Bushcrafter and Bushcraft Hunter I made. (Beginner hoping for some constructive feedback/suggestions).

[Steelhog]

Hey all - thought I would throw up a few of my recent knives for feedback and constructive feedback. This is my interpretation of a buscrafter and Bushcraft hunter made from 1084 and Zebrawood. The design is mine and both are made with fairly simple tools (angle grinder, belt sander, bandsaw, and sand paper mostly. Pottery kiln used for HT). Still struggling with clean grind lines and F&F but they are super sharp and comfortable so I am happy about that. Thanks for the feedback, suggestions and help. Any feedback that helps me improve is welcomed. These are prob my 7th or so knives that turned out well. Been making on the weekends for the last month or so for fun.

https://imgur.com/a/O22BioI

 

[milesofalaska]

Looks good! Pottery kiln to heat treat? It gets hot enough? You can test the results with a file, see if you got an even hardness. 1084 is a good steel to start with, good choice. Do you do a double temper? Not time consuming, and tends to make up for glitches in the home heat treat process. (You can look up why). You might look up bro cold treating. Acetone and dry ice works. This can add hardness without the stress and also helps home heat treat issues. Mention the4se because visually you can inspect the knife for flaws and get a 'good job!' comment but much of any knife is in how the steel was treated, which does not show up in pictures, only in the field, or tests. A knife can get ruined doing like a flex test. A good way to compare your steel hardening and stress is the brass rod test. I like this as a way to see where I am at. Basically pipe cutting edge over a brass rod and count how many times before it does not cut paper anymore. Factory blades do 30 to 50 a custom job can get 3-400. The blade should flex at least a tiny bit under normal load. Just to ensure it is not overly brittle. You may already know some of this, just mentioning.

Oh, I use what is called a portable cut off saw instead of an angle grinder to cut knife steel. The tool is slow speed and hand-held steel saw usually used to cut angle iron. I hose clamp it to a beam and use a spring clamp on the throttle to keep it on and both hands free. I think new is just $80. It's about a 2 foot loop hacksaw type blade- slow rpm. Might be a good added tool to get for low budget. Thanks for showing your work.

 

[Steelhog]

Looks good! Pottery kiln to heat treat? It gets hot enough? You can test the results with a file, see if you got an even hardness. 1084 is a good steel to start with, good choice. Do you do a double temper? Not time consuming, and tends to make up for glitches in the home heat treat process. (You can look up why). You might look up bro cold treating. Acetone and dry ice works. This can add hardness without the stress and also helps home heat treat issues. Mention the4se because visually you can inspect the knife for flaws and get a 'good job!' comment but much of any knife is in how the steel was treated, which does not show up in pictures, only in the field, or tests. A knife can get ruined doing like a flex test. A good way to compare your steel hardening and stress is the brass rod test. I like this as a way to see where I am at. Basically pipe cutting edge over a brass rod and count how many times before it does not cut paper anymore. Factory blades do 30 to 50 a custom job can get 3-400. The blade should flex at least a tiny bit under normal load. Just to ensure it is not overly brittle. You may already know some of this, just mentioning.

Oh, I use what is called a portable cut off saw instead of an angle grinder to cut knife steel. The tool is slow speed and hand-held steel saw usually used to cut angle iron. I hose clamp it to a beam and use a spring clamp on the throttle to keep it on and both hands free. I think new is just $80. It's about a 2 foot loop hacksaw type blade- slow rpm. Might be a good added tool to get for low budget. Thanks for showing your work.

Fantastic feedback. Thank you. Yep the pottery kiln gets very hot and on mine I can program exact temps and hold times. Unfortunately I am limited to about a 10" blade. I run it to 1490 and quinch in canola pre heated to 125. Temper 2 times at 375 for 1hr and cool with water between.

 

[Steelhog]

I was using a homemade mini propain forge but was able to find the little kiln and it works great for what I do thus far.

 

[milesofalaska]

I was using a homemade mini propain forge but was able to find the little kiln and it works great for what I do thus far.

