First Real Post!!! WIP..

SmithLevi

SmithLevi

Joined
Jun 13, 2015
Messages
195
Hey everyone! Other than posting in the exchange, this will be my first real post! ( if i have the wrong thread, please move me!)

Anyways, i have been a member here for a couple months as a "knife maker" and i owe alot of my knowledge to this thread (and youtube). As a fairly young "knife maker"(only 21) i still have a lot to learn and perfect, but i do feel like i am getting a hang of things. However, i am confident in my knives, even though they may not be the best looking and so forth...


So, i decided to take many pictures of my most recent build and share it! Comments and critiques are welcome!

First, i modified a "hunter" design of mine, and drew it up in Google Sketch UP. From there i printed it off and glued it to a piece of O1 tool steel.

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I then cut the rough shape out on the band saw. I have a cheap harbor freight portable bandsaw that i mounted in the up right position which works fairly well.

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From there i take a center punch and punch a hole onto the corresponding spots on my template. That way if the paper moves when i grind the blank to shape, i still have the location of where to drill the holes.

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I had forgetten tho take pictures of my heat treating process. For O1 tool steel, i heat my kiln up to 800c / 1500f~ and let is soak for a minute or two. I then rapidly quench the blade into preheated ATF oil. ( i know there are better quenching oils out there) Once cooled i temper the blade at ~425 for 2 2hour cycles, letting it air cool in between each cycle. According to manufactuing specs, if i did everything right, i acheive about 58-59 rockwell hardness which is what i aim for. I am happy with my results and feel like my blades hold an edge and are durable at the same time. I do want to have them professionally tested, but thats down the road.


I like to grind after heat treat, i was always dealing with warped blades. Before i start the bevels, i like to give my blades a textured look, to do so i use carbide deburrs.

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Next, i scribe a center line.

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I then begin to bring my bevels up after to where i want them with a 36 grit belt.

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Affer progressing through the belts, i stop at 400grit. Idealy, the next step would be to sand blast but i do not have one as of now.

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For the handles, i went with tan G10. I lay the blank out on the handle material and drill the corresponding holes.

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After i get the holes drilled. I trace the blade on the handle material and roughly cut the shape out on the band saw.

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Next comes grinding them to shape!
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From there, i scallop them on my drill press with a sanding drum

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I then counter sink for the handle hardware
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Next i etch my logo. I am sure there are a million ways to do this, but i use salt water as my etching solution. If you know any better ways let me know!


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Once i clean up the blade, i then dip it into a ferric chloride solution, diluted with water.

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I wasnt sure if i was gonna do a two-tone blade so i used a scotch brite to get off the coloring on the blade, I later decided to give it another dip in the acid.

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I next tumble my blade. I use the 18lb tumbler from harbor freight. I have mixed feelings for this thing. When i first got it, i could not get any thing to tumble how i wanted. So after playing around with it many times, i found that elevating one side of the tumbler allows all the media to bunch up on one side and it kind of starts a "water fall" (I can try to get a video if curious)

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When fitting the handles, they got stuck on the blade and i had to pry them off.. which resulted in me chipping part of the G10 handle. Not ideal and ticks me off, but it wont render the usage of the blade at all. I could have fixed this by grinding the blade down flush to the handle, but this happened after the acid stone wash and i did not want to re do it.
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After i fit the handle, i basically have the finsihed blade (minus sharpening)
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(My sheath will be very similar to this one)

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Here is the blade for sale in the exchange

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1353803-F2

Thats all i have for now!

Thanks for looking!
 
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Nice first post outside the exchange!

Your Knives are solid, and the two that I have get plenty of carry time in my fixed blade rotation.
 
I really like the design! It looks good and solid :thumbup:
 
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SmithLevi said:
if i did everything right, i acheive about 58-59 rockwell hardness which is what i aim for. I am happy with my results and feel like my blades hold an edge and are durable at the same time. I do want to have them professionally tested, but thats down the road.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty damn good for being new to the game:thumbup: I really like the overall idea of what you aimed for in that knife. I think in time, you will be putting out some amazing stuff!

