Hello again Everyone!
I've made a start on my second knife with some thinner stock as per mikehill request. Wow has working on the thinner stock made a difference! Love to hear your opinions and thoughts.
So far, I have shaped the blade, started a bit of pre-HT bevelling to make my life a little easier with hand tools once the steel is hardened. Speaking of HT... Im a little more concerned about warping with the thinner stock. Especially with doing some grinding before HT and my rudimentary two torch HT set up. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Some ideas I've had:
1. Designed the knife. Ive stuck to my "style" with it but its turned out looking like a bunka. I use my iPad for this stage. Designing from scratch and trying to be original, seems a good use of my graphic design experience. Then, mark it out onto the steel with layout fluid. The steel this time was 01 tool steel 60mm wide x 2mm thick.
2. I have a little black and decker decorators bench that I use to clamp the steel into. Then I get at it with a hack saw. Its so rickety, but with some stabilisation it does the job. I try to leave a little bit of a buffer in case I make any slip ups. However to save intensively sanding and filing, I try to keep the original cuts pretty close.
3. Here it comes... filing... filing... filing... filing.
Mainly draw filing the edges to try and keep everything as true as possible. I used my Dremel on the inside of the choil area to give it the right radius then touched up with a file again. I generally start with harsh quick filing to remove as much material as possible and then become more delicate and sensitive the closer I get to the final shape.
4. When the shape is where I like, its time for the pre-HT material removal. To make things easier for me when it comes to filing and sanding once the steel has been hardened. Draw filing at an angle to begin the bevels. This is not easy. Ive thought about making a jig. But then again, I like the idea of getting skilled at the basics, then streamlining and making things less labour intensive. Im also not looking to make the edge to thin at this stage before HT. Keeping it above 1mm. I've done one side and started the other. Hard to tell at the moment.
Speaking of the jig, I could use it for the final bevelled. grinding after HT.
I'll add to this thread when I make some more considerable progress. If you want more regular updates I post incremental to 'the gram' using @abpositivek.
Stay safe everyone.
I've made a start on my second knife with some thinner stock as per mikehill request. Wow has working on the thinner stock made a difference! Love to hear your opinions and thoughts.
So far, I have shaped the blade, started a bit of pre-HT bevelling to make my life a little easier with hand tools once the steel is hardened. Speaking of HT... Im a little more concerned about warping with the thinner stock. Especially with doing some grinding before HT and my rudimentary two torch HT set up. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Some ideas I've had:
- Have a go with my current set up and if I mess it up. A 'plan B' from below...
- Edge quench, very carefully. Risky.
- Send out for HT. Obviously better results than I can achieve but looses some of the hand made touch for me.
- Make a little DIY forge in our 4th floor flat and hope I don't cause a fire. I don't know why, I feel a forge is sketchier then my blowtorch set up.
1. Designed the knife. Ive stuck to my "style" with it but its turned out looking like a bunka. I use my iPad for this stage. Designing from scratch and trying to be original, seems a good use of my graphic design experience. Then, mark it out onto the steel with layout fluid. The steel this time was 01 tool steel 60mm wide x 2mm thick.
2. I have a little black and decker decorators bench that I use to clamp the steel into. Then I get at it with a hack saw. Its so rickety, but with some stabilisation it does the job. I try to leave a little bit of a buffer in case I make any slip ups. However to save intensively sanding and filing, I try to keep the original cuts pretty close.
3. Here it comes... filing... filing... filing... filing.
4. When the shape is where I like, its time for the pre-HT material removal. To make things easier for me when it comes to filing and sanding once the steel has been hardened. Draw filing at an angle to begin the bevels. This is not easy. Ive thought about making a jig. But then again, I like the idea of getting skilled at the basics, then streamlining and making things less labour intensive. Im also not looking to make the edge to thin at this stage before HT. Keeping it above 1mm. I've done one side and started the other. Hard to tell at the moment.
I'll add to this thread when I make some more considerable progress. If you want more regular updates I post incremental to 'the gram' using @abpositivek.
Stay safe everyone.
