Fresh blades from rusty files

Sylvrfalcn

Sylvrfalcn

Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
3,930
Been keeping real busy lately, but still find a little time in the evenings to drink a beer, smoke a pipe, and pound on some hot steel. :D

This first one is a 5 1/2" blade belt knife, somewhat influenced by an 18th century Spanish Belduque. Very very sharp, very very pointy, stock removal file steel blade, with birds eye maple handle scales and nickel silver rivet pins. I carry this one when I go "longwalking" (did five miles with a ruck yesterday in a relaxed and comfortable 1hr 28 min, between the hiking and other outdoor stuff, I can feel myself getting "younger").

attachment.php




Here's one for the Nessmuk fans, a 3 1/2" blade mini Nessmuk. Handle is axis deer antler, blade is forged file steel with the forge scale left on.

attachment.php




Last but not least, my wicked wee "gardener's neck knife", for, uh, "pruning", yeah, that's the ticket. Axis deer antler handle (obviously my favorite species), with a forged 3 1/2" blade, given a mirror polish so "sap" wipes off easily. Actually this one's fun to play around with, a hooked blade, honed razor sharp, will do some pretty dang freaky cutting.;)

attachment.php




Hope y'all get a kick out of my tinkering around with old files. :)

Sarge
 

Attachments

  • Picture 185.jpg
    Picture 185.jpg
    58.7 KB · Views: 242
  • Picture 188.jpg
    Picture 188.jpg
    72.1 KB · Views: 190
  • Picture 189.jpg
    Picture 189.jpg
    92.9 KB · Views: 407
I'm biased ashell but still, I think they are lovely.

The longwalk knife looks threatening.

er...how do you hunt prunes? Why do you need a special blade?:D



thank you.
 
I hope you don't get tired of us saying "Outstanding Work".

Outstanding work!

Steve
 
I've been waiting a couple of years to say it...

"Email sent on all of the above"

*Great* work Sarge!
 
Those are great Sarge. I especially like sheaths 1 and 3. I can't get enough of seeing your work. Last weekend there was a moving sale near my home and I got ~20 old files for $10. I'm finishing the handle of one of my file knives now, and doing the sheath. I've also ground one too. My forging has been back burnered for lack of anything to pound the steel on. I got some firebricks though, so a forge is forthcoming, just having trouble with a piece of track. Maybe I'll just drop the $ on an anvil.
 
Thanks everybody, I'm always glad that y'all like the results of my idle foolishness. ;)

Andy, that sheath for the "longwalk" knife is a piece of work. It's got a fully welted seam ( a beeyatch to sew with my homemade awl and saddler's needles) and the back piece of leather is folded over to form the belt loop. It's stout, but flat, and rides high and snug on the belt, so if my T-shirt is untucked, you'd never know I had it on me. I copied the design from an original I got to examine up at the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco. The decoration on it is the result of me getting into a friend of mine's leather tooling stamps. I figured if the knife was based on a Spanish piece, the sheath ought to have a bit of a Spanish flavor to it.

Sarge
 
That top one is absolutely fantastic! :D

I really, really like the false edge, and that one is a doozy.


Uh, oh- usage of "doozy" = me, old guy

:confused:

It's like totally sweet, Sarge. That blade is the dopest trip.


Mike :thumbup:
 
Astrodada said:
Sarge.....how did you forge those ?
Click to expand...

Astro, I'm still plugging along with my little propane burner until I get a forge built. It's small, so I'm limited to the little 3 1/2" blades, but at 10,000 BTU it gets plenty hot for stuff like small blades and fire steels. I've got a couple anvils that are antiques, obviously of local manufacture from hunks of railroad track, but curiously, the one I most commonly use is a cheap little 15 pound Chinese made anvil I picked up at a flea market. I use a variety of hammers of varying quality, and needle nose vice grip pliers make decent tongs considering the small size of my "forge" (the only "advantage" to such a small heat source is that you can move in real close to it).

Old files are made out of straight, unalloyed, high carbon steel, that is water hardening. That means I don't have to fool around with messy, and flammable, oil, I just use a bucket of lukewarm water for quenching. Tempering is done in the kitchen oven as I've discussed in previous posts.

You'll also find a propane or MAPP gas torch useful for spot heating, like when you're bending the nice curls into the handle of a fire steel, or drawing the temper from a blade tang so it's not too brittle.

Hope I've covered what you wanted to know, if not just holler.

Sarge
 
Ain't no holler to my ears Sarge......But how did you shape no. 2 and no.3 ? no.3 especially .?

