Better plunges after 1 year of making

Looking good. My making has been pretty inconsistant, my second had a good plunge, and the ones after were not so good.

KNIFE7.jpg


Second one, the plunge is fairly clean. I do all my bevelling by file so I guess it gives me more room for error.

That was done over a year ago, and it is hasn't progressed much since. Too much hassel sending it off for heat treat, and only yesterday I bought drill bits and a drill bit sharpener to drill more holes.
 
Damn nice knife. Make a small forge to HT 0-1 yourself. Not too hard. Just takes time. Looking good to me :D
 
I think that since you have already taken that one so far, your best bet would be to send it to somebody who has the salt pot set up. You've got that down so thin, it almost looks like a finished blade now. I don't imagine you've got much room for warpage allowance or decarb removal.

Great looking blade, by the way. ;) :)
 
Thanks guys, I think it is mainly the picture making it look good !

That was sharpened actually, but I ground the edge down so that I wouldn't have to worry about the edge becoming wavy. I think that is the main problem with heat treating already sharpened knives.

I got a bunch more which mainly require drilling for the handles, then I'll send them all off at once for heat treat.

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My favourite would be the second from the front, the one with the spear point like blade. Small, but it fits my hand really nicely. These bunch of knives pictures always seem to look good.

By the way, how do you do your plunges ? I use a triangular file, and I clamp the blade and use a piece of wood ontop of the blade to avoid cutting too far down the knife when doing the plunge (sort of like a jig I suppose).

Is it possible to use a belt grinder to do the plunge ? It comes across as a not so precise way to do it, but I recall some people mainly use their grinders.
 
Those look good. Get, make or borrow a forge and magnet and some oil and a toaster oven and do your own heat treat, with 0-1 it's not hard to heat treat. You can use a torch(oxy/acetaline) to heat to quench, but you need to practice on some scrap to get the feel and so you won't overheat the blade before quench.

I used to use a homemade file jig, just two pieces of 0-1 screwed together as a guid for setting the plunges on the platten, but I mostly free-hand it now. I also don't wory about getting it precise anymore, I just touch it up with a file to get it even.
 
You guys are all psychic, I don't know how you guys found out the knives are made from O1.....

What I plan to do is to heat treat the little claw knife on my own, as a test piece. The others I will probably get professionally done, since a couple of them are to be given away as gifts. The price quoted from the HT place is 6-10 dollars a blade, which doesn't seem too bad. Only hassle is I would be sending them through the post, but I don't expect any problems with postage and delivery.
 
I use the grinder to do all of my shaping. I am trying to get where me and the grinder are best friends :) I use files to nock down the starp edges on the spine area. I dont use any guides. Just sort of go for it.......
 
Brian, your free hand style - lack of dependence on jigs - is one reason you are learning so well so quickly, I think. I still depend on a plunge jig. Probably a bad habit I developed.

RL
 
rlinger said:
- lack of dependence on jigs -
RL
Click to expand...
That sure can make your heart rate get up there...thats for sure ;)
 
I admit to using a 'jig' when setting the plunge cuts. It's just some old pieces of saw blade with holes for bolts. I just line up the scrap pieces, about 2" X 3", and drill the bolt holes about 2" apart. After putting the bolts in I use a file to make sure that one side is flat.
This simple 'jig' is bolted together with the "prospective" knife between. As an added benefit I find that I can duplicate each side because the angle is easier to see and feel because of the longer angle it creates.
To keep from having square corners, some call stress risers, I overhang the belt about 1/8" on the side I'm cutting. It means changing the overhang when moving from one side to the other.
If this isn't clear let me know and I'll take a couple of pictures.
Just the way I do it,
Lynn
 
Interesting. I will probably get a linisher sometime in the future, so I'll consider putting together a jig for bevelling and making the plunge. Should make things a lot easier
 
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