Filet knife questions

BryanNomad

BryanNomad

Joined
Mar 25, 2013
Messages
416
I'm sure a lot has been covered before, but I've been reading a lot of different opinions, just wanted help on my specific project.

I'm making a very large filet knife (17" blade!) for my brother cut out of 5/32" 154CM. I'm going to be sending it to to Peters for heat treat, but wondering if I should do any of the grinding before hand, or wait until after heat?

Thanks for any help or opinions!
 
Yes definitely! Knives came back very clean and straight from Peters when I did my CPM 154 set. My edges were down to about .015" when I sent them and they required very little work to finish them up when I got them back.
 
Obviously 2 different ways to do it, which you decide to use is up to you. With Peters you could easily do 90+% of the grinding pre-HT.

When I'm making a very thin, narrow blade like a fillet, I've found it extremely useful to cut out the shape of the blade in either wood or something else stiff, then clamp the blade to it while grinding... otherwise the flex will make grinding frustrating, and if the blade is not hardened it will keep it from being bent accidentally.
 
I just finished my second long filet knife out of 5160 about a month ago I did the ht my self and tried both ways about 2x each and found that something that thin was hard no to get warps and twist, but both ways were about equal on how much they did so from my experience the least you have to grind after HT the better but make sure to leave enough meat on the blade that you can clean up any Imperfections. also having something solid you can use to support the blade while grinding is a good idea, to keep it from flexing while grinding
 
GHEzell said:
Obviously 2 different ways to do it, which you decide to use is up to you. With Peters you could easily do 90+% of the grinding pre-HT.

When I'm making a very thin, narrow blade like a fillet, I've found it extremely useful to cut out the shape of the blade in either wood or something else stiff, then clamp the blade to it while grinding... otherwise the flex will make grinding frustrating, and if the blade is not hardened it will keep it from being bent accidentally.
Click to expand...

Spot on GHE. I have found that a paint stirring stick is great for my applications. The price is right too....free!
 
Use a piece of 1/2" to 3/4" wood. Cut out the exact blade profile and drill the tang holes through the wood. Use bolts and wing nuts to attach the blade to the wooden duplicate. This will give you a strong gripping surface and a firm backing for grinding and buffing the blade. I sand the profile so the wood exactly matches the blade.

When making a duplicate knife later on, you can use the wood as your template for marking the steel in cutting the profile, and for grinding the profile to exact shape. My buddy has several 5 gallon buckets of these knife backers.
 
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