Lets see some file knives

[Charlie Mike]

I started making knives from old files my father in law would give me. At the time (3-4 months ago) we were (and still are LOL) pretty broke and I didn't know how affordable decent blade steel actually is. I still make file knives but I'm doing more stuff from precision ground O1.

Anyways, here's a balisong collab between myself and Nathan Dewey. I ground the blade from a very old Simmonds 2nd Cut Mill file approx >3/16" thick.

 

[Vanguard41xx]

Nice balisong! Looks like you did a great job on the blade.
Unfortunately, the only file knife I have is an older one from a WW2 veteran. He made a boot knife out of a file, and used it during his service. It is pretty much dead now. If I have time, I might take a picture.

 

[gundude73]

just got this Anza yesterday, i like it a lot so far.

 

[Charlie Mike]

Here's some I have made...

 

[Bob W]

Hey C.M., who does the heat treat when you make your file knives? You do it yourself?

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Here are my Anza knives:

 

[Charlie Mike]

I do my own HT for blades 3.5" or less.

 

[citizensoldierNY]

Thumbs up on the malt liquor in the background Oh yeah, cool bali, I like that you kept one side unpolished so you can still tell its a file.

 

[Charlie Mike]

Thumbs up on the malt liquor in the background Oh yeah, cool bali, I like that you kept one side unpolished so you can still tell its a file.

Thanks! Some guy on another forum was poo-pooing the King Cobra. I say high/low end alcohol is still alcohol and gets the job done. I'm peckerwood pimpin, yo!

 

[BryFry]

Love that bali CM!

Here's the first knife I ever tried to make....

I made it from a 12" bastard, around 10 years ago. That was way before I joined this forum, so I had no idea what I was doing, I knew nothing about annealing or heat treating, so I ground that thing from a completely hardend file, which was not exactly the way to go!

Of course, not yet being a member of this forum, I had yet to learn that american tantos are apparently crap! ..haha! I had fun making it, and plan to try making some more "the right way" pretty soon!

 

[Charlie Mike]

Very nice work! That's an understatement BTW.

 

[Lagrangian]

Cool!
From what I understand, files get their extreme surface-hardness from carburization. I know almost nothing about carburization, but I'm wondering if your file-knives could get carburized? Don't know how to do this, or maybe where you could get it done. But if you do, it might be interesting