My amateur stock removal file knives

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panoz77

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Feb 3, 2007
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These were made using angle grinder, benchtop grinder and dremel and frequent water cooling, no after grind heat treat. I do not own a belt sander yet but plan on getting a cheap benchtop one soon, I am not a knife maker and don't claim to be. I'm a prepper type and just wanted to prove to myself I can whip up a functional knife from scrap if need be. Both file knives were very hard from start to finish as I did not temper or heat treat before or after. Comments are welcome, just don't be too hard on me.

First one, evolved a bit from what I was going for at first from this USA Disston file


Was initially going for a rat tail design but decided against it after more work and figuring out these easiest way to put a handle on it.


Evolving






Pretty much the finished product, although I have done some additional polishing to it since this photo






Plastic sheath from a $1.99 wahoo killer fits it like a glove




Next to Cold Steel Peacemaker II, I didn't realize it at the time, but I had ordered the Peacemaker about a week prior to starting this knife and when it arrived, I thought there was a vague similarity to the blades that was by no means intentional, lol
 
The second one I made a couple weeks ago, again, just to see if I could improve. I made this second one using the same tools in about 3.5 hours total. The one above took me significantly longer, I'd estimate about 12 hours total. Gave this one to my son, he likes it.

This one started life as a Beaver file also made in USA


Re-used an leather sheath from a knife that now resides in my kitchen block serving food prep duty.


 
The file hardness is about 66 HRC, but some files are surface hardened while core is soft. I like hard blades, because they can get extremely sharp edge, and they also hold the edge for a long time. Did you get a good cutting edge ?
 
Yes they seem to hold an edge, and it is difficult to put an edge on, so I can only assume that they are hardened all the way through. These are very old USA made files, so I highly doubt they were only surface hardened. The edge on both are a convex edge, the fighting style knife is not a slicer but does have a sharp edge, it has a very robust tip as well. The second knife is a thinner convex profile, also has a sharp edge and robust tip. The second knife has a slight re-curve.
 
file are great but can be brittle in my experience. Take the handle wrap off and throw them in your kitchen oven set at 425 F for about an hour at that time. This is only a guess at the time, I'm sure someone else will chime in on a good temper time if you decide to do this.
 
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