Is this the best way to experiment with making my first knife

T

Tetsusaiga

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Aug 21, 2006
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I read over here that one can grind a knife out of a Nicholson file and all the heating that's required is a temper of the file at 375 F for one hour and then let it air cool. The file would then be ready to be ground to a blade.

Is this correct and would this be the easiest way to experiment with making a knife?

Thanks..
 
NO ! Grinding a hardened steel file is a lot of work !! Proper procedure is to anneal, grind, reharden [heat above critical temp, quench, temper ]
 
I agree with mete. Notice that mete didn't say that what you propose can't be done. It just takes a very long time and uses a LOT of abrasives. It grinds more slowly, because the material is so stinking hard. It heats up the file quite a lot as you grind it, which is not a good thing. You would have to grind very slowly and carefully, not letting the temperature of the file/knife get very high. If it gets too hot, you'd ruin the heat treat and have to do it mete's way (which is the best way!).

If you feel you must try it, then do not wear gloves. Gloves are unsafe to wear while grinding, as they can become caught and pulled into a grinder, thus causing significant injury. In addition, without gloves you'll instantly know when the file is beginning to get too hot and can simply dunk it in a pale of water.

Expanding on mete's suggestion, I suggest you check out the stickies at the top of the page and build yourself a simple forge (one brick type). You can do everything that mete suggests for very little money!
 
I agree with everybody else. I'm pretty familiar with making knives out of Nicholson files. You're gonna have to anneal them properly first.
- Mitch
 
If you have a 2x72 belt grinder and not a belt sander it's doable. I would temper before grinding, at least a low temper to get some of the hardness out. There are lots of folks out there that grind their blades after heat treat, but they usually have a shaped blank. As long as your shape doesn't stray too much from the size/shape of the file I think it's doable.

Now, after saying all of that, I'd like to also say that you can buy a lot of carbon steel for not very much money. This will likely be at least somewhat annealed and you'll know exactly what steel you're working with. 1080/1084 is super easy to heat treat and can easily be done with a firebrick and a plumber's torch.
 
My first knife (other than kits) was made from a Nicholson file. It's a great knife that holds an edge real well, just rusts at the drop of a hat.

FirstKnifesmall.jpg


I built a small forge, annealed the file first, then set to grinding. I used a 6" bench grinder to do the profiling and a Harbor Freight 1x30 to do the bevelling. A dremel tool also did quite a bit of work.

Definitely anneal it first. You'll be cursing if you don't.

Charlie
 
I would say if its your first knife and you don't wanna tackle heat treating yet go see if theres a good deal on annealled a2 on eBay under manufacturing and metal working. It would be better if the steel was very close to your house so theres not huge shipping charge isues. After you have alot of the blade done , but plenty of meat left send off to Texas Knifemaker's Supply for thier sheet for heat treating orders and they tell you the guidelines and costs of thier services.But don't be afraid to open your phone book and see if a place in your area or city has hardenable steel for sale which is steel with at least half of one percent carbon. Now if you order steel thats gonna serve you better than a file. Files made into knives aren't terribly tough. If you are feeling froggy and want to heat treat too I would go with O1 because its very forgiving and you can give it another try over and over if need be (though that wouldn't be a first choice of activity :D). If you are doing the file and sandpaper route then I will tell you what I wish I had done when I started that way: Get soem O1 stock thats 3/32 thick and about a inch and a quarter or half wide. Make your knife from that. It will give you less to do for your first go round and when you go heat it up it won't take as long to get to temp as 3/16', which is an issue with plumber's torch heat treating cause the oxygen bottle doesn't last long at all and the propane torch doesn't get super hot very fast ..but may work still.
 
Thanks for all the response guys... the reason I asked if that was the easiest way is because I'm located on the sunny island of Singapore where materials to build a forge is not easy to come by.

I have access to a handheld full palm sized butane torch, a dremel, a kitchen convection oven and MAYBE, JUST MAYBE a belt sander (let's just take it that I don't have this one) and off cos ebay... :D

With that in mind, my options for a full heat treat is severely limited, that was why I was asking if it can be done and I can just pop it into a convection oven to temper it and be done with it.

How hot does a Nicholson file need to be heated to to be annealed and what is it's critical temperature for its heat treat? Can the butane torch achieve that??

Apologies for all the constraints, but the options that I have are very limited..

Thanks for all the help!!
 
Honest truth is that you would be best to make a kit knife from www.knifekits.com . These can be made with the tools you have on hand.

You could do some more checking around in the mean time and find a maker in the area around you.

In Singapore or nearby there are sure to be many metal suppliers and heat treaters, as well as knife makers. You probably should ask for O-1, 5160, or 1095. Those will be the most available.

Filling out your profile will help Malaysian makers find you. I know there are several there and many in Australia.
Stacy
 
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