Custom chopper WIP

Phillip Patton

Phillip Patton

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
Messages
5,397
I'm making a big chopper for a customer overseas (who is welcome to speak up if he wants) and taking some pictures for him along the way, so I thought I'd share them here too.

First installment:

Here is the aluminum template I made for making sure the forging is the right size.

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I'm forging this from D2, which doesn't like being forged on edge, so I won't be forging it to shape, instead I draw it out length wise and width wise so it's the right dimensions, and then forge in the tang taper and distal taper. From that point on it's all grinding.

The starting block. It started out 1 1/4" x 1 3/4" x 6". When I'm finished it will be about 19" long, 2-1/4" wide, and 5/16" thick.

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Starting to draw it out. Forging took almost 2 hours, using my power hammer.

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This next picture shows it ground clean and ready to start cutting and grinding to shape. Some steps in between, which I didn't get pictures of are:

Annealing (softening) in my heat treat oven.

Then soaking in vinegar and hydrochloric acid to remove the forging scale.

Grinding it clean with an angle grinder.


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With the pattern drawn on the blank. As you can see, there's not much extra material there:


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I use a bandsaw to cut off as much of the waste:


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Then I finished the profiling on the grinder:

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Here's a shot showing the tapers:

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The edge marked:

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The "guide" bevel:

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The plunge grinds. Not perfect yet, but they'll get cleaned up as I go along.

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With all the rough grinding done:

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Cool! I love these threads. Looking forward to seeing more. I already picked up a tip or two.
 
Looking good Philip!

That's fierce to forge D2... I am not jealous of having to do that at all! :eek:
 
I love threads like this. It's so interesting to see work as it's being done. You can glean a lot of information just from the processes. Thanks for the awesome information.

Subscribed!
 
somber said:
I love threads like this. It's so interesting to see work as it's being done. You can glean a lot of information just from the processes. Thanks for the awesome information.

Subscribed!
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Me too .. of course :D

I think this is going to be one heck of a beautiful large chopper indeed :thumbup: Patiently looking forward for the phase by phase progresses in the making of this knife and the leather sheath as well :cool:

Lots of thanks for all the showing and telling, Phillip ;)

mohd.
 
Love the WIP threads--thank you.

Any chance on you or your customer sharing thoughts on why D2 (forged at that) for this type of blade?
 
Very informative, as always, Phillip. Thanks for posting another WIP thread. Looking forward to seeing more.

Paul
 
Hey everyone!
Thanks for your comments! Glad it's appreciated. :)



Alfaholic said:
Hi Phillip
Any chance that this is mine?:)

Steven
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Why, do you have a knife on order with me? :D No, it's not, but I'll be getting to yours soon. :thumbup:


Nick Wheeler said:
Looking good Philip!

That's fierce to forge D2... I am not jealous of having to do that at all! :eek:
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It's not that bad; the power hammer does most of the work, I just have to hold it right. ;) D2 does move quite slowly though. I'm guessing it took around an hour and a half of forging.


John Frankl said:
Love the WIP threads--thank you.

Any chance on you or your customer sharing thoughts on why D2 (forged at that) for this type of blade?
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The customer is more than welcome to answer this himself, but I'm guessing some of his reasons are:

Novelty. Not too many makers forging D2.

Stain resistance. D2 is much closer to stainless than most steels people forge.

Performance. D2 is a good steel. Tough enough for most jobs, but more wear resistant then carbon steels.

Those are my guesses. I don't remember talking about this with the customer, so I may be all wet....



RMLamey said:
Phillip have you ever forged out the shape, edge etc... on D2????
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Not that I recall. I did actually try to forge the tip on this one, but it was too thin at that point and folded over, so I decided it wasn't worth the fight.
I have a 440c bowie blade that I forged completely to shape by hand, and I also did an M4 bowie blade, but those were hidden tang knives, which made it easier.
 
Phillip, i would imagine you have a VERY short heat range to work within. Was just curious as to me one big advantage in forging a blade to actual shape in both profile and edge bevels etc. is LESS grinding! I made a handfull of blades in D2 and remember they were sure no fun to grind.
 
Phillip Patton said:
Hey everyone!
Thanks for your comments! Glad it's appreciated. :)

Why, do you have a knife on order with me? :D No, it's not, but I'll be getting to yours soon. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I am looking forward:thumbup:
Thanks for the great WIP thread. Now I can see how mine is made.........:)
 
Phillip Patton said:
The customer is more than welcome to answer this himself, but I'm guessing some of his reasons are:

Novelty. Not too many makers forging D2.

Stain resistance. D2 is much closer to stainless than most steels people forge.

Performance. D2 is a good steel. Tough enough for most jobs, but more wear resistant then carbon steels.

Those are my guesses.
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Those are pretty good reasons, Phillip :thumbup:

I recall reading a discussion in another forums about the pros and cons in building a knife using a forging technique. One thing I remember is that few knife makers said that building such a knife is really a pain at the backside :D And to anneal, properly harden and temper, a maker really do need a digitally controlled heat treat oven. Are you using one, Phillip?

I read somewhere in the net that D2 was formulated to be used in metal stamping dies which means it has to be capable of a good compromise between "tough" and "hard". Is it true .. anybody knows?

mohd.
 
mohd said:
Those are pretty good reasons, Phillip :thumbup:

I recall reading a discussion in another forums about the pros and cons in building a knife using a forging technique. One thing I remember is that few knife makers said that building such a knife is really a pain at the backside :D And to anneal, properly harden and temper, a maker really do need a digitally controlled heat treat oven. Are you using one, Phillip?


mohd.
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Yes, I do use an oven, which is essential for hardening and tempering. I often anneal high alloy steels in my forge. For this knife, I actually annealed it in my oven while I was thermal cycling some carbon steel blades. Killed two birds with one stone. :cool:


I read somewhere in the net that D2 was formulated to be used in metal stamping dies which means it has to be capable of a good compromise between "tough" and "hard". Is it true .. anybody knows?
Click to expand...


Yep, you're right. It's not as tough as something like L6 or A2, but it is more wear resistant, as well as corrosion resistant. Like any steel, there are compromises.
 
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