- Joined
- Apr 14, 2011
- Messages
- 168
Hi, all! While I'm finishing up drawing out my first blade design, I decided it would be wise to practice some flat grinding before I dig into something I mean to someday use.
I believe I mentioned this in another post, but I have an old, rusted Ka-Bar which I had badly damaged on a camping trip a few years back. In my frustration at the time, I tossed the blade into the campfire and inadvertently annealed it. Thinking that someday I might attempt to resurrect it, I removed it the following morning and stowed it away. It is that piece of metal which I'm practicing grinding on, since I don't see it ever being reincarnated back into an actual knife.
So, I threw a 50 grit belt on my 2x42 and went to it. Mind you, not very scientifically. There was no scribing a center line, exact measurements, etc... just me, my push stick, and some serious desire to figure out the process by trying.
I had a couple of screw ups along the way... burned the tip rather badly, which I cleaned up well enough on subsequent passes. And, as you'll see in the photos, there are definitely some spots (where the ricasso used to be) where I mis-ground or made a small divot (for lack of a better term in present vocabulary).
Aside from those issues and my disregard for the ricasso (since it doesn't matter on this one), I feel ok about how I did. I sharpie tested and the entire surface is flat. I also managed to create a distal taper where previously there was none (Ka-Bar USMC doesn't have one, if memory serves). The spine tapers from 1/8" at the ricasso to 1/64" at the very very tip. At the edge, it's a consistent 1/32" all the way along. (Bear in mind that this wasn't a blank, it had a decent edge on it when I started, which I blunted off).
Here are the pictures... I can take criticism, so fire away. This is, after all, my first attempt at grinding anything with any clear intent.
This is the spine, showing the taper. I deburred it a bit.
Here is the surface... you'll see what I meant about a divot near the ricasso. Also, there is an area near the edge where I had begun playing with filing in a choil (proper term...?)
And then here is a shot where you can see a bit of everything. Take my word that the other side is almost perfectly identical. I didn't think to take another picture.
Forgive my being so verbose. I'm just very excited to finally be making some forward movement toward making my own knife, even if this is just practice grinding. And I hope it doesn't seem like I'm fishing for a compliment... quite the opposite. If this is terrible, let me have it. Constructive criticism is very, very welcome -- much appreciated, in fact!
Thanks for looking and taking the time to wade though my novel!
I believe I mentioned this in another post, but I have an old, rusted Ka-Bar which I had badly damaged on a camping trip a few years back. In my frustration at the time, I tossed the blade into the campfire and inadvertently annealed it. Thinking that someday I might attempt to resurrect it, I removed it the following morning and stowed it away. It is that piece of metal which I'm practicing grinding on, since I don't see it ever being reincarnated back into an actual knife.
So, I threw a 50 grit belt on my 2x42 and went to it. Mind you, not very scientifically. There was no scribing a center line, exact measurements, etc... just me, my push stick, and some serious desire to figure out the process by trying.
I had a couple of screw ups along the way... burned the tip rather badly, which I cleaned up well enough on subsequent passes. And, as you'll see in the photos, there are definitely some spots (where the ricasso used to be) where I mis-ground or made a small divot (for lack of a better term in present vocabulary).
Aside from those issues and my disregard for the ricasso (since it doesn't matter on this one), I feel ok about how I did. I sharpie tested and the entire surface is flat. I also managed to create a distal taper where previously there was none (Ka-Bar USMC doesn't have one, if memory serves). The spine tapers from 1/8" at the ricasso to 1/64" at the very very tip. At the edge, it's a consistent 1/32" all the way along. (Bear in mind that this wasn't a blank, it had a decent edge on it when I started, which I blunted off).
Here are the pictures... I can take criticism, so fire away. This is, after all, my first attempt at grinding anything with any clear intent.
This is the spine, showing the taper. I deburred it a bit.
Here is the surface... you'll see what I meant about a divot near the ricasso. Also, there is an area near the edge where I had begun playing with filing in a choil (proper term...?)
And then here is a shot where you can see a bit of everything. Take my word that the other side is almost perfectly identical. I didn't think to take another picture.
Forgive my being so verbose. I'm just very excited to finally be making some forward movement toward making my own knife, even if this is just practice grinding. And I hope it doesn't seem like I'm fishing for a compliment... quite the opposite. If this is terrible, let me have it. Constructive criticism is very, very welcome -- much appreciated, in fact!
Thanks for looking and taking the time to wade though my novel!
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