Fun with files...

S

sputnick

Joined
Mar 12, 2006
Messages
246
Decided to make a knife today since it is so nice outside.

I had brought the file with me on a camping trip in december with the intention of annealing it in the fire. While it did soften somewhat it was still too hard to work easily. The lady is off at work today so i fired up the electric burner put the file on and covered with a metal tray to reflect some of the heat. In five minutes it was glowing red and i turned the element off at 10 minutes and let it cool. MUCH softer now. The only power tool i have is an old craftsman drill so this knife is being made the hard way. File on file action...

Here is 2.5 hours of work. The other side hasnt even been touched yet. In order to shape the tip i drilled three 3/16" holes and used a chisel to break that section off and then filed the hell out of it to make it look smooth. The blade is 5 inches long, about 9.5 inches overall. I probably wont know for sure what the handle will look like till I'm ready to do that part but you can get a general idea from the marker outline. A hacksaw and a grinder would sure make this go faster. (My camera just went down for the count, this image is from a pda so it sucks.)

filekniferw0.jpg
 
Looking nice. I'm putting the bevels on a knife made out of a Nicholson file. Been a very fun project. I've already got 4 other files lined up to do the same thing with.

Are you going to heat treat these yourself?

Charles
 
Thats the plan. I dont know what the steel is and there arent any markings on the file that i can make out so i'm going to heat it up as hot as i can get it on the stove and drop it in some warm water. If it doesnt break or warp i'll be happy. A little tempering in the oven and it'll be ready for scales.

As an unemployed college student living on the 3rd floor of a 3 family home my options are rather limited when it comes to building a forge for heat treating or obtaining powertools. As my first ever knife project I dont mind. If everything works out, I'll have a lot of sweat invested and hopefully will be proud of what i end up with.
 
If it's a Nicholson file they're supposed to be something like w1. I have heard that you might consider some used motor oil or vegetable oil first as it's less likely to cause cracks. Will be some smoke though.

Good luck and can't wait to see the finished project.

Charles
 
I have about 100 Nicholson files. I used to have about 150 (made knives out of 50 of them). I use used motor oil for my hardening. I get a consistently hard blade when I soak for about two minutes at non-magnetic and then quench quickly in the 160 degree F. heated oil. I heat my oil by quenching hot rebar first and use a laser gun to check the oil temperature. I've never had a blade crack yet. I temper twice at 400 degrees F. My two cents worth.
 
I started out in an appartement. My 'workshop' was less than 20 square feet.
Enjoy!
 
I handled a couple boot knife blades in my last apartment, last summer. My only power tools were a Dremel and a palm sander. Basement-space for a small shop was high on the list when looking for our next place.

If I ever get around to making a knife out of a Nicholson, I'll have to buy one new just for it. Because the ones at work and home are still in too good a shape to be ground up. Got any beat-up ones you can spare, scottickes? ;)
 
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