And I'd guess you judge it by eye when you quench the blades in water. What sort of color you'd look for when you quench those babies ? :)
 
Sarge,

What kind of larger forge are you putting together? Or are you not? I bought three firebricks from Darren Ellis and I'm puting together a two brick forge. It'll be open on both ends so I can do a little longer blade. When I'm doing small blades I'll close the back with another fire brick. I'll be using a propane torch for my source.

My uncle got me a piece of track, but its too heavy for him to lift/ship. My mom has tracked down my Great Grandaddy's anvil, but a bitter ex spouse of another uncle's has that. I'm going to have to drop by and try to charm it out of her when I visit. Odds on that working 1:1. We'll see. I'd sure like to forge knives on my Grandaddy Daniel's anvil. I'm very proud of him because he raised 9 kids from the greatest generation during the depression, and served in WWI.
 
Ad Astra said:
That top one is absolutely fantastic! :D

I really, really like the false edge, and that one is a doozy.


Uh, oh- usage of "doozy" = me, old guy

:confused:

It's like totally sweet, Sarge. That blade is the dopest trip.


Mike :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Mike, in order to keep things "law abiding", that false edge is unsharpened. Still, it does much to enhance the pointiness (is that a word?) of the point, which is no kidding, rose thorn, cat claw, "don't touch that", pointy. :D

Old guy my aching arse, you ain't old until YOU decide you are. When I invite my young friends to go hiking or canoeing with me, they admit with trepidation that I might have to slow the pace a bit so they can keep up. At 47, I can see the "Big Five Oh" out there lurking in the shadows at the edge of the forest, just waiting for me. But, what it needs to know is I ain't skeered of it, and if it wants to perpetrate some foolishness, it's gonna get cut. Redneck to Street Thug; "You wanna get cut good?", "No", "Well then, I reckon I'll cut you bad". :rolleyes: :D ;)

Sarge
 
Sylvrfalcn said:
Mike, in order to keep things "law abiding", that false edge is unsharpened. Still, it does much to enhance the pointiness (is that a word?) of the point, which is no kidding, rose thorn, cat claw, "don't touch that", pointy. :D

Old guy my aching arse, you ain't old until YOU decide you are. When I invite my young friends to go hiking or canoeing with me, they admit with trepidation that I might have to slow the pace a bit so they can keep up. At 47, I can see the "Big Five Oh" out there lurking in the shadows at the edge of the forest, just waiting for me. But, what it needs to know is I ain't skeered of it, and if it wants to perpetrate some foolishness, it's gonna get cut. Redneck to Street Thug; "You wanna get cut good?", "No", "Well then, I reckon I'll cut you bad". :rolleyes: :D ;)

Sarge
Click to expand...


S**t........I'm 45........and i am feeling it...:o :grumpy:
 
Astrodada said:
Ain't no holler to my ears Sarge......But how did you shape no. 2 and no.3 ? no.3 especially .?

And I'd guess you judge it by eye when you quench the blades in water. What sort of color you'd look for when you quench those babies ? :)
Click to expand...

Bright red Astro, about the color of a ripe persimmon. However, lighting conditions of your work area can make colors look different, and when you're starting out it's kind of hard to judge how hot is hot. Here's what you do. Get a small, cheap, magnet, and epoxy it onto a strip of brass, aluminum, etc., for a handle. When you think your blade is hot enough to quench (the hardening process) touch the magnet to it. If the magnet sticks, the steel ain't hot enough. At the correct temperature for annealing or hardening, steel loses it's magnetic attraction. Tinker around with that, and make careful note of what color the steel is for you when it reaches the non-magnetic stage.

Another useful note, when you plunge the hot blade into the water to quench it, do not stab it in vertically, point first. You'll wind up with a warped blade doing that. Hold the blade horizontal so it's parallel with the water's surface, and go in edge first.

Sarge
 
I would love to have a knife like the bottom one with a very small blade.

One of the chores I have to do is cut my goats hooves.

Goats have the horney(pardon the many layered pun) outer hoof and the frog which is the rubbery middle.

Peroidically you have to cut the outer layer and frog even so they walk square on their hooves or their hooves can become misshapen.

I use a set of hoof trimmers and a knife, but you always have to be careful of the goat moving and impaling yourself with a manure caked knife or clipper tip.

With a blade shaped like the bottom one you could cut squarely across the bottom of the hoof, still have a point you could scrape manure out with, yet the hawkbill design would prevent you from impaling youself:thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top