I hope you are open to some constructive criticism, this is a forum with some serious collectors after all;)

Personally, my biggest criticism is that you aren't 100% certain about the hardness/performance of your blades. As a customer, I wouldn't want to rely on "If I did everything right...", which is why I quoted what's above. I would want to have confidence that the maker knows the process well, and the maker is confident enough himself in his product. That's a big downside IMO, and getting them tested "down the road" doesn't seem like much of a promise. I think getting them tested should be one of your highest priorities.

I believe in form following function, and while you have talent in making a nice design, I think you need to put a little more effort into the blades performance and knowing exactly how it will perform rather than hoping/guessing.

The second thing is the texturing on the flats. I feel that it takes away from what would otherwise be a great design. The drawing in your first picture is a great vision, and you should stick with that same vision throughout the build. The texturing is a bit distracting and doesn't let your talent shine through; it deters away from showing off your primary bevel and plunge lines. Some people prefer this "jagged" look, but some people don't; it would be a good thing to be able to perform both skills.

Overall, I like what you're doing and you have some massive talent for being so new! I think you are off to a good start and I really would like to see how your work progresses over time. You are definitely on the right forum for any guidance or inspiration.

Keep up the great work,
Ty
 
Blues Bender said:
Looks pretty damn good for being new to the game:thumbup: I really like the overall idea of what you aimed for in that knife. I think in time, you will be putting out some amazing stuff!

I hope you are open to some constructive criticism, this is a forum with some serious collectors after all;)

Personally, my biggest criticism is that you aren't 100% certain about the hardness/performance of your blades. As a customer, I wouldn't want to rely on "If I did everything right...", which is why I quoted what's above. I would want to have confidence that the maker knows the process well, and the maker is confident enough himself in his product. That's a big downside IMO, and getting them tested "down the road" doesn't seem like much of a promise. I think getting them tested should be one of your highest priorities.

I believe in form following function, and while you have talent in making a nice design, I think you need to put a little more effort into the blades performance and knowing exactly how it will perform rather than hoping/guessing.

The second thing is the texturing on the flats. I feel that it takes away from what would otherwise be a great design. The drawing in your first picture is a great vision, and you should stick with that same vision throughout the build. The texturing is a bit distracting and doesn't let your talent shine through; it deters away from showing off your primary bevel and plunge lines. Some people prefer this "jagged" look, but some people don't; it would be a good thing to be able to perform both skills.

Overall, I like what you're doing and you have some massive talent for being so new! I think you are off to a good start and I really would like to see how your work progresses over time. You are definitely on the right forum for any guidance or inspiration.

Keep up the great work,
Ty
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Hey thanks for the response! So i have been tinkering with knife making for a while now, and have recently only began selling my work. When i first started, i used 1095 high carbon steel, for me it was a pain to work with. For some reason, i could not get the heat treat correct. I probably have 20 hours of just research on different heat treating techniques and formulas for 1095. And probably double that time in experimenting with all of the different temperatures i have found. Still i was getting a bad heat treat on my 1095 blades, (they were much too soft) So i am thinking that i was just getting a bad batch of 1095.

From there i moved on to 01 tool steel which i heard was a fairly easy to heat treat. From there, i was getting better results, but not what i wanted. I would heat the blade to required temps then do the quench. I was doing a tip first quench into a 3 ''pipe with heated oil, and after probably a dozen knives or so i realized only the first 4 inches or so of the tip of the blade was being hardened. I totally agree with you on function before beauty. So again, i put countless hours into research on different heat treating ingredients. Please note that all of this trial and error happened before i sold my "first" knife. Since then i have moved onto a digitally controlled kiln, which allows me to hold the required temperature precisely. I now quench my blades into a horizontal quench tank with the edge of the blade first. This allows for the edge to be hardened first/before the rest of the blade. This tank is a lot larger than my old pipe i would use, which allows for a more rapid cooling of the blade. After i take the blade out once it has cooled and do a little file check on the entire blade, i am happy and confident on the hardness. O1 steel is a fairly easy steel to heat treat at home and is not too picky with temperatures. ( i just tend to make everything difficult haha)

With all this being said, i am 100% confident on my heat treating abilities for this steel. I have abused many test blades and found out my favorite temperatures and cycles and i am happy with the results. I made sure to get this process right before i began to post my knives for sale.

