I am having a blast!!

Andrew Colglazier

Andrew Colglazier

Joined
Sep 14, 2006
Messages
4,409
Check this out -

DSC00188.jpg


Sorry the pic is so bad......

I had the day off, so I went into the shop and found an old file. I annealed the file with a Bernzomatic torch, then started playing around.

I had nothing really in mind when I started, just wanted toknow if a file could be annealed with such a torch, and it can, evidently.

The blade is about 6", overall length is a tad over 10". It is sharp as it can be! It's a wharncliffe style blade, one of my favorite shapes.

I rough formed the blade on the bench grinder, then took my belt sander to it. The handle is osage orange. It's a bit thick, but the handle is short, so I thought a thick, knobby handle would give a better grip.

I put a slight choil in to remind the user where the hand is. The pins are soft steel rod stock I had laying around.

The wood got dark from sanding, the belts I have are now about used up so it started burning the wood a bit, but the figure still shows up. I put a bit of briwax on when all was done.

All my belts are too rough for decent polishing, when I get a new fine grit belt I'll polish it up.

My leathermaking stuff is waiting for me in Fort Worth, I'll make a sheath for it next week.

I plan to give this knife to my wife as a general purpose, gardening type knife. I hope she won't break it!

Anyway, I had a blast and am glad that while the knife ain't terribly pretty, it is certainly useful. I also learned a lot!

Happy New Year!

Andy
 
pretty cool knife! I'm a big fan of the wharncliffe/ sheepsfoot blades. incredible how well they work on most things, and are most of all, easy to sharpen.

The handle came out real nice too.

Thank you for showing it!
 
Thats awesome man!!! Great work. I made a wharncliff after seeing that custom of yours. Its waiting for scales in the garage now. Really awesome. Did you re-harden the edge?
 
Nice orange, Andy.

Just a word of advice: don't EVER take a picture of just one side of a knife. "People" will come looking for you...
 
aproy1101 said:
Thats awesome man!!! Great work. I made a wharncliff after seeing that custom of yours. Its waiting for scales in the garage now. Really awesome. Did you re-harden the edge?
Click to expand...

I need to grind the scales down on this one a bit more. I didn't reharden the edge, it seems pretty hard already. Do you think I ought to? How should I do it? :confused:

Andy
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
I need to grind the scales down on this one a bit more. I didn't reharden the edge, it seems pretty hard already. Do you think I ought to? How should I do it? :confused:

Andy
Click to expand...

Well, I asked because you said you annealed the file. If you really annealed it, heated it red hot and allowed it to cool slowly, then the edge is soft. Thats not necessarily bad, but if soft it won't hold an edge for long. On the next one, grind it down so that the edge is the thickness of a dime. Then heat the blade till non magnetic (red, but use a magnet just to be sure), and then put the edge into some motor oil or something like that. Then carefully finish the grind without overheating the edge (black color). That'll give you a hardened edge. And, of course, ask Dan Koster for better advice than I can give.
 
Hey, Andy. Well, I *think* I annealed it. It didn't seem as hard to grind after heating it with the torch as it was before. I wasn't able to get the blade glowing red, ever, except in just a few spots. I don't know if I'd ever be able to heat the entire blade to red hot with such a little torch.

I did let the file air cool in a vice when I was finished heating it. The edge seemed fairly hard when sharpening afterwards. I was able to grind the edge to fair sharpness on the belt, then took it to a steel. It took a little work to get the edge. Time and use will tell how hard and how well it holds an edge.

Andy C.
 
Yea, soft steel, even mild steel will take a keen edge. Just won't hold it very well. We'll see how yours turns out.

Do a search for the Po-Boy Puukko thread, and learn to make file knives from a real knifemaker (Sylvrfalcn).
 
I think, in a book called the $50 knife shop, or something like that, the author talked about using a torch and some heat bricks, and a simple blower to make a cheap forge. You might be able to get it hot enough with a setup like that.

very cool, great job!

Tom
 
Thanks, Tom. I have that book, just haven't finished reading it!

I read somewhere that file steel was 1095 or something similar. Is that correct?

Andy
 
I think files are often made of W-1 or W-2. That's water hardening tool steel. It's probably in the high 40's low 50's Rockwell hardness now I'd guess. Should be easy to sharpen and be fine for garden work. Next time try baking it in the oven at 400 or 450 prior to grinding. That will leave it hard enough for a knife, but a little easier to grind. There's a tempering chart here
http://www.diehlsteel.com/w1.aspx

Nice work bud,

Steve
 
Andy, if you heat the blade up to about nonmagnetic, and cool it very slowly it would be fully annealed. This is state that is easiest to work the steel in. If you heat it up to roughly the same temperature and let it air cool, you have normalized it. This is a sort of stress relieving, and will help prevent warping in heat treatment If you heat it up to roughly this same temperature again, and quench it in light oil, it will be fully hardened and be in need of tempering. Tempering is a slight "annealing" to remove some of the hardness so that it wil be more durable and less apt to chip or crack. The temperatures that Steve Ferguson gave are ideal for the type of steel you are playing with.

I have completely simplified this just so that you become familiar with some of the terms. I would suggest getting some of the books by Wayne Goddard, Jim Hrisoulas, or even David Boyd (there are a zillion others as well:) ).

Good places to peruse on the web are the makers forum here, Kevin Cashen's website, Don Fogg's forum. Alot can be learned just by reading existing threads until you feel comfortable in your knowledge to effectively ask more detailed questions.

Have fun, and be safe

Steve


Whoops, just noticed that Ferguson put a link in his post with the heat treating info for W1. So, Andy, you have exact temperatures as well if your file is W1.
 
I just read this thread, Andrew, and it is a good thread. (haven't been around as much to read threads)

I learned something. It was a lot of fun to share the adventure of knife making-

Is there no way to test the Rockwell at your home? Or even.... a kind of rough assessment; When you take a stone to the edge, does it bite or glide a bit?



munk
 
munk said:
I just read this thread, Andrew, and it is a good thread. (haven't been around as much to read threads)

I learned something. It was a lot of fun to share the adventure of knife making-

Is there no way to test the Rockwell at your home? Or even.... a kind of rough assessment; When you take a stone to the edge, does it bite or glide a bit?

munk
Click to expand...

Hi, Munk!

I just tried out the file test - the file scratched the blade everywhere I tried it.

Now, I don't really know how to interpret such a test. I would expect a file to mark the blade because, even if tempered, it will not be as hard as a file.

When I sharpen my khuks on my big steel, I can usually tell portions of the blade which are harder than other portions because they slide over the surface of the steel without much bite at all.

This knife also seems pretty hard, there isn't a great deal of resistance when sliding it along the steel. But it does sharpen up well on the steel.

:confused:

I just don't know how to divine such things.

Andy
 
The complete project- and now you have something distinctly yours.



munk
 
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