Andy's first few blades

[Fiddleback]

Just posted on this part of BF for my first time yesterday. I'm getting into blademaking, and have done 4 so far. Here are some pics. They all started life as files. I annealed them in my oven at 375 for an hour till straw colored (like the color of Bass Ale! Yum). Lemme know what you think. How do I get the grinds to be more...professional looking? I'm really a newb, but I do love doing these little projects.



This is my latest. Its a utility knife and a variant of the pukko style. I changed the blade shape somewhat because pukko knives are purely function, and I wanted something with some sexier curves.

 

[Will52100]

Pretty cool, I realy like the handle work on your latest, very interesting construction.

As for the grinds, practice practice practice and then straighten up with files and sand paper. With your own two hands you will stick the blade against the grinder and grind exactly the spot you didn't want to. Blade grinding for me is a never ending strugle.

 

[David Schott]

Nice handle work! Grinding is all practice......

In the meantime, you can achieve wonders draw filing and hand sanding. I still from time to time get my grinds 95% done, then take a big 16" bastard mill file and draw file the blade. You can smooth to dead flat with draw filing pretty easilly if your grinds are close. People underestimate the amount of metal you can remove with draw filing. With good pressure, you can visibly remove curls of metal with each pass, and if you hold the file flat, you will only be removing the high spots. When a single pass takes material off the whole length, you can switch to sandpaper.

Once you get grinding, you can minimize the sanding and filing more and more as your technique advances....