Evaluate my intended blade procedure?

[Glorifire]

Hey its my first post on the forum, nice to meet you all my names Larry. I havent made a complete knife yet but have been doing a ton of research and dabbling. I have a decent amount of equipment( drill presses, dewalt bandsaw,1x30 sander, 6x48, cutting torch, safety equipment, belts sandpaper etc.) hoping to get a 2x72 built within the next month or 2, and finally am about ready to begin my first attempts at knives. I want somehelp on establishing my order of operations and my grit choices for making fixed blades and any other advice that may be helpful, right now the plan is as follows

-cutout blank on portaband
-profile with 60 grit followed by 120 grit for cleanup on sides(not the blade faces)
-drill holes/ chamfer
-surface grind profiled blank with 120 grit followed by 220 grit, then lap 120grit followed by 220 on plate glass( may be a little hard to fit blank onto my 1x30's platen for surface grinding, should i use a 6x48 sander i have instead?)
-heat treat( as of now intending to use 1095 steel and a cutting torch to bring to temperature then brine quench, but i also have a kiln that may be able to get to 1500 degrees but thats around its max)
-cleanup the blank after heat treat, which would be profiled but still no bevel, using 120 grit followed by 220 grit then 400 grit
-set the bevels using 80 grit followed by 120 grit for cleanup
-with the bevels and plunge roughed out would then apply sand paper to a fixed block and tune up the plunge focusing primarily in that area not much on the rest of the bevel, figuring 120 grit->220 grit->400 grit
-cleanup bevels with gator belts being careful to not foul the plunge, gator belts A100(180grit)->A65(280grit)->A45(360grit)
-hand sand beginning back at 220->400->600->800 then back to 600 for final finish, Rhynowet redline papers
-handles

how does that sound and what should i do differently, thanks in advance

 

[Matt Rochester]

Sounds pretty good too me and like you have done 10 times more research than most folks that are trying their first knife. I would use the 6x48 for surfacing your steel. I would also start with 50-60 on that and your bevels. Post your design first and get some feedback on that. I would also recommend some 1084 instead of 1095 because of the ease of heat treating. Good luck.

 

[Glorifire]

Thanks Matt! i went ahead and tried to make a sketch of a blade i had in mind, kind of a mini cleaver/harpoon hybrid, but in skinner size, i know i shouldnt over-complicate my first knife but figure the holes/jimping should be easy enough to do so dreww them in, it looks like theres way too much curve in the handle and some dont like too much, so i made a little test piece out of cardboard.. feels good, but what do you guys think? can anyone tell me how to make pics smaller

 

[Matt Rochester]

Big pics are good. It's not the simplest design but shouldn't be too complicated. Some folks try daggers and swords for their first and its just not realistic. I think it looks pretty good. Keep the lanyard hole 1/4" or more away from the edge of the spine. If you're making it for yourself then keep the handle if it feels good. For a Skinner, make sure there is enough handle that you can lay your index finger on the spine and still hold the knife securely with the other 4 fingers.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

It takes experience to get good results with a torch. And grinding hard steel. And one gets experience by doing. :thumbup:

 

[Glorifire]

thx guys great tips, it think im gonna add a 1/2" to the blade length and 3/4" to the handle,, i havent practiced much with steel on the torch yet, but ive blown glass on torch for almost 3 years so im hoping it might help a little with establishing a consistent heat base before quench, i know its still not going to come easy though,, tonight i should be at it, im going to start on some 1/8" mild steel and no heat treat to get a feel for the process, then after i get 4 or 5 completed over the next week hopefully ill make a real attempt with some 1084. GODwilling i should post some pics tomorrow of how the test piece comes out tonight, thx again guys. Nathan does the hardened steel make the abrasives "skate", is that what makes it more difficult?

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

There are three mistakes everybody makes here

1: first they overheat the steel with the torch and get a weak crumbly tip
2: then they over compensate and start underheating and forming mixed structure that will skate a file but won't hold an edge
3: when grinding, folks overheat thin areas and ruin their temper, particularly the point. Sometime they never realize it because they grind the heat color off before they ever see it.

1095 overheated to ~600F is still hard and will hold an edge sort of, so without experience it's impossible to know if you've burned a spot while grinding it. It will still work, just not very well.

Oh the joys of starting into this!