Filing bevels

Maqua

Maqua

Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
2,396
Greetings! I was curious about filing bevels in by hand. What I intend to do is clamp the blade blank onto a similar sized piece of wood and then clamp the wood into a vice. I'm stumped from this point on. I plan to have the profile lines and centerline scribed in and plan to use a double cut bastard at first and then moving to a mill bastard when I approach the centerline.

When filing do I file down the length of the blade in succesive passes, or just file down an area section by section? Any tips y'all could lend a newbie are much appreciated.

Also, Wayne Goddard wrote about Norton SC/India oil benchstones in his books and I am considering using these as well. At what point would I use these? After the heat treating and tempering for the final profiling? How close to finished should a blade be before it goes off to the heat treat folks?
 
I file the whole thing as I go to get a good shape overall. Then I draw file for a better finish and to thin out my convex bevels a bit. Been doing it this way for 6 years or so and each one gets a little easier and a little better, but I'd kill for a KMG!
 
Thanks! I picked up 2 pieces of steel from Crucible yesterday (154CM and S30V) and went home to the hacksaw and files. I started with the 154CM at 6pm and quit at 10pm and had the handle roughed out. The steel is 1/4 inch thick X 2 X 12. It was slow going, but still kinda cool to see the thing develop. Good exercise, too.

A KMG grinder is definitely in my future purchase plans, as I am hooked on this new hobby. :D
 
Maquahuitl

I have made two so far using files and sandpaper. When I profiled the blanks of the first one, I drilled the holes for the pins. I then used bolts and nuts to hold a stack of blanks together so that I could profile 4 at once. I also left a small piece of scrap at the tip, on the spine side. I put a nut and bolt through a hole in the scrap area at the tip. I found it easier to make the edges flat and at right angles to the sides when I had a thick stack of blanks than if I was working on only one.

When filing the bevels, I screwed the blank to a piece of 2 X 4 using the holes in the handle and the one at the tip. The one at the tip prevents the tip of the blank from catching on something like your arm. Use screws with low-profile heads. I mounted the blank away from the edge of the 2 X 4 so that it would not get damaged so easily. I did the filing over many lunch-hours at work. Draw around the blank and remove the blank. Take a coarse file and file away some of the 2 X 4 so that your file will not hit it when filing on the blank. Re-install the blank and put the whole thing in a vice. First, work on one side, then remount the blank the other side up. The sanding can also be done with the blank mounted on the 2 X 4. Before heat treating, cut off the bit of scrap at the tip and finish the remaining bit of the spine.

Draw filing works the best, as Steve indicated. Look up a metal working book in a local library for pictures of how it is done. It is a good way to keep your flat grinds fairly flat. Draw all over the surface that you are filing or sanding with a permanent ink marker pen. It will make all the low spots and scratches show up. Get a file card and clean out your files after a number of strokes. If the file starts loading up with filings, you will get really deep and wide scratches even if you are using a fine file. Rubbing chalk on the file every so often helps prevent the filings from sticking to the file and causing scratches.

These are mostly ideas and tips that I have picked up from others posting on this forum. Good luck. Post some pictures of the finished piece.

Phil
 
As I'm filing the bevels down using a 12" Machinist's file, I notice that the bevel is somewhat convex. I'm getting pretty close to the centerline of the blank, and the bevel is about 1' wide now. Should I make the bevel wider? And how do I flatten that sucker out? By draw filing?

This is my first knife and I'm finding that draw filing seems to work the best for the bevels. Been a pretty good workout up till now. I hope the heat treat doesn't kill my creation!
 
Getting the bevels in with a file is pretty easy. It's getting them thin enough to cut that sucks! I use 1/8" steel and it takes FOREVER. Even if you think they're right, keep filing! I've made dozens of knives this way and I've never gotten my bevels too thin! What I like to do these days is do as much of the filing normally, which will give you a fairly convex edge depending on how good you are. From there I will draw file to thin them out more and take out some of the convexity.
 
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