First two knives done

M

mdubs

Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Messages
11
After lurking around and reading some books I finally finished my first two knives, made in tandem, so that when I finished a step on the first, I wouldn't make the same mistakes on the 2nd.

Pretty simple working knives, both 4 1/4" handles and blades, 1/8" 1084 with cocobolo dymondwood handles, 1/8" brass pins and ss thong tubes.

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I've made a lot of parts for my motorcycle, but this was a whole new skill-set to develop. Made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of things. I'm a 3d modeler so it was nice to get out of the computer and into the tangible. It makes me sad that I won't have a workshop for at least 6 months as I'm moving from Philadelphia to Austin in 2 weeks and my first apartment is in a complex.

Anyway, thanks for looking. I really appreciate the resource this site provides.
 
Those are some very nice looking knives. You should be proud. I am currently working on my first knives now also. I can only hope they turn out as good as these. If you are willing to help out a fellow novice i would like to ask what size holes did you drill in the tang to fit the 1/8 brass pins. Also how did you sharpen them?
 
Very good work. Those will make 2 excellent knives to use for a lifetime!!
 
Thanks so much for the kind words everyone, it means a lot.

redd, for heat treat, I used an oxy/ace torch to heat, normalized x3, then did my hardening quenching in canola oil heated to 130, starting with the edge then submerging the rest, after about 10 seconds i moved it into room temp water until completely cool. I did this 3 times. I finished up tempering in an old toaster over with some extra thermometers in it at 395 for 2 hours x2. I got satisfactory results, but I think in the future until I get a forge or kiln, something more controlled, I'll send out. after putting so many hours in profiling, grinding, etc, I'd hate to screw it up on the more technical end when 25 bucks will get it perfect and without second guessing. It's nice to do it 100% yourself, but on something purely technical, without proper equipment I don't think it's a bad thing.

I have a ton of progress pictures and a lot of thoughts on http://www.mattw3d.tumblr.com I'm not sure if links are ok, sorry if not.
 
Otaku said:
Those are some very nice looking knives. You should be proud. I am currently working on my first knives now also. I can only hope they turn out as good as these. If you are willing to help out a fellow novice i would like to ask what size holes did you drill in the tang to fit the 1/8 brass pins. Also how did you sharpen them?
Click to expand...

I drilled 1/8" the brass seemed to be a hair bigger so it was a very tight fit, i had to ream a couple to get it to pass through without chipping the wood and all had to be hammered through. To sharpen I used the Lansky sharpener, the set with 4 stones and long rods. http://lansky.com/index.php/products/dlx-5-stone-system/ to be exact. Took a really long time since I probably left them a little thick before heat treat out of caution and didn't grind at all after.
 
I thought I'd throw some of my progress photos up, I took tons of photos along the way.

2nd Knife's design drawn out
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Scribed on Aldo's 1084 1/8" with jibbing center punched. I drilled that on the press before I profiled to make sure it was straight

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2nd Knife's rough profile
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Blanks done, primary bevels scribed
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Bevels Ground, cleaned up to 220 grit before heat treat
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First Knife's handle roughed
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Heat treat done, ready to polish
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Did the 2nd handle in a different order after having problems with pins lining up despite being drilled on a press and inserting the previous pins into the holes before the next. Not sure which way I liked better, both have pros and cons
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Rough sanded handle on 2nd knife
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And that about does it for the WIP images. After that it was sharpening and polishing and the final you see above. I hope I'm not spamming too many images.
 
Those are great first knives Mdub! keep up the work seems like you have a running start.
 
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