I started with a home made propane forge and ended up not being happy with it, same as you. I saw uneven color, leading me not believe uneven temperature of the steel. Sounds like you are on the right track. Instead of just cold water between tempers, I put in the freezer overnight. I think most important is to establish a test of some kind to compare results. Even a set of hardness testing files. But the brass rod swipe test are actual counted off numbers to note. I went from being happy with 150 swipes, made little improvements over time, and saw results that got to 400 swipes. Possibly there is more then one method or way! I'm told a perfect harden needs no tempering at all! And different steels are forgiving or work with our methods. I now work with only 2 steels, 1095 and D2. However just a few days ago had a blade crack before tempering and thought of going back to 1084! 1095 can be more sensitive than 84. I experiment a lot with shapes, thickness changes, exact temperatures, soak times etc. As I said 1084 is a nice forgiving steel. Anyhow, keep it up!

 

[Steelhog]

I started with a home made propane forge and ended up not being happy with it, same as you. I saw uneven color, leading me not believe uneven temperature of the steel. Sounds like you are on the right track. Instead of just cold water between tempers, I put in the freezer overnight. I think most important is to establish a test of some kind to compare results. Even a set of hardness testing files. But the brass rod swipe test are actual counted off numbers to note. I went from being happy with 150 swipes, made little improvements over time, and saw results that got to 400 swipes. Possibly there is more then one method or way! I'm told a perfect harden needs no tempering at all! And different steels are forgiving or work with our methods. I now work with only 2 steels, 1095 and D2. However just a few days ago had a blade crack before tempering and thought of going back to 1084! 1095 can be more sensitive than 84. I experiment a lot with shapes, thickness changes, exact temperatures, soak times etc. As I said 1084 is a nice forgiving steel. Anyhow, keep it up!

Interesting/awesome - I have not heard of puting in the freezer between tempers. So do you cool with water then put it in overnight? What effect does it have on the blade?

 

[milesofalaska]

Interesting/awesome - I have not heard of puting in the freezer between tempers. So do you cool with water then put it in overnight? What effect does it have on the blade?

The answer may b e more complicated then ism easy to explain or else I do not understand well enough myself! We are trying to harden the steel, wiki puts the steel under internal stress. We are trying to convert sort crystal inbox hard crystal in a chemically stronger bond. The crystal formation we want is caused by heat shock. However the crystal structure continues to change ever after the initial hardening takes place. Maximum temperature difference between the red hot before quench and where we stop dropping the temperature. The first shock is measured in parts of a second, going for 1400 down to 900. An 'evening out' takes place in the right quenching oil, talking about a minute, between about 900 and 400. A 3rd change happens from 400 to room talking about 10 minutes. I feel 'change' can still take place crystals form if we get even colder. Like the freezer. Proof being it ism suggested not to do this because the steel can crack in the freezer. if so, why? Is it b cease there is still change going on? Must be. I feel if the blade cracks in the freezer the quench was done wrong . Most likely the drop between 900 to 400 degrees was to fast, left in the oil to long? I like to our it out as it passes the 400 degree mark. Ease it in as it is referred to. So we want a maximum conversion of crystals to the hard kind. Risking over stress and cracking. The temper takes the stress out but drops the hardness too. Part of the stress I wonder might be due to the ratio between the hard and soft crystals. After a temper crossed treating is another temperature shock for room temperature down to 150 to 20 below zero but the shock without the stress, so additional hardness without internal stress. I'm told cryo may not do much for 1084 and does more for the more complicated steels. However my tests show all knives are positively effected by crops treat. Again I was satisfied at first with maybe 100 swipes on the brass rod test as twice as good as a factory blade. But little things like blade in the freezer (no cold water first) add a little to the overall finished blade how much for what I am uncertain. A blade maker here named Ed Fowler clued me in. He heat treats as I do, somewhat controversial using a torch so he gave me some clues- pointers on how he does it. he is not the scientist type but experiments, tests in the field and I tried what he told me. I myself am less scientist more maverick. Others here will explain scientifically what is happening during the heat treat. No time to spell check wife says dinner is ready and I gotta shut down. Wife rules!

 

[David Mary]

Nice designs, bud, and great execution from what I can see. The only thing I can think of is you might want a taller grind on a hunter.