Mill Bastard Knife .. your thoughts ?

[EDM_Fixer]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68847&stc=1&d=1173838200
mill bastard.JPG ... it's a file it's a knife. nicholson mill bastard file .. titanium guard, teak handle , its about a 5.5" blade with facet back, warncliff shaped, i have cut some pretty mean gouges in a lot of other knives.. it has been a fun one .. and throw out the book when it comes to sharpening it lol ..

 

[Runs With Scissors]

beautiful....errrr....from what I can tell of it.

I think they make fantastic knives once annealed. Just made finished another one a few minutes ago! It's a four inch drop point with a Scandinavian grind and a para-cord wrapped handle. Lots of fun, and they more than hold thier own.

Here's a few of mine: (you can tell which ones are files and which aren't)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/karie...//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/karieann69/my_photos

 

[misque]

My thoughts? I think I'd like to see a picture of the whole knife.

 

[Stubai]

Not a bad knife all in all. Some blades fashioned from files tend to be quite hard to sharpen. Also, I have seen a few that were a bit on the brittle side, I easily broke a 5 inch blade while using a twisting motion around the pelvic bone of a deer. In this last case, the blade thickness was 1/8 inch. I should think that 3/16 or 1/4 inch would be wonderfully tough.

 

[misque]

Stubai,

1/8" thickness is good for a file knife if it's done right.
One thing some folks neglect to do when making a knife from a file is to temper that thing down to knife hardness level and not keep it at brittle file hardness. This is easily done with a regular kitchen oven and a fairly accurate oven thermometer. You heat the oven to 325-350 degrees F. and cook that file for a few hours. After the file takes on a straw or golden color, your done. That will take some of the brittleness out of the knife and yet leave it hard enough to hold an edge.

 

[Stubai]

Thanks for the info!

 

[WA Martin]

I have a couple of Anza knives that are, I believed, all made from files. I really enjoy them. If I find the time I will be calling back and ordering a larger knife.

I second the request for some whole knife pictures. What you have shown so far is really fascinating and I'd love to see the whole knife, both sides.