Checkout my Bushcraft knife!

DeadboxHero

DeadboxHero

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
5,512
First off, thank you Stacy. That O1 recipe is awesome.


Here it is, O1 tool steel ~60hrc with a scandi-convex grind with a 18° micro bevel.

Full-tang with birch handles with walnut stain and lightly seal with boiled linseed oil.

The pins are aluminum and held with epoxy.

The spine has a 90° edge for a ferro.

8in overall 50/50 blade to handle ratio.



Some testing.







I then whacked the edge on some different woods full strength 25 times on a piece of birch and a very hard sycamore round.


Even a piece of water logged mystery wood that's super hard.

At the end, still razor sharp! Success!




Up close damage. She took a roll



Time to see if she'll field repair


I used the fine diamond stone and stroped the roll back into piece with a few light swipes then I touched it up on the ceramic.

And the results. Perfect.


Thanks again Stacy. Love the heat treatment.
1600°
Quench warm oil.
Air cool.
Temper twice for one hour 400°F water quench between and after temper
Presto! A great edge.
 
Looks good. Feels great making stuff with your own hands, right? Well done.
 
It's.a ton of dirty, laborious work. But in the end it's fun.
I'd love to be more skilled at it.
 
Did you have fun or what ? I remember my first knives . They were all Bushcrafters because that's what I was into at the time. Lot of laborious work involved but satisfying .. The point is you did it yourself .
 
Good on you, mate. Having fun is what it is all about.

On the next one, try for a bit of handle shape and curve. Also see what you can draw without the nib of metal sticking out at the end of the edge. Look at some bowie and large camp knives for inspiration and ideas.
 
nice... can i get the exact times of that HT? i just started playing with my oven and happen to have some O1 laying around and would love to try it out. fun isn't it? beats the hell out of my first creations.

cheers

Royce
 
Right on man, my execution wasn't super precise. As soon as I got the blade non magnetic for a minute or so I quenched. Then I let it air cool for a few moments just until it was cool enough to touch.
2X 1hrs at 400°f with a tepid water quench.

Love me some O1. So sharp.
 
You mentioned that you did 1600°F for O1 tool steel. That's a very high austenitizing temperature. I do 1490°f with a 20 minute soak. After I posted, I noticed what you said above ^^^^, heated to nonmagnetic, held for one minute. Just FYI, non magnetic is about 1414, and we know we need to be around 1500. So if in that minute the blade did heat up some, you probably were very close to target temp. However, no soak was employed. So basically you have a 1084-like blade. Quenched at just above non magnetic with no soak, or quenched AT non magnetic with a 1 minute soak?

That's why we don't usually recommend O1 for that type of heat treat set up. O1, for O1 performance, gets a solid 20 minute soak at around 1500°f. But for your "bush" application, your heat treat should do well.
 
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Just held at a specific temperature for an amount of time. This allows the alloying elements to do their thing.
 
IIRC, I suggested heating to about 75° hotter than non-magnetic ( one shade red brighter), holding for a minute if he could, and quenching in 120°F canola oil. Two 400° tempers for an hour each.
 
Great knife and information.
I have been looking to use O1 as its readily available in my area and most other beginner metals are not. It may have a steeper learning curve but I am now inspired to begin!
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
IIRC, I suggested heating to about 75° hotter than non-magnetic ( one shade red brighter), holding for a minute if he could, and quenching in 120°F canola oil. Two 400° tempers for an hour each.
Click to expand...

And for what this gentleman was using for heat treat, Stacy, that is spot-on recommendation. I had a feeling Deadbox had a hard time sourcing 1084, so used O1 as a substitute. And I would think a one minute soak at non-magnetic + 75° would do well in a bush application. The blade will have just enough carbon in solution to reach a good hardness level, even if the alloying elements were not in solution with a soak.
 
I think that was actually either a typo, or DeadBox thought that a bit hotter than non magnetic was 1600 instead of 1500. I think he did actually use something more close to 1500, as per post number 8.
 
You guessed it. Im still learning haha,
Thanks for all your help
 
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