Lets Design a Skivvng Knife

Horsewright

Horsewright

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
13,484
A short while back Paul, Strig and I had some discussion about building a skiving knife. I've got the steel and I'll build it. I'm gonna throw it in with my next batch I send off to heat treat. Here's my ideas so far. AEB-L steel at 63RC. This will provide excellent edge retention and a very polished edge. Just stropping will keep it going for a long time without having to put it on a stone. Full flat grind on both sides and ground very thin to be flexible. It will be a full tang design and I was thinking an angled blunt nose for the tip but am not set on that. Outside of that I'm pretty open to ideas. What would you like to see? Share your ideas. What would make the perfect skiving knife? Lets get er done.
 
Blade about 5 to 5 1/2 inches in length for good flex. Don't know about full tang….I never had one. Handle about 4 inches. Blade width about 11/16" (just shy of 3/4") all the way from handle to tip.. Completely round tip,but your angled blunt would be my next choice. Those are suggestions….not orders! I anxiously awaiting the result of this project. I have used the Hyde Number 2 for years, which is pretty much as described but not nearly the quality steel.

Also very curious about how high HRC will affect the flex.

Paul
 
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I'm curious about the hrc # too. You (as usual ugh...) are way more experienced with steel, but isn't that pretty high? I love steel usually a point or so higher than typically spec'd because edge retention is more important to me than toughness, but of course all steels aren't created equally.

I just watched Paul (literally 10 minutes ago) use his Hyde knife in his first video. In terms of design I'm afraid I have little to offer. I'd not considered that style of knife before just because it's really something that's easier for me to grasp having seen it used. For that type of work I'd used the safety skiver or head knife, but I can now see the utility.

On a side note, I was at my dentist the other day and they had a whole rack of the Hyde knives. At first I thought it seriously weird, but then I remembered they have a lab that does implants and dentures and whatnot on sight so I guess they find them useful in that capacity as well.
 
Hey - I have the ability to make this knife and heat treat it myself due to my Mentor (Stan Buzek) living close.

I could do 440C and I think the flex on it would be great.

Paul - do you have any pictures of that Hyde #2? I would love to see it (EDIT - Found Paul's Hyde #2 here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1233374-Help-picking-a-leather-skiving-tool) - with some rough dimensions to get me started - I don't think this would be very tough.


Concerning the Rockewell hardness of 63. That is very high. Given a perfect heat treat, for instance, 01 can only be 65. I find most of my knives come out about 58-59 after two rounds of tempering at 400 degrees.

However, I have never made a skiving knife before - so...... take that for what it is worth.

TF
 
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Glad you'd mentioned the measurements Paul cause I wouldn't have gone that long. Round tip it is. Is the tip sharp or blunt? The RC won't affect the flex at all. The flex is in the geometry and the thinness of the grind. I have a shop knife I made at 61-62 RC its very flexible. I sent Strig a pic of it flexed a while back. If you got it still, Strig post it please, I don't have it anymore. I'm going with the 63 becuase thats what Brad at Peter's says is the most he can push it. I did my own HT for years but I yield to his vastly superior knowledge and capability. You guys will remember those round knives I made some months back. Those are at 63RC and are AEB-l too. Two of those are my own personal knives one is Nicholes. I use mine daily. I have only ever resharpened mine once. I have never resharpened Nichole's. This stuff rocks. But I will say at that hard its probably not for everybody. Jason I love 440C. I've probably made 1500- 2000 knives from it. But I can't get it as sharp as I can get the AEB-L. I'll do the full tang cause that is what I do. I was thinking Ironwood for the handle because I have lots of it and Loveless bolts. I was thinking the bolts because of the flex. The bolts will make the handle more solid, I was a little afraid of the flex wanting to loosen up the front of the handle and was considering a bolster, but I think the bolts will do it. We're gonna find out.
 
Sure thing boss, I've got all of the pics you've sent.

Horsewright said:
If you got it still, Strig post it please, I don't have it anymore.
Click to expand...

PtJDP97.jpg


AEB-L is at the tip top of what I want to sample next. Reading the ST forum it's really hard to not be very curious. People describe it as the stainless for carbon steel snobs (me) and the super fine grain is supposed to get sharper than any other SS. Makes sense as it's the razor blade steel of choice. Sounds absolutely perfect for leather and even wood carving work.

I trust Peters too. Brad doesn't fool around.
 
Yep thats the one. I used that knife today to cut up a bunch of cardboard in our annual post Christmas dump run. That thing is past scary sharp into the ugly sharp realm and will hold an edge. I made 4 or 5 of these little guys but only handled two. They were experiments in seeing how thin a piece of steel I could hollow grind. That stock prior to grinding wasn't quite a 1/16th. This pic also illustrates why I will use the bolts on the handle instead of pins. Not been a problem on this knife though because I don't use it flexed for the most part, it just is flexible. Yeah if you shaved this morning, you used AEB-L.
 
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Dave, the round tip is sharp to the end and continues slightly up into the curve. Subsequent stone sharpening will finally walk the edge up and nearly all the way around the tip. My Hyde knives are held very flat to the stone so the tip sharpens up very quickly.

Paul
 
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Got it. I'm gonna make a few cause I wanna play with that blunt angled tip too. Heck maybe even start cutting steel today.
 
The round knife thread got me thinking about this project. Is it still in progress Dave? Do we have a final design to show? I'm thinking one could easily cut a couple of these out from around the handles of a head knife sized piece of steel.

Chris
 
I made up three. Waiting for them to get back from ht. Expecting em daily.
 
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