Finished My Third Knife

[legato1]

The theme of the art show its going in is reflection so i blued one side and polished the other. i guess i did the heat treat right, because after i did it i snapped the tip off in a vice to see the grain and it was awesomely perfect. i reground a new tip and then tempered it and did the concrete floor test from wayne goddards book and it survived.

 

[David Wesner]

Hi Stan For your 3rd knife its looking pretty good brother. I like the curves on this one. Keep up the good work :thumbup:

And Stan, after having made 3 blades you're no longer a "wanne be knifemaker". You're actually doing it now

 

[legato1]

Thanks, i cant get the mycarta thing right though, my layers always look bad... i think im going to try wood next time.

 

[silver_pilate]

Looks good. You're definately on the right track!

Sounds like the heat treat was right on. As such, you may want to do all finish grinding AFTER tempering in the future. It sounds from your post that you reground the tip prior to tempering. Before tempering, the steel is in a very high-stress state, thus the way you were able to snap off the tip. Even the energy inputed from grinding can cause small (or large) fractures to develop in the steel. There are makers who have blades snap just sitting on the table after a successful hardening before they are able to temper them. Always try to temper as soon as possible after hardening to prevent stress fractures, and then do your finish work. This one appears to have held up fine, but I'd hate to pour hours of work and energy into a blade to have it snap!

Keep it up!

--nathan

 

[legato1]

yeah, mine snapped at the tip because i wanted to see the grain, and also because at full length it didnt fit in my toaster oven. lol. i think it came out ok though. thanks guys