Introduction, thanks, some WIP, PIC heavy and some questions.

[Mash]

Hi everyone.

My name is Brian I live in Springfield VA and decide I wanted to make my own knives. So I started doing some research and came across your site. I would like to says thanks to all the people that have spent time to post allot of very helpful information. Also like to thanks the knife makers with sites that have posted allot of info as well.

I got started down this path because the knife I have been using for years hunting was driving me nuts to sharpen. Love the shape hate the grind. Basically cheap knife bad grind based on what I have been seeing from the designs and work people are doing. First thought was to regrind it but quickly have left that idea behind to make my own copy of it with the steel of my choice.

So what I have done first is bunch of reading and then augmented my tools some. I decided to take a little cheaper approach than a nice KMG belt grinder or building a copy and got a Trick Tools 8” contact wheel belt grinder attachment for my normal grinder. I set that up and decided to copy some of the tool rest ideas I have seen on the site. Here are some pics of the grinder set up, it came out functional. I defiantly may want to upgrade at some point and add a KMG grinder. See the pictures below for what I set up for my grinder in my shed workshop. The front tool rest bolts on at the top and bottom this lets me change the height of the rest in relation to the wheel with just making a new riser. It works well no complaints so far with the front tool rest. The two tool rest next to the flat section are for grinding blade angles. Based on the knife pictures below I think they work fairly well for grinding the angle I want on a blade. With this grinder it would be way hard to free hand the blade grinds. After doing some work with this grinder it will defiantly get the job done and a very nice tool for the money. I would say this is not the solution for making top of the line knifes. I do have 2 minor complaints. One the flat section I am using to remove some scale and to do my blade angle grinds on could be longer. As well I am not getting perfectly flat grinds on the longer designs I am working if I hold them flat on it. It wants to grind the end a bit due to the wheels. May have to play with its height some. The rest is also not completely flat the weld marks from where it was attached warped it and they stick up ever so slightly. I have fixed that problem but worth noting if someone were to use this type of grinder. By most standards the tools rest is flat but for this kind of work perfection is needed. You can see the slight divots in the D2 steel on knife 1 later in this post.

 

[Mash]

On to some knifes.
Next I looked around got some ideas for knife designs I liked. Down loaded the Lloyd Harding designs to see what they had in them. I then cut out some cardboard making some minor changes to some of the stuff I liked and started cutting and grinding. I ordered some D2 and some Damascus I want to use in my final knives for myself. Not wanting to start on high end steal I grabbed some steel at Home Depot to make some templates out of and practice blanks to grind. So I ground that steel to shape then ground off the scale. Happy with the way things were going I have done the same to the D2 steel. Yea the D2 is hell on a band saw blade it ate the one I had laying around that came with my saw, but the grinder does work nicely on D2. So I got some new Lenox Diemaster 2 band saw blades made to size and they seem to be holding up allot better and cut shapes out much better. I also dropped my saw down in speed for working the D2 from 1 above my slowest setting to the absolute slowest my metal/wood saw will do.

Now on to the good stuff here are some of the knifes at this point. Knife 1 is based on my hunting has been ground in D2 and Damascus. I really like how the grind came out on the Damascus and I made some very slight changes to the shape after grinding the D2. Knife 3 is going to be a hidden tang knife in a large deer antler I have. Knife 2 was just something I was playing with. Turns out I thought the initial blade for the dear antler knife was to small so the blade from knife 2 became a hidden tang knife and looks to fit nicely.

 

[Mash]

here are some more of the knife pics

 

[Mash]

So I have done a fair bit of custom spear gun making for another hobby. Much like with spear gun making I think a high end custom knife is worth every penny people charge. I have defiantly put some time in and I haven’t finished a single knife yet. That said I hope to post some pictures at some point of these knives finished.

So I haven’t gotten around to posting this till now so I have made some more progress. Here are blade 2 sanded to 600 and blade 3 cut down and sanded to 600 as well. I have also started working on the guard for it and cut out the pocket in the antler. Since then I have also gotten a request from a friend that does bonsai trees to make him a working knife. So here are some picks of knife number 4. All are still in the works right now the 4 initial blades have been sanded to 600 and I am working on bolsters and guards. I have them all drilled and am working on getting them into the shapes I want. At least rough shapes most will get finished once the blades are hardened and they have been pinned on.

 

[Mash]

woops forgot knife 4 here is what he wanted.

 

[Mash]

Let me know what you all think things I could improve so far. Now on to some questions

Question 1) I find I am eating through belts fairly fast this may because I am working D2 steal after I have practiced on some cheap home depot stuff. It also may be a factor of the belts are probably half the size of the high end grinders. What do people find for how many knives they can make before a belt is shot? My belts still got some life but I really liked using fresh belts to grind the blade angle do other people find the same?

Question 2) Any knife makers within in a 3 hour drive of northern VA that do hardening and can give advice or have a hammer-ins that I have been seeing going on in other areas? There is defiantly allot to learn and seems to be allot more that can be learned hands on or by asking questions in person.

