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dirtyphil

dirtyphil

Joined
Mar 19, 2014
Messages
165
New member, names Phil. Live in UT and work as an RN. I dunno squat about this stuff but I've always wanted to make my own knife...it's not as easy as it looks on the inner'net! I flyfish and tie flies and that's it, beside work and family. I'm addicted to it. I bought some "plain steel" from home depot. I also bought a length of O-1 and A-2 tool steel that I've cut out some blanks from, but I plan on not going any further with 'em til I know a little more about grinding, heat tx, etc. Plus screwing around with old files and sawblades. Question: IS PLAIN STEEL WORTH HEAT TREATING, or should I just practice with it. I've cut out some decent pattern and gotten some fine looking grinds on a couple. Question: grinds... I see a few guys grinding on a grinder holding the edge in both directions, meaning edge against the turn of the belt and with the turn of the belt...personal preference, does it matter? I have a HF 1x30" and a Porter Rockwell 4x36"... First thing I did was let the metal go and jam the blank into the guard, amateur. I also have a couple angle grinders, wheel grinder, and decent files. Thank you for the help, I'll have many more questions. I trade flies, too...DP
 
Read the stickies.

Your mill steel is essentially useless for knives. Unless you have a good forge or high temperature oven, you should figure on sending your blanks out for professional heat treatment.

Good luck.
 
Great questions! If I was working with O-1 or A-2 I would definitely send it out to heat treat (I don't heat treat any of my blades, even the easy steels). I think its smart to practice on the useless steel and what not, when you start working on the actual blades, use fresh belts and don't bother being a cheap-skate on belts (been there, done that, not good). As for your grinding technique I would check out the stickies and/ or look in your area for a knifemaker who might teach you a thing or two.

Go ahead and grind some steel! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a Personal message.
 
Yep, can't harden that mild steel from Home Depot. O-1 and A2 are good choices if you'll be sending them out for HT.

Holding the blade edge up when grinding is the most common practice by far, because it's just easier to see what you are doing that way. Shine some light at it, too.

Here's a few grinding tips at my site, people occasionally find them comprehensible:
https://sites.google.com/site/vorpalcustomknives/shop-techniques-3/grinding-tips

Feel free to look around and see if any of the other ramblings there make sense to you...
 
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