Bog Oak Hunter: Progress Pics

Erin Burke

Erin Burke

KnifeMaker...ish
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
1,330
Hey guys... I don't think that this can be called a WIP, but here are a few progress photos of a little hunter project that I'm working on.

The first set of images shows some pre-HT shaping of the 3/16" 1095 (sitting next to the original sketch). You'll notice a few things:


  • I acquired a bit of 5460 year old bog oak from Mark Farley
  • For this project, I'm keeping the spine of the blade flat prior to HT... this helps me avoid rounding the tip during initial grinding.
  • The scope of the project doubled somewhere along the line. My oven temporarily broke down, so I figured that I might as well rough-grind another blade since I couldn't heat-treat. Plus, I have twin bog oak blocks. Seemed like a no-brainer.
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This next photo shows some post-HT shaping of the bevels, shoulders, choils and tangs. I have also thrown in the pieces of 416ss that I'll be using for the guards.
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And here's where the project sits right now. As you can see, everything went to crap on the matching hunter idea. As mentioned, these blades are 1095. They were quenched in Parks 50 without any clay. I anticipated that there would be a hamon; but after some hand sanding at 240-grit, it became apparent that the hamon on one of the blades crept way too close to the edge. I did a quick etch to make it obvious. My plan was to leave these at a satin 400-grit finish, but as it is, I'll have to re-HT the etched blade... and due to the thin edge, I expect I'll see some undulation in the edge that'll need to be ground off. So much for twins. I'll let you know how it pans out.
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Erin
 
I made a bit more progress on this project over the weekend. As mentioned at the end of my last post, I had to re-HT one of the blades because the hamon crept too close to the edge.

  • Top Left: While waiting for the kiln to heat back up, I did a bit of work to fit-up a guard to the good blade. My recent knives have been built sans ricasso... which I think looks cool, but can be a pain when fitting a guard. I take carefull measurements of the tang thickness across its width and mill the slot in a series of progressively wider steps (pictured). I will clean this up with a small file to create a tight fit to the tang.
  • Top Right: I usually temper my blades in the wife's oven after using my Sugar Creek kiln to thermal-cycle and harden. Our kitchen stove is on-the-blink, so I had to use the kiln for tempering as well. I have a few observations from this process... first, while those 1/2" thick steel plates provide great thermal mass for stabilizing the kiln temp, they also make it take FOREVER to cool down from austenitizing temp to tempering temp. Secondly... you can never have too many oven thermometers.
  • Bottom Left and Right: I had ground this blade very thin before realizing that I had to re-HT... and was 99% sure that the edge would end up "ribboning", warping or cracking in the quench. I was blown away to discover that it came out of HT straight as an arrow. I haven't cleaned up the blade yet to verify the HT, but I'm cautiously optomistic.
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Erin
 
*edit* I just realized it looks like you saved the twin idea, but the information in my post still could help on a future blade.


Erin- you could have saved yourself the heartache of getting that far to find the pearlite dipped too close to the edge... I think after doing a couple hundred differentially hardened blades you get to where you just sort of wave it around in the light and you can see the hamon is, even at a 50X grind. But if you're having a hard time trying to see what's there.... Take the blade into a completely dark room and shine a flashlight on it.

Since the blade only has a dark ceiling to reflect off of, the hamon will pop right out at you. :)

I'm making a camp knife with the bog oak... it's some cool stuff! The density seems pretty comparable with African Blackwood. :cool:
 
Just a quick heads-up on this project. After some clean-up sanding on the re-HT'ed blade #2, I'm tossing the idea of making this a matching set. Even though it had a very thin edge, the blade came out of HT straight as an arrow. After some some cleanup on the disc sander, followed by some hand-work, it looks like there's a shiny de-carb layer that still needs removing. I've got a VERY thin edge as it is... with the current matching profile, I'll likely be at zero before the decarb layer is gone. I'm sure that I can save this blade... but not with a profile that matches the other one. So no more twinsies this time around.

On the plus side, the first knife is complete with the exception of sharpening and a sheath. It is badass! I'm especially fond of the clean 800-grit satin finish. Photos to follow in the next few days hopefully.

Erin
 
Here are a few more photos from the fit-up and shaping of the handle. I'm always very concerned about symmetry on my knifes... so I cheat a bit by taking measurements and drawing up some templates in CAD. Most of the bulk wood removal is done with my KMG; however the last few steps of material removal involve files and sanding sticks. Notice the tape on the guard... I take down the handle material until it's protrudes only about 1 thickness of electrical tap above the metal guard.

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And finally, here is a photo of the finished knife. I think that it turned out pretty well.

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Erin
 
WELL done! I know you called it hunter and some of the folks in the Custom forum said it looked like more of a fighter... It looks like if the guard/choil was a bit different it could make a great kitchen knife too.
 
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