Question 3) So I feel like I have about every knife sharpening system known to man. Wet stones, oil stones, ceramic rods, chief choice diamond hone, lansky system, and a Tormek T 7. I defiantly like the Tormek system it has worked great on my planes, chisels and drill bits. The question I have about it is, with a 10 inch wheel how would it do hollow grinds? I have used the Tormek to sharpen knives before and really like it. The main question being is a 10 inch wheel good for the primary hallow grind for a whole blade or do people like a larger wheel?

 

[tattooedfreak]

That looks like a good start to your addiction.. I mean hobby. I use O1 myself but from what they guys say on here, use a fresh sharp belt for profiling each blade and the same for the grind. You can use older belts for cleaning up scale and polishing the flats but forcing a used belt to profile or grind will eventually cause a mistake you can't fix. Yes it gets expensive after awhile but you will see the difference in your work.

There are a number of talented makers in VA and I think 2 are moderators on here so they may chime in and offer to help.

As for wheels, I have a 10 inch and a 6 inch and just finished my first real hollow grinds today (haven't polished them yet though) on a 10 inch. They are on 3 different styles and sizes and look pretty good if I do say so myself. I can't see any issue when it comes to sharpening them.

Just have fun and post more pics when you have them finished.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Welcome!

Nice bunch of knives there, I like what you are doing.

That grinder is awesome, looks useful.

 

[Mash]

Thanks

Yea the grinder is getting the job done and I have found it has allot of other uses. It defiantly has some limitations I am convinced I want to augment it with a KMG at some point. I plan on adding a hole in the front tool rest for a bolt with a nut welded on top. Then run another bolt through it to give me a jig to help due some hollow grinds. All ideas I have cobbled together from the post everyone has put up here.

 

[KaosX]

If you wanted to make a reverse edge knife some of those initial designs have a perfect blade profile for it.

 

[lonepine]

The knives look pretty cool! It's just a guess, but if you were allowed to, you'd set your grinder up in the living room?

For some reason your grinder is not an option that is discussed much. I'm glad to get some info on it. Isn't an 8" contact wheel large enough to do hollow grinds on normal sized knives such as yours?

Maybe installing a ceramic glass liner on the platen would help with flatness. Well duh, yea it would, because you would have to make sure the platen was truly flat before you glued it on. (I am such a genius sometimes.)

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

- LonePine
Alias Paul Meske, Wisconsin

 

[lonepine]

If you wanted to make a reverse edge knife some of those initial designs have a perfect blade profile for it.

Is that the design where the sharp edge becomes the handle? ;-)

- LonePine
Alias Paul Meske, Wisconsin

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You should come over to the Harrisonburg knife show on the 1-2-3 of April. Lots of stuff to see and stuff to buy. Bring those blades and we can chat.
http://www.svkc.org/annual_show

 

[deker]

Question 2) Any knife makers within in a 3 hour drive of northern VA that do hardening and can give advice or have a hammer-ins that I have been seeing going on in other areas? There is defiantly allot to learn and seems to be allot more that can be learned hands on or by asking questions in person.

You should come up to the Fire & Brimstone Hammer-In in a couple of weeks in Marriottsville, MD. You will see a lot and learn a lot for sure. We will also have several people up from the NoVA/Central Va area.

Looks like you're off to a good start, now you just need to come meet some of the rest of us and then get back into the shop!

-d

 

[Mash]

Lonepine
That’s not a bad idea. I had just flat sanded it on a pane of glass with sand paper on top. But gluing something on top would have worked as well.

KaosX
Not much on double blades on hunting knives. Knife 1 I find I use my thumb on the point that stick up in the middle of the blade. Plus fat cover bloody hands can get slippery. One sharp edge is enough for me to worry about been stitched up enough over the years.

I do have a nice chunk of Damascus I want to use for a dagger.

Bladesmth
I may try and make it out to that Sunday if I can get free. I have guest in town that weekend. Would be nice to get some feedback on the blades before I get them heat treated.

 

[Mash]

You should come up to the Fire & Brimstone Hammer-In in a couple of weeks in Marriottsville, MD. You will see a lot and learn a lot for sure. We will also have several people up from the NoVA/Central Va area.

Looks like you're off to a good start, now you just need to come meet some of the rest of us and then get back into the shop!

-d

I will be there I registered a bit back and talked one of my friends into coming as well.

 

[Mash]

Well I finished two of the knives I was working on here are the pics I think they came out good. Thanks for the help heat treating Matt V & the guys up Baltimore Knife and Sword for putting on the hammer-in a few weeks ago.

 

[Mash]

Well been a while since I posted so here is another knike I made with this set up. I like the way it came out. I broke it in on two does so far this year allready. The knife sheath ins't my work. Steve at bedo's leather in northren VA made it for me. Nice guy worked with me for the design, and even used the frog skin I provided to make the project.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Nice looking knife.
Is that a commercial blade ,or did you forge it yorself?

 

[Mash]

I bought the damascus steel pre-made from Texas knife makers as flat stock. Shaped it myself and heat treated it with the others above, even put hidden pins inside the scales. Just got around to posting it.