Making a spoon knife

H

halo2

Joined
Sep 13, 2005
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This is my Bushcraft project for March: a spoon knife. I followed a tutorial on the net, but I've been a knifemaker-hobbiest for years. I sold a few, but am no longer doing so.

Of course, you can buy a nice spoon scoop online, but that's not the point of this exercise.

I'll start with my blade.

The blade started out as a strip of 1/8" 1095 HR steel left over from my knifemaking days. I used an angle grinder to rough cut a piece about 7" long and 1/2" wide. Then I took it to the grinder and ground the bevel using an 80 grit belt.

spoonknife01.jpg


Once happy with that, I put it on the drillpress and put two holes in it. One drifted off center so it's an ugly but hopefully functional knife. I'll counter sink these to hold it to the handle.

Then I clamped it in vise grips and heated it with a propane torch to bend it into a U. I think I could have done better here too.

That done, I got ready for heat treating. I had built a small forge last summer but never got around to curing it. So I built a fire in it, packed it with charcoal and then let it warm up.

I don't really like charcoal. It throws a lot of sparks. I have a venturi-type propane burner that I like, but the charcoal was more expedient.

While that was happening I taped a metal tube to an electric air pump and put that to the charcoal to get it good and hot. In went the blade.

I gave it 15 or so minutes to heat up cherry red, but didn't check it with a magnet. I know, I know ... :o

spoonknife02.jpg


I just dunked it into the warmed vegetable oil in the saucepan there. After it quenched, I repeated twice more, then took it out to let it cool. Quick hardness tests indicated that it worked.

spoonknife03.jpg


Next: off the the tempering oven. Mine is an old toaster oven that works OK. 75 minutes on high is somewhere around 425 degrees F. I believe it still a bit harder than normal for a knife, but probably workable and 'good enough.'

spoonknife04.jpg


So now we're off to clean up, trim off a few ends, polish, haft and sharpen.

Now putting some attention on the handle. I selected a piece of scrap hardwood. I think it's hickory or ash. It came from a pallet. I mortised a slot for the tang of my blade. Then I roughed out the handle on a bandsaw. Here it is fitted with the blade.

spoonknife05.jpg


I found the best way to shape it was to use a knife (mora, of course) and files. Notice I've drilled holes for the blade and countersunk them. This will accept Loveless-style bolts. I still need to countersink the blade.

spoonknife06.jpg



More to come. I hope to finish before the end of the month.
 
Thanks all!

I put some more work into it this weekend. More thinning down of the blade. I'm working with hand files and sand paper and am near getting an edge. There are lots of scratches that I hope to take out.

I also put the blade on the handle. I used 5 minute two part epoxy to hold in the loveless bolts. I counter sunk the blade and used regular brass screws. After the glue set up, I sawed off the brass parts and then worked them down with files.

It still needs more work, but is getting to near what I expected. 1/8" stock may be too thick for this. We'll see.

I think the heat treat will hold up. Next is more sanding and polishing, coating the handle, sharpening and use!

spoonknife07.jpg
 
Yes, it's for a lefty.

Finally, I'm able to use this scoop! I didn't hit my self-imposed deadline, but that's OK.

First, the good news. It works as a scoop. I was able to carve out the smaller spoon using my new scoop in much less time than it took to make the larger one pictured. The larger one was made in February without a scoop. Using just a hatchet, a mora, a broken home made knife and a SAK, it took much longer because I had no scoop function.

spoonknife08.jpg



spoonknife10.jpg



On the scoop, fit and finish are fair. I like using the loveless bolts and filing the heads off. I was spending a lot of time trying to pretty this thing up. Then I remembered what John McPherson said. "We don't care how it looks, we care how it works." So I put more effort into getting an edge so I could try it.


The bad news: it looks like the heat treating didn't go as well as I hoped. I have some rolling on the edge.

spoonknife09.jpg


I should have figured this. I've never had consistent good luck heat treating 1095 and I was in a rush. So the tool looks OK but could hold an edge better. However, it does work. I may file it back to see if I have better luck further up.

Ergonomically, the handle could be smaller but that's an easy fix. If (when?) I make another, I may shorten the straight section of blade 1/2" or so and make the curve more of a sloppy L rather than a J shape. In other words, less of a hook. I find myself choking up more on it than I'd like, so a shorter blade overall may be better. And I'll try 3/8" O-1 stock if I can.

But I've rejuvenated my interest in knifemaking or toolmaking as a hobby and have a deeper respect for those folks who turn out quality blades for sale.

Thanks for following along!
 
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