the bearing races. Originally I tried brass bushings but I found they had a fair bit of friction so I ordered some Teflon which I put a very thin coat of grease on and they flip beautifully now.

They are liner locks both of them with S90V Blades. Unfortunately I had a little bit of micro-chipping on the edges and after speaking to Crucible who makes the steel on the phone I was told I probably went for too high a hardness. My furnace temperature was 2150°F but I believe my mistake was I tempered at only 400°. I’m going to try to re-temper them at 600°F. I really don’t know if I can do it this much later which is about a month but I’m going to give it a try. I was told by Crucible that you really want to keep these CPM steels slightly less hard than the maximum attainable; about 2-3 Rockwell. Apparently they have longer edge retention with slightly lower hardness levels unlike high carbon steels so I’m going to try to drop it down to about 59 because I think right now I’m probably about 61. I don’t have a tester but this is what I gather from what I have read online. Anyone with any information on heat treating s90v it would be appreciated. Especially tempering temperatures.

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This was my first flipper I made that I designed. This is my work knife so I just used 304 stainless for handles and gave it a nice brush look using a I believe 60 grit belt. I have had foil sticking problems at 1950° so I was afraid to use it going to 2150°F with this s90v blade so I put it in bare. It gave it a nice pattern after I cleaned it up with some hydrochloric acid and steel wool. This was my first grinding effort on S90V and I know it isn’t a great result but as I say it’s just my work knife so I don’t mind it looking a little rough.

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So far this is my best effort. Again S90V blade but this one has a bolster of Mokume-gane I made which was then acid etched to bring out a relief in the different metals giving it more of a woodgrain look and then using G 10 on the rest of the handle.

I do really enjoy this hobby and as I say I am retiring and it would be nice if I could do this as a part-time sideline business. I did get a membership which I believe entitles me to ask what people think my knives are worth. I would be very interested what the experts think my last knife would be worth. I’m not looking to sell it I am just trying to determine whether this is an enterprise worth pursuing. I think I will always make knives but the question is, is it worth trying to make a business?

I did buy a membership which I believe entitles me to ask the value of my knives but if I am asking in the wrong way or part of the forms I apologize because I do very much value this site and wish to abide by the rules. So if I am within the rules could someone please tell me what they think my flipper is worth? That thing took me I figure about 40 hours to make.
 
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Please do not make buy/sell offers in Shop talk. - Moderator
 
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