Fileworking

[BaliLover]

I recently read an article on how to add filework to the spine of a blade. Being the "do'er" that I am I just had to try it. I dug out an old triangle file and a small round "chainsaw" file that were laying in a toolbox and headed off to some of my junk knives to practice. About 2 hours later I had about 6 junk knives with filework on the spine.

Feeling confident I grabbed my 42 that I had already rounded the edges of the spine on and went to work. I quickly discovered that the blade on the 42 is about 3 times as hard to file as my junk knives, and after having already done 6 knives, my files were less than sharp. I was working on a vine pattern but now I have to wait until I can get some new sharp files, mine are too dull to do any detail work.

Why is it that I can't help but attempt to modify my 42? It was great from the factory but I'm always trying to find some new thing to do to it. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[BalisongMan]

Then I guess you don't want to hear about how to annodize your 42's handles with a propane torch (thermal oxidation).

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Cameron

"And shepards we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command, so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be, En Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti"
A few of my balisongs
My Photopoint album

 

[Gollnick]

Maybe this will give you a little inspiration:

The filework is by noted artist Frank Recupero. Every edge is fileworked except the cutting edge, of course.

My profound thanks to Vance at Benchmade who reassembled this knife. (Hint: do not ever disassemble a Benchmade 45. There is only one person in the world who can reassemble it and his time is precious.)

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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com

[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 03-27-2001).]

 

[GuyInBlack]

Good luck with you BM-42. I for one would sure like to see pictures of what you achieve!

Gollnick, thats one crazy looking knife!

Tell me though, is it comfortable to hold and manipulate? Not I'm sure, that you'd want to subject it to the rigors of manipulation for very long...

 

[BaliLover]

Well, I don't like the way the thermal oxidation looks so I wouldn't do that. I only fileworked the spine of the blade up to the flase edge but from the side it look similar to the inside handles of that 45's.

If, once my new files arrive, and I finish it and am satisfied, I will see what I can do to get some pictures of it. But I am fairly picky and if one thing bothers me about it I'll go nuts trying to fix it.

 

[Gollnick]

Actually, that piece is quite comfortable to handle and manipulate. There are no "rough edges". The roughness of some of the edges slows some things down and changes others, but it doesn't tear your hands up or anyting. Sometimes filework on the handles can do that if the filework essentially turns the handles into files themselves.


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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com

 

[BalisongMan]

What??? The tang pin doesn't have any filework on it? What's the deal here!?!?

I'm glad now I have a bigger, better picture of that bali, I have a smaller one but it's hard to see. Thanks Chuck!

I lost my interest in my thermally oxidized 42 so I sanded it off, it is now a darker gray.

------------------
Cameron

"And shepards we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command, so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be, En Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti"
A few of my balisongs
My Photopoint album

 

[GuyInBlack]

I must admit, after reading this thread I think I'm going to take some files to some of my junk knives..... see what you've started now?

Chuck (if I can call you that?), thanks for the response. Yes, I can imagine you would need to be a little careful fileworking the handle, I'd guess grabbing a roughly filed handle would be similar to grabbing a serrated handle.... ouch!

 

[Samurai6]

How the heck do you file work a hardened blade? It's a big enough pain in the ars on Titanium.

 

[GuyInBlack]

Ok,well as I've totally no shame, heres some pictures of my 1st ever attempts at doing filework, which I've just finished. Before you start taking mocking me too much, remember this was my 1st go, and I've never read anything about it either.

Thanks to BaliLover & Gollnick for insipiring me to even attempt this, in other words blame them. It took ages, and I think I've ruined my files but what the heck!

This is also my first attempt at posting pictures here, so I hope it works!

This picture was actually the filework I did.

I then progressed on to this, which I'm actually quite happy with all things considered.

 

[Darth Detori]

yeah Chuck, it's amazing what some people can do with files. especially the jpeg kinds

and is there a tutorial anywhere online detailing how to do file work?

 

[Samurai6]

It just amounts to measuring out the spacing and marking the blade, buying a few appropriately shaped files, and practicing on some soft material.

The hardest part is keeping all the cuts the same depth and width, and keeping rope patterns parallel.

It's a lot of work, but the rewards of a job well done are great.

 

[BaliLover]

http://www.customknifedirectory.com/CKD_TutorialFrameset.htm

This is where I got my inforation from. Pretty nice tutorials on other knive types too.

 

[KentDog]

Guyinblack - that's awesome!! And that's your first attempt?! Man, your pics make me want to take a file to a couple of my knives.

Balilover, thanks for sharing the link with us. I noticed that there were a couple of articles borrowed from Bruce Evans, who is a custom knife maker that frequently posts on the Shop Talk forum. I just want to say that Bruce is a great guy who is always willing to help others out with projects and has his own website with his tutorials on it: http://bladesmithing.isfun.net

 

[GuyInBlack]

KentDog thanks and yep that's really my first attempt, and I genuinely haven't even read a tutorial on it - in fact I've never even seen a fileworked knife in real life! All I did was mark some lines at intervals on the spine using a pencil, then set about it with a file. In fairness what I've done is fairly simple, but that was my first go and it is really quite satisfying to do anyway.

Seriously dude(s), if you're interested in filework, then grab a junk knife and a couple of small files and give it a go - I did, and I'm really pleased with the result. So much so that today I'm going to try and get some better files, and I might even have a go at a "not so" junk knife.

Incidentaly I only used 2 files, a round (needle?) file, and a slightly larger semi-round(?) file. I'm not even sure what the types of files are called.

Thanks again to BaliLover for starting all this, and to Gollnick for fueling the fire!

 

[Random]

Hey Chuck,
That image makes a great wallpaper. You might want to add it to your site.

------------------
Doubt is an uncomfortable condition,
but certainty is a ridiculous one.

 

[BalisongMan]

GuyinBlack: that file work looks really good, have you tried any on the latch or handles (like Gollnick's)?

------------------
Cameron

"And shepards we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command, so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be, En Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti"
A few of my balisongs
My Photopoint album

 

[GuyInBlack]

I haven't tried doing a handle or a latch yet, but I may give it a go today... just for fun.

 

[GuyInBlack]

Ok, well especially for BalisongMan heres some pictures of my attempts at fileworking a handle. A couple of relatively important points first. Thats is only my practice bali so the handles & latch are pretty beat up anyway. Secondly, as this was just an experiment I didn't even mark it out like I did with the spine of that blade I did earlier - I really wish I had now though.
Thirdly (is there such a word?) I didn't take the knife apart which would've made it all a lot easier, like I said this was mostly a quickly done experiment. Finally I've only done about 1.5" of the safe handle, and most of the latch, and I've not even totally finished those parts yet, I just thought this might help encourage you lot to have a go yourselves!

If anyone is interested I'll probably try and do the whole knife in the same style, or I might try and get a couple more skeleton handled jags and mess about with them too. Either way I'm quite enjoying all this filing... although my right arm is starting to feel like I'm 15 again. (think about it!)

This shows the handle, I've done both sides, but as you can see I've only done the bottom quarter-ish.

I'm actually quite happy with how the latch turned out.

A quick note to Mr Gollnick, I actually quite like the way the handle feels with the filework on, not that I'm in any way trying to compare my attempts at filework with the fine job done on your knife.

 

[BalisongMan]

Thanks for the pics, they look really great!! I'm tempted to try it on one of my cheapies but all of the handles are pretty much molded sh!t, they've been through some pretty crazy stuff. I guess I could start on the spine and tang area.

I look forward to see what design of filework you'll do next.

------------------
Cameron

"And shepards we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command, so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be, En Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti"
A few of my balisongs
My Photopoint album