fence post/knife blade???

H

Hmathews

Joined
Feb 22, 2005
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I read a post a while back that stated you can't make a knife out of a fence post. Charlie thought I had too much time on my hands and too little supervision, but I thought I would give it a try and see what happened. After grinding out a blade, heat treating, a quick polish and etch to see what was going on, I might have enough steel here to make something out of this fence post.

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Hey Harry, That's a good looking blade! What are you calling a fence post? The steel "T" stakes? I used those things for years and never gave them a thought. I'll have to try sparking them.
 
Ohhh deaarrrrrrr God. :eek: Now when this gets finished and every newbie in the world is posting on the makers forum asking how to heat treat, temper and polish out their fence post knives YOU, yes YOU, Mr. Mathews is going to come and answer those posts :( ;)

That being said, really really cool grinds and I know you can make it work! :)

I was the one that made the comment about fence posts. It was along the lines of stuff I've heard at gun and knife shows about how people's pawpaws made the best knives in the world out of a broken file, a fence post and some spit for adhesive. The fence post was supposed to be WOOD!!!! sheesh :p
 
Yep it is a T-post. I thought this would be a good time to post this Will, after I read your last thread. :D I don't usually do this kind of stuff personally. Even when I am forging blades, I always like to know the steel and go by the book on the heat treatment of it. I saw a comment a few years ago where the T-posts are made of old railroad rails and that the railroad rails were made of 1084. I don't have a clue if that is true or not, but when I saw on the forum that a knife couldn't be made from a fence post(Will if you claim that statement, I'll let you have it.), I figured I would give it a try with one of the ones we had laying around. Dang if the stuff doesn't spark good. Heat treated it like 1084 and got a good hamon line and the edge was hard as glass. I couldn't wait to put a quick polish on it. All kinds of stuff showed up. You can see on the back of the blade a discoloration where each of the bumps were that position the wire and along the side you can see where the "grain" rises at each of the bumps. I'm doing the second draw now. I left some of the surface of the post on the side of the blade and part of one of the letters is still on the ricasso. I'm not sure how much of that I'll clean up. I saw a fighting knife a few years ago that had an unusual handle and have been wanting to make one similar. This will be a good blade to try it on and it will make a really different looking knife from what you normally see from us.

Sometimes you just have to do something that is fun even if it stirs the pot.
 
Harry, you and Charlie had better be careful. I can see a hint of CRex in that blade. You gotta watch Carl. He will have you using grandma's bed rails for blades and the slats for handles.:D

Can't wait to see the finished "Post".

Robert (who has been known to make them out of files, cultivator blades, sawmill blades, and even old knife blades)
 
I'm just poking fun at ya... you know what some of the threads in the makers area are like.... " I don't have the money to buy steel but have 2 old bed frames, can I make a knife out of a bedframe?"

I hope this is successful and can't wait to see the finished knife. There's still a part of me that's waiting for the onslaught of "t-post" questions. :p
 
Robert I'll bet you he has already made knives out of these things and can likely tell you what kind of steel it is. Of all the knives we have sold over the last 6 years, there are two that are out there that I don't know for sure what the steel is. One is made out of a tang from a landscaping rake and the other is from a file. This one, just might be the third one. Have to see how it turns out.
 
Yeah, Will I know, I read them too. I can't remember how many times I've told people that you can't buy good steel at Low's, but I might have been wrong. The next fence post someone tries will probably be made of scrap car bodies with the only carbon content coming from the charcoal briquette that was under the seat when it was squashed.
 
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