First attempt at a file knife.

F

Feoh

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Nov 11, 2015
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22
This probably seems ridiculous to a lot of you, considering the works of art I've seen posted on this forum, but I thought I'd share anyway. I decided to dip my toes into knife making by making a file knife with hand tools (I know, I know... But I had an small, old, tool-steel file that was rusted out and clapped out, so I thought it was worth having a go at it rather than forking out a crazy amount of freight for a cheap bit of 1084 or something and then finding I hated the process. I live in Tasmania, so--from my basic research so far--good knife-making steel isn't cheap or easy to source). I annealed it okay, although it warped a bit in the process and needed straightening (picked up a few tips since that might have avoided that). Then I started cutting and filing.

Jesus wept.

If time and energy were money, the number of hours and amount of effort I've put into this so far would let me launch a take-over bid on Jay Fisher. Most of the shape's been filed without even clamping it, as I've been really busy with annoying life things, and found it easier to make the time if I could just randomly pick it up and have a bash. On the other hand, it's extraordinarily satisfying to see this thing slowly take shape under my hands, and to problem-solve difficulties like not even having a vice (or 'vise', as I believe they call it in one of the other colonies). I'm only part-way through this first fumbling effort, and I think I'm hooked. Especially after looking at what some of the members of this forum have achieved in terms of blending functionality and beauty! Where I'm at so far is neither functional nor beautiful, but hopefully it'll wind up being at least one of the two, or at least help me get pointed in the right direction. Once I've got the blade done and backyard heat-treated and tempered, I'll make a mortised and single-pinned handle out of whatever local hardwood I can find scraps of (probably tassie blackwood, as I know I couple of people who use it and might have some nice, dry bits floating around).

Sorry for rambling on, but I figured I might find some kindred spirits who've been on similar journeys here.

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That's groovy! I know, too easy. Anyway, I like the shape you've got going there. Making knives is a TON of work. But it is rewarding. With the time I've spent learning about knives I could've learned another language by now, and I'm just getting started. With the money I've spent I could've bought all the custom knives I wanted from other makers I admire. It is an addiction. Keep us posted with your progress.
 
I agree it's an enjoyable hobby. I got into it because I wanted to quick bang out some filet knives for yearly fishing trip I do. I could have bought a whole bunch of filet knives for what I got going on on my shop now!
 
+1

Try and remove more material from the bevel.
If you have a steady work surface and clamps you can do it without a vice
 
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. It's been slow going trying to find the time to do this by hand (juggling kids, work, my wife's master's degree and the fact that my hands still don't work all that well after picking up Chikungunya fever in Java a couple of years ago), but she's getting there. This pic was from a couple of days ago. Tonight I did a backyard heat treat that I think went okay for the first time. No warping or buckling on the edge, anyway, despite taking it down to what I suspect was too thin while I was getting my bevels vaguely sorted. Currently tempering in the oven, which makes my wife glad that I quenched with canola oil :-)

Learnt a bunch of lessons along the way (as does everyone, I guess). For the next one, I'm ordering some 1084 from Gameco (Aussie supplier), building a 'Gough'-style filing jig, and either making a more efficient/ergonomic backyard forge for the heat treat or just sending it out (if I can find somewhere economical to do that in or from Tassie).

Anyway, hope this photo thing works. I just spent 45 minutes I didn't really have spare trying to upload it to various sharing sites with no joy (photobucket, picasso, etc). This one's from Google Photos, which I didn't know existed, but seems to already have a random collection of my photos! What do you guys use?

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Edit: looks that that didn't work. This is really frustrating. I'm usually the one that finds out the answers to all the IT problems at work, and I can't post a simple image to a forum! Tinypics gives me an error message, Photobucket says I've uploaded but there's no image there, and Picasa has the image but won't give a URL for posting. Found some advice from 2013 from this forum re Flickr, but that needs a Yahoo account, and I'm not feeling retro enough to sign up for one just to post a photo. Tried Imgur, too. It also gives delightfully non-specific error messages. Will keep hunting. Stay posted for what I'm sure will turn out to be a very average pic of a very average WIP ;-)

Edit edit: Might have nailed it now. Imgur has decided to like the image:
X41MW


Edit edit edit: Nope. I give up for tonight.

Edit[SUP]4[/SUP]: One last try: http://imgur.com/a/X41MW

Edit[SUP]5[/SUP]: Bollocks.
 
Last edited:
Here is your imgur picture:

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Hey, that looks almost exactly like one I'm working on right now! Mine is a full flat grind though, without a sharpening notch.

Yours looks good though. The grind looks nice and straight.
 
One thing to note, the 90° angles where the ricasso turn to the tang are not good. The sharp angles there can cause stress risers and can be a point of catastrophic failure under usage. Just take a chainsaw file, or a diamond file and round out those tight inside corners and you are good to go.

That being said, it is a nice looking piece. Congrats!
 
S.Alexander: Thanks for that. No idea what I was doing wrong, besides its being late, and me being on the wrong side of the bottle...Also checked out your blog--some lovely knives, there!

NJBillK: Thanks. I was using a video by Walter Sorrels for most of my tips, and I'd already filed them at 90 degrees before I read something similar to your advice above. I got impatient, though, and tried to compensate by not letting the handle area heat up too much in heat treat, and only quenched to just past the plunge lines. Chalk it up as one of the many, many lessons I've already learnt by doing things wrong the first time!
 
What do you have in mind for the guard on your knife?

Here's my file knife with the guard being epoxied on. It's curing right now.

IMG_20151129_132125_zpszhw0juo6.jpg
 
Those are nice looking. It is a hard task to do it by hand since it is very slow. You might call around and go visit a local welding shop with the blade in hand. Explain what you are trying to do and then ask them if they have any ideas. Sometimes places like that like the challenge and the variety instead of banging out 100 mindless, no creativity allowed, fabrication jobs. If not, they may know of some heat treating places that might take on an odd job for fun.
 
S.Alexander said:
What do you have in mind for the guard on your knife?

Here's my file knife with the guard being epoxied on. It's curing right now.
Click to expand...

That looks great! I wasn't originally planning to have a guard, just a wooden handle (Tassie Blackwood) that's flush with the shoulders at the front. Having second thoughts now...I've been trying to do this project with nothing but salvage from the local tip shop, so I don't want to buy brass or steel bar stock at this point (although I definitely will be for the next project). I've got a little chunk of 1/4 inch thick copper bar that I might be able to turn into something that looks good. Not sure whether it would clash with the brass pin stock I found for the handle pins or make an interesting contrast.

Looks like you're a couple of steps ahead of me on this one, and about a thousand steps ahead overall from the look of the knives on your blog :-)
 
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