I just have not gotten them tested for their hardness scientifically. I may be completely wrong, but i think most makers who do their own heat treat do not have them tested either/or very frequently. But after using and abusing some of my knives i am confident i have the hardness that i want to achieve which is 58-59 for this steel.

However, I am not confident on heat treating any stainless steels and "super steels", which is why i have not tried them out. I do plan to work with them, but will have them sent off to be professionally done.

As far as the jagged look, its something that i havent really seen and wanted to try out. I dont think i will do it on every blade but i do like the look alot. I know everyone wont but thats why love knife making because you can make what ever you want! haha

Sorry for any confusion and i really do enjoy the critiques!I hope this little back story helps out!

Thanks again!

Levi
 
great design! you seem very talented. the hammered look on the flats does not appeal to me, but to some it may. experiment with your finishes
 
Levi,

Thanks for the backstory. It's great to hear you did a bit of trial and error before making your work public. I've seen (all too often) some guy make his first knife, and he's so excited about it he considers himself a true knife maker after only one knife. Better yet, he will sell the only knife he's made without even testing it out himself:eek:

Someday, I plan on making knives myself. Right now, I'm too involved in collecting and don't have enough space for the equipment. However, it will happen. Who knows, maybe I'll be in your seat and you'll be critiquing my work:p;)

Ty
 
Blues Bender said:
Levi,

Thanks for the backstory. It's great to hear you did a bit of trial and error before making your work public. I've seen (all too often) some guy make his first knife, and he's so excited about it he considers himself a true knife maker after only one knife. Better yet, he will sell the only knife he's made without even testing it out himself:eek:

Someday, I plan on making knives myself. Right now, I'm too involved in collecting and don't have enough space for the equipment. However, it will happen. Who knows, maybe I'll be in your seat and you'll be critiquing my work:p;)

Ty
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I completely know what you mean. I am guilty of that my self. I made one a for a friend a while back.. and lets just say he got a two for one deal! ;)
 
Awesome pics! I am not much of a fixed blade fan, but I like what I see.
Keep up the good work!
 
I have a small tropical farm in Guam. Use fixed blade knives and machetes off and on all day. I've bought four of Levi's knives. I think Levi has a bright future. My impression of his 'Field Knife': 01 is quick and easy to sharpen with a small diamond pruner sharpener. Quite comfortable for larger hands. Well balanced. Takes a good beating. For my uses, can't differentiate 5160, 01, 52100 in comparable (size and configuration) knives I own so the relative value is exceptional. Not paying for anything but substance. No premium for popularity or beauty. It's a user that came together for me so I thought I would comment. So there it is. If you use your knives, buy one. $125 won't leave you with regrets.
 
Pretty cool looking knifewhen it's all done and it's interesting to see what steps are taken to get the final product. I wouldn't have thought to use a carbide bit to give it a forged type of look to the blade. What was the final weight and how is the balance?

I am a little curious about your tumbler, we've got the same one to try and finish a few parts. After nearly 2 hours of listening to that thing it didn't do much for us when configured how the manual specifies. I would be interested to see how it works at that angle.
 
Awesome post! I really enjoy riding along with you through the process. Additionally, your competent writing style made it quite effortless. I like the textured look you gave your knife. I look forward to seeing some more posts like this one. I will also be following your future work, and looking forward to seeing your work on the Exchange forum. Also, I think a peek at your sheath making proses would makes a nice subject for a future post, imho.
 
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