Filework question

[Ryan J]

I'm almost done with my first custom knife project. It a cs true flight thrower that I have put a fair amount of work into to get the epoxy coating off and remove all of the factory machining marks off of, as well as square it up all the way around. I have it ground to the profile I want and ready for scales.

I've been looking around at spine filework and would really like to incorporate it into the knife. It is is of course heat treated. Not sure about tempering. It's listed as 56-58 rc hardness. My understanding is this is to hard for delicate filework.

I've read that I can anneal the spine by heating it with a torch and letting it air cool. So my question is what is the proper way to do this? How do I avoid ruining the temper of the entire blade? Will I lose performance with edge retention?

My budget is limited and sending it off for heat treat and temper isn't feasible right now. Thanks everyone.

 

[melsdad]

To properly do file work the blade should be fully annealed (pre-heat treat) You would risk ruining the whole heat treat by trying to anneal the spine enough to do any file work. Save the file work for your next knife. Start with a fully annealed blade.....Just tossin' my pennies in.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Melsdad is right....don't try and add filework on a mod of that existing knife. Start with a bar of steel and make one from scratch for your next project.....and filework that one.

 

[Ryan J]

Okay will do. Thanks guys.

 

[MMuhlhauser]

File work has to be done pre-heat treat.... if you want some help, I did some for the video camera which may be helpful to you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDi6Hp1QI9s
Good luck on the next knife. I love doing filework...

 

[LAHST Handmade knives]

That is some sweet looking fill work!

 

[MMuhlhauser]

Thanks

 

[Ryan J]

Thanks everyone for the advice and thank you MMuhlhaueser for the video. I'll definitely be saving it for future reference and it already got the gears turning on future ideas and improving my current project. First thing after-work (and honey do list if I want to work in peace) will be to make the grooves more rounded towards the blade. Man oh man to have access to the equipment in your shop. I had to have some custom work on the spine of the one I'm working on . Decided the best I could do was simple work with a dremel. Anyway, I think it's pretty good for a first attempt. I'm not quite done with it.

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