Good morning all, some questions

T

Trkaylor

Joined
Aug 16, 2009
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9
Hello all, firstly I would like to say thankyou preemptivly to any responses i get, secondly I am writing this from itouch and I havE fat fingers so sometimes I misspell some thing sorry :p.

So what I'm doing is something of an experement, I've moved in wth my grandprents to take care of them for awhile and I noticed ly grandfather has alot of metal in his workshop and I am going to make a huntng knife out of some angle iron out there. Thus will my first work with metal and I am excited to start, my question is this. As the blade will be made of iron are there any coatings out there that would work to protect the blade from rusting and make it relarivley easy to clean? At first I was thnking Teflon bt that can scratch easy, really I guess I'm hoping for some sort of allabative coating that would be kickass.


Thankyou
Toby
 
Hello Toby,

First things first. You are going to need some high carbon steel that can be hardened. Angle iron is low carbon steel and won't harden and hold an edge. Coatings are the last thing you need to worrying about. Read as much as you can on this forum. You can learn a lot. You need to learn about selecting steel, profiling a blade, grinding a blade, heat treating a blade, finishing a blade, selecting handle material, attaching handle material, and finishing the handle.

Welcome to the world of knife making. It is a lot of fun and quite addicting.
 
Welcome to the bladeforums.

You will need another steel than angle iron. Making a knife is more than just grinding/sawing the shape of a knife in steel from the garage (Actually, that is exactly what I did on my first knife 50 years ago......and ,of course, it wouldn't get hard or stay sharp.).

You need high carbon steel. One of the easier types to start with is called 1084. It has .84% carbon ( which doesn't sound high, but any steel with a carbon content between .50% and 1.0% is called high carbon). 5160 is another good starter steel.It has .60% carbon and is very tough. Many car springs are made from 5160, or a similar steel.

You will need to heat treat the steel when the knife shape is done ( but before the edge is all the way thinned to sharp) to make it hard, and then finish the blade to a sharp edge.

There is a lot of information in the stickies on the top of this forum page which will help get you started. A book, like "The $50 Knife Shop", will be a useful tool.

Finish filling out your profile, so we know more about you and where you live. That way, someone near your town may offer a piece of proper steel and help with doing the HT when the knife is shaped.

Welcome again.
Stacy
 
That sounds good I'll check out that book, I was only goona use the angle iron as a starter some to get wet my appatite as it were. The other thing is i've been using knives for various activities and to say the least I am hard on them (I've broken 3 kabars in the past six months) so I was looking at getting industrial steel the steel my girlfriends company works with is pretty costly and they don't sell to the public but it basically tank armor and that's the kind of quality I would like to get. As for the coating I would still like some sort of super slick plating or coating on it just for keeping it clean ease and as soon as I finish this post I'll fill out my info but for quick reference I am on the western slope of Colorado in detla hunters should know this place. Thankyou.
 
That industrial steel may not be the right kind for blades. Stick with known steels (You really will spend a lot more on sand paper and other such things than you will ever spend on steel.) Personally I buy mine from Admiral Steel... Stacy recommended some very good steels. The sticky at the top of the shop talk page (the newbie link) has plenty of good information to get you started.

If you get some of that 1084 and heat treat it right, and manage to break that, you're using the knife wrong :)

Good luck!
 
i was just looking around i guess there is a place that does C&C work around here, ill probly swing by there later today and see if they have anything on hand. that 1084 stuff looks tuff, as does the 5160. unfortunately, i havent alot of capital right now to buy everything needed, i had to quite my real job and come out here. at anyrate thankyou guys for the help, im also on a PC now ;P alot less mistakes.


toby
 
Toby, look around in your grandfather's workshop. You might find some old files. Old US made files like Nicholson would be a pretty good material for you first knives. There are a lot of tutorials available and even youtube videos about making a knife from an old file. Take your time, learn and try to understand the whole process and why each step is done before staring to grind a steel. Good luck.

--
Sergiy
 
lel said:
Toby, look around in your grandfather's workshop. You might find some old files. Old US made files like Nicholson would be a pretty good material for you first knives. There are a lot of tutorials available and even youtube videos about making a knife from an old file. Take your time, learn and try to understand the whole process and why each step is done before staring to grind a steel. Good luck.

--
Sergiy
Click to expand...

While this it true... Files are valuable tools in the construction of knives... there is a point where they are too dull to be useful however. I guess if it comes down to it... use the files for your blade stock and buy some new ones to work with. Still... a few bucks worth of 1084 goes a long way. Just out of curiosity, what type of tools do you have access to now? It really doesn't take much. I did my first few blades with little more than a drill press, hacksaw, files and sandpaper. Not that I'd want to do them all that way, but it got me started.

One more thing... Michael Morris (mykulmorris) posts a lot on this forum and he makes several of his knives out of old files or rasps... definitely worth taking a look. I have one of his "Profilers" and it gets hard use and is still holding up great.
 
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Well to those that are following me for now, that piece of steel that I thought was just angle iron.... Not so much, it is in fact 1080 steel that grandpa ordered for another project so yay!

As to the tools I gave access to are a mounted vice, mounted grinder, hand drill. I'm also in the process of building a forge so I can do more. I checked out some videos on YouTube from user greenpete and I think Ima make my first blade from a file, it sounds really challenging and fun, the one question I have is this....
When quenching the blade is it better to use old motor oil over water? Because I have irrigation water well right next to where I'm building the forge thy is relatively deep would this work just as well?

Thankyou all who are helping!
 
If using a file you will have to use a fast quench oil, or water.
Canola oil will just barely be fast enough. Motor oil and most all other oils won't harden the file right. The file should be worked and hardened as if it was 1095.
Water will get it hard, but cracking or breakage may well occur. Also, 1095 is not the best starter steel, as the HT is a bit tricky. Read up on the hyper-eutectoid steel thread on the stickies.

I would certainly use the 1080 if that is what you have.It is one of the best starter steels, and the HT is super simple. Read the eutectoid thread. I have never seen 1080 made into angle iron ( but there are many things I haven't seen). Is it marked or something? The reason I ask about the mark, is that many stock numbers may end in 18 ( or something similar) if the thickness is 1/8".

If at all possible, try and hook up with a local smith and get some help.
Stacy
 
No it's not marked I asked my grandpa and of the few things he is able to recall this was one of them, this is some tuff stuff I feel it may already be hardened becuase it is not responding to tools as maybe I suspect it should be. As fir the thickness of the angle iron is 1/4.

In my forge I'll do a pictorial catalog and post them when it's done!
 
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