Its been 30 years since I made a knife

F

fencepost

Joined
May 15, 2015
Messages
72
so I thought I would start with a file in its hardened state.
this will give me lots of practice and a good hard steel to make mistakes on
that will be easy to fit since its hard and grinding goes slow.

I added images but it appears they wont show up, so I guess I cant show you the progress
image11.jpg

image12.jpg
 
upload them to photobucket or postimage. org
copy the direct link then put it between
 
Did that here thing but the forum tells me I cant have Attachments

just did it again we will see if it shows below
[IMG]http://www.airgunsmith.com/frmt7/img/uploaded/image11.jpg
 
Anyway, my thoughts are grinding (pulling) the hard steel will give me lots of practice then when I'm done shaping I will need to anneal the file
so I will be able to drill holes for the handle. then after the holes are there heat treating
 
Start a photobucket account, upload your pictures and then copy and paste the link in the picture I provided to your message body...you should be good to go ;0)

a single left click will auto copy, and then a right click, choose paste

photobucketll_zps350b67c6.jpg
 
John Katt said:
Start a photobucket account, upload your pictures and then copy and paste the link in the picture I provided to your message body...you should be good to go ;0)

a single left click will auto copy, and then a right click, choose paste

photobucketll_zps350b67c6.jpg
Click to expand...

I never use photobucket I have a website to hold all my images. seems to work everywhere I need images to load.
having my own site seems to give me better control of my images.
it should work here unless there is a block.
 
ok so I am guessing here

first choose the red arrow

then choose the blue arrow

then copy and paste the link from your web page black arrow

2 windows open in this screen capture



232323_zpso6vjpfed.jpg
 
image11.jpg

image12.jpg

http://www.airgunsmith.com/frmt7/img/uploaded/image11.jpg
http://www.airgunsmith.com/frmt7/img/uploaded/image12.jp
Edit: well, I can't seem to get it to work either, perhaps the airgunsmith.com site has some sort of bandwidth theft thing going on. Either way, nice file.

Edit edit: I saw the two images once (a blade ground out from a file that looked pretty good, along with a buck 110, and a close up of the file's tang stamp (a horseshoe?)) before refreshing and getting a 403 error. Now, I'm no expert on computers or internet systems, but I'm pretty sure airgunsmith is preventing us from using and seeing the images in a way they don't like (leaching/bandwidth theft?) so you'll have to reupload the images to a picture sharing site, like Photobucket or Imgur.
 
Last edited:
Well there's your problem hostgator.com , I seem to recall that you need to change your permission level, I see the link on the 403 page, and I also seem to recall that if you go over your bandwidth, you will get a wicked over charge...this is old info so I might be wrong

Not to mention picture control without water marks is impossible
 
now the file is getting near an edge its time for no more mistakes, I think I'll change out the course 40 belt to 80 so I can slow down the grind
and start working out the scratches.

Ill work the file to about half of the thickness it is now with the 80 then use a finer belt, do that 3 or 4 more times until I get a fine edge.

I'm not sure what Ill do for a handle, I kind of like the look of the file for the handle I was thinking I could leave the file alone for the handle cut the tang off, drill a hole for a lanyard and do a tight wrap but only if a Stag don't look right.
image21.jpg

image20.jpg

image19.jpg

image18.jpg

image17.jpg

image13.jpg
 
Last edited:
You have a lot more metal to remove before you start with finer grits. The edge should be less than .010" when the rough bevel is done. The finer grits will take that down to about .005", where it would be ready to sharpen. For a file knife, you want a reasonably high angle, about 20° per side, to avoid chipping.

If you haven't done so already, you need to temper the blade. A file as-is is too hard for a knife. It needs to be baked in the oven at 400°F for an hour and then cooled off. That will drop the too hard and brittle state to a normal knife hardness and tougher state. It will also make the grinding go faster.
 
This is where I got to last night, the edge is down to a nice even .017".
Still not sure what I will do for a handle. as is it feels great, I was playing with some 1/4" x 1" brass
but was thinking nickel would be better, all opinions and advise accepted with sincerity
image24.jpg
 
should I grind the handle so its not so wide?
If I do I loose the rustic look but end up with a cleaner looking knife all the way around.

image26.jpg
 
it depends how wide your handle is can you give us a measurement
assuming you dont have alot to work with width wise it seems like a coffin handle would be best something like this
1z3vsd3.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top