Fredy's mischief

[FredyCro]

And the first non knife related project. Hope it's OK if I share it here.

 

[FredyCro]

Cleaver project is moving forward. Still some shaping to be done on the spine. I will flatten the bump towards the end and do some large jimping for smacking bones or lobster/crab. The handle will have 8-10mm stainless steel pins and long endbolsters to counterweight the blade somewhat. I am going to convex the edge after the HT and sharpen 20-25 dps. What do you think?

The steel is 3.5mm 75cr1. Larins article on toughness was just in time. If the blade won't be differently HT or tempered, what hardness would you go for? Seems there is no need to aggressively temper down and that 58-60 HRC would work fine?

And some more wood pics

https://imgur.com/a/oZNcRMy

 

[Randydb]

Very cool work you have going on here. That piece of wood for your non knife work is beautiful. Is that dark part a void or is it just darker wood?

 

[FredyCro]

Very cool work you have going on here. That piece of wood for your non knife work is beautiful. Is that dark part a void or is it just darker wood?

Thanks. The really dark part apart from the heartwood is partionally filled with black epoxy. It is walnut wood.

Guys, any ideas regarding tempering the cleaver? If I put 75cr1 in same range with other steels with similar C content Larin tested, even 60 HRC would seem fine?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I would use large Corby bolts, not pins on the handle.

 

[FredyCro]

I would use large Corby bolts, not pins on the handle.

Thanks. I was planing on using epoxy and peening the pins slightly and using stabilised wood. Haven't had any problems with that until now (limited experience though). I was also hoping to add more mass to the handle by using full pins.

Any opinions on the hardness? I could also temper down the spine towards the handle with a hand held torch after the blade comes back from HT if it is necessary. I also found a nice thread where you explain how to grind a cleaver, but I can't use the same angles due to the thickness. It will be a medium weight cleaver (target weight ca 700g) and should be able to do small lamb and pork bones and fish/lobster stuff. It is for a chef friend of mine that works in a fish restaurant that occasionally doed whole roasted or quartered oven baked lamb. It will not be used for chopping beef bones.

 

[FredyCro]

I will do slightly oversized holes on scales and put some grooves in the pin material with a dremmel so the epoxy has more to grip to.

 

[FredyCro]

Some jig and some freehand grinding. Should I get out the scratches on the flats before heat treat? I was thinking on going up to 120 on bevels and same on the flats with a disc grinder.

New SGA (notice the irony?)

And wood madness continues, here some disease in cherry and a burly looking piece of black walnut.

I also bought another piece of burly walnut that I used for the cutting board (this time for scales) and a big chunk of willow burl.

 

[John mc c]

I would second Stacy's suggestion about Colby bolts
Pins might hold scales on,might not
Bolts will
Of course if knife is just for you it matters less

 

[FredyCro]

Getting there, first batch almost ready for HT, Abl, 1.4304, 75cr1 and 440b.

 

[Hengelo_77]

Finnish them higher then 120. Go 400/600.
Beautiful wood

 

[FredyCro]

Finnish them higher then 120. Go 400/600.
Beautiful wood

I read up on this, and there is a lot of differing opinions. I still have a lot of meat on all the blades to remove, so I thought that 120 is enough? I will anyway go back to 40/60 after HT? I understand the higher grit finish approach before HT makes sense if you basically finish your bevels pre HT and just do clean up after?

On the EDC is am going to grind post HT because the blades are small. Everything else is about half way I would say.

 

[Natlek]

Getting there, first batch almost ready for HT, Abl, 1.4304, 75cr1 and 440b.

So FredyCro , why this holes are there ?

 

[FredyCro]

I realized I went too close on the cleaver. Also the handle kept getting smaller while grinding. hopefully it will hold up, 75cr1 should be quite tough, but obviously it is an unnecessary stress riser.
Maybe even on the EDCs, but I am not so worried about them since they won't be used for smacking.

 

[Natlek]

Never drill hole in front of first pin ..............

 

[Hengelo_77]

I sand Pre ht as high as 2500 sometimes.
See what warks for you

 

[FredyCro]

Still waiting for the batch to come back from HT, I have been making place in shop and sorting out the wood I bought or collected last month.. Epoxy and wood dyeing projects have been somewhat discouraging.. I mixed wrong ratio of epoxy and now have a soft liner and WA handle bolsters that maybe will still cure.. I tried again wood dyeing with alchochol and printer ink, it worked only superficially.. I will need to take the bullet and get more stabilising resin and proper resin dyes.

 

[DustinY]

Those edc blades are tasty, i love that shape.

 

[FredyCro]

Those edc blades are tasty, i love that shape.

Thanks, it is just a small twist on a pretty standard shape. I am going to try putting the scale in the middle of the finger choil and do almost no ricasso. The steel is just cheap euro equivalent of 420, but should be serviceable with proper HT if grinds turn to be good.
I don't get very much shop time and then I try to rush through things. I will go slower trough the grinding and try to think the steps through more carefully. My jigs, grinder and resting table are also the very cheap DIY level.