Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

[qmether]

knife I was fussing with last week. Decided to give it a clip-point. I’m really happy with how it feels in the hand now. The blade itself looked pretty warped after stripping, so most of my time was spent filing and honing the blade flat, and getting rid of that uneven secondary bevel. This one had the worst bevel of three. Slices paper beautifully now. Everything took so much longer than it should have because I really didn’t know what I was doing. First attempt. So many mistakes and dead ends. The white liner is .060” Kydex, and I just used SuperGlue to fix it to the handle scales. I’m finished with it for now.

Wow! Looks like I'm in the market for a second BK-16. Is the tip original, or dropped?

 

[NWFRS]

Wow! Looks like I'm in the market for a second BK-16. Is the tip original, or dropped?

That’s the original tip location, more-or-less. It might be 1/32” lower at the very most, simply because in the course of doing everything wrong several times, I rounded the tip ever so slightly, and had to freshen it up.

 

[1066vik]

Massive fail. Glad I discovered it before delivery.
When seating the antler handle, I discovered 2 fatal cracks where the cable didn't weld all the way through.

 

[MolokaiRider]

Massive fail. Glad I discovered it before delivery.
When seating the antler handle, I discovered 2 fatal cracks where the cable didn't weld all the way through.

View attachment 1854637

That's a bummer. Gonna give it another shot?

 

[1066vik]

Absolutely!

 

[daizee]

Oh wow, that's dramatic!
Sucks, but good to find vs. ship.
What a crazy shear pattern from the twisted cable wires.

I spent the afternoon smashing some minivan coil spring, and tried a twist for the first time to see what tools/techniques/heating patterns are necessary to make it work. Learned a bunch of stuff:

Steel work is finally done on a long overdue kitchen knife too:

 

[1066vik]

Rescued 2 of the 3 pieces.
One is a marking knife, the other should work as a carver or steak knife.



Also forged out a chunk of bearing race and did some cleanup on the mower blade I hammered on as a teaching demo a couple months ago - should make a decent veggie knife



After all that, I needed to rehydrate, so I made a non-cutting implement it of a broken carriage bolt.

 

[daizee]

Oooh, nice!
What's mower blade like to work with? I think I have one. Also some Fiskars garden schears whose handles gave up. Not worth repairing (replaced with a better brand).

 

[1066vik]

homeowner mower blade is really easy to work, but thin enough you don't get a lot of movement unless you're going thin.
commercial & ag blades are often 1075 or similar and thick enough to have fun with.
bush hog blades can me 5/8-3/4" thick, commercial blades - like for a grasshopper - run 3/16-1/4".

 

[daizee]

Hmmm, ok, thanks. I guess I'd just flattenize it and then cut/grind vs. doing too much shaping with a hammer. But in that alloy range it should be easy to turn into a decent blade. Perhaps fortunately I only have access to homeowner-scale blades!

 

[1066vik]

yup - works great for generic stock removal.
I've done a few machetes & straight handled kindling froes out of them.

 

[daizee]

The daytime hours ended very... frustratingly.

So I cut a piece of the straightened brewery grain auger that my buddy gave me (he does all the pipefitting up at Revival Brewery in Providence) and bashed out a paring knife. Last pic is nice and hard. She's in the oven for tempering now:

Got plans for the handle too.

 

[1066vik]

I'm almost out of grain auger - it's pretty easy to work and takes a keen edge

 

[daizee]

I'm almost out of grain auger - it's pretty easy to work and takes a keen edge

Good to hear! (about the edge)
It's a good starting size for paring knives. Not sure what else. Fillet knives? Would probably warp like crazy. What have you made from it?

It moved pretty easily and got over 60Rc out of the quench, but I didn't check harder than that. We'll see how it comes out of the 350F temper.

 

[1066vik]

I did a handful of small game/utility knives and cap lifters

 

[daizee]

I did a handful of small game/utility knives and cap lifters

Nice.
Ooohh, cap-lifters... I've never forge-welded anything, but am considering stacking two pieces of the auger together so I can forge out a birudashi, which seems particularly appropriate.

 

[daizee]

I don't know if this is gonna work...
...beercan mycarta?!? Will find out tomorrow.
And a bit of bourbon barrel stave from the brewery as well. The barrels come from another distillery, then Revival re-uses them for beer aging.

 

[gmoneyluv]

Following with great interest! And I love the Hamr beer label!

 

[daizee]

Following with great interest! And I love the Hamr beer label!

Revival has great can art! Sean, the master brewer/owner dude is a long-time local figure, and supports local artists. Their new facility in an industrial section of Providence has fabulous commissioned graffiti art.

I'll find out if the bolster lamination was successful a little later this morning. Fingers crossed.

 

[daizee]

So... this might actually work.

Extracted from the "press":

Ground the messy edges back a bit.... looks plausible:

It files REALLY easily:

The block-hole went awry, so there are some reminders for shaping the handle. Barely enough material to recover, I think!

I don't have full confidence in the bolster material, so I'm going to leave a substantial fillet around the joint. Went with a hazy sanded look too, also to give the fillet something to grab onto. Looking back, I could have done some more prep between the layers. Maybe next time. If there's a next time.

I will have visitors and have to go to a wedding this weekend. HOPEFULLY I can finish it before Monday, but we'll see.