- Joined
- Dec 12, 2012
- Messages
- 6
Hey BF, I made my first knife when I was about 14 (now 33). I spent days and days grinding it out of a chunk of sawmill planer blade on Dad's little 4" bench grinder. The last couple of years I've had the time and inclination to try my hand again, and I think it's much better. Bladeforums and an engineering degree help a lot I think. 
Here's number 1: planer blade ground hard, 4" hollow grind, walnut scales and a sloppy sheath from Mom's old purse
And number 2: made for my girlfriend for Christmas last year. Small Nicholson black diamond file, HT in a coffee can full of charcoal. Curly maple hidden tang with copper ferrule. It was originally about 3" longer, but I snapped the original tang off trying to straighten it. Tempered it back some more and drew the spine to blue with a torch after that. The spine ended up about 0.060" thick after getting all the file teeth off, which made fitting the copper ferrule very tricky. It took a nice keen edge and feels pretty hard on the stone, for what it's worth.
Preface: I know. I should buy good known steel. That's not gonna happen until I get a job, and $1 files from the garage sale are great practice even if the HT is somewhat (very) suspect. I should also buy proper quenchant and warm it up.
What I'm working on now is my 3rd knife, and the 2nd I've done from a file complete with HT. It was an old 12" Nicholson Black Diamond. I got a fistful of old files at a garage sale for $5, some decent but this one was pretty dull so into the forge it went. I built a 2BF a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I can heat a blade now. I designed it to be a short EDC/hunter, while fitting within the size of the file and the length of the forge. I think I made 8 drawings and then 3 cardboard prototypes before I cut it out. Knocked up a file jig for the bevels- man does that make it so much easier. Aaron Gough's video was very informative.
Hand sanded to 320 before HT, then stuck it in my little 2BF. I think my torch flame is shorter/smaller than optimal, I could only get the first 4" or so to red. That's ok for now, it covered about an inch past the blade on this one but I might have to put a hole in the back of the forge so I can move the blade around in the flame in the future. Tried to take it evenly about a shade past non-magnetic then quenched in cold motor oil. Triple tempered for 2 hours each at 400F, and after the first temper I noticed that the edge had gotten a bit wavy... it ended up way too thin before I could HT it, probably 0.020 or maybe even less. For the next 2 tempers I clamped the edge between 2 aluminum scraps and that took most of the wave out.
As it sits now, I've got it back down to 800 grit and it's looking pretty good IMO.
I think this one will get the same curly maple as no.2, with 6 pins of 1/16" 308L stainless filler rod. I've got some pretty plain walnut left over from no.1 too, but it's kinda boring and I hate the little pits that are left after sanding.
I noticed something interesting after quenching no.3: the oil scale wasn't even. The first 1/2" up from the edge didn't have much scale at all, while the spine and the rest of it were pretty evenly crusty. After getting it down to 800, I can see some texture in the surface if I get just the right angle. You can kind of see it in the last picture. It seems like there are very small patches of varying hardness in the blade that the sandpaper just rides over, in a stripe about halfway up the bevel. I would hesitate to call it a hamon, but it seems like the spine was thick enough to cool appreciably slower than the edge. Probably explains the wave in the edge too. I can feel the different hardness when filing the spine, the first inch or so from the tip skates nicely and then starts to bite a little as you move away from the tip. I might try a vinegar etch and see if I can bring out any pattern in it, was thinking about doing that anyway.
Anyhow, there's my projects to date. I hope to get the scales on no.3 this weekend, and I'll keep it updated.
Cheers,
Drew
Here's number 1: planer blade ground hard, 4" hollow grind, walnut scales and a sloppy sheath from Mom's old purse
And number 2: made for my girlfriend for Christmas last year. Small Nicholson black diamond file, HT in a coffee can full of charcoal. Curly maple hidden tang with copper ferrule. It was originally about 3" longer, but I snapped the original tang off trying to straighten it. Tempered it back some more and drew the spine to blue with a torch after that. The spine ended up about 0.060" thick after getting all the file teeth off, which made fitting the copper ferrule very tricky. It took a nice keen edge and feels pretty hard on the stone, for what it's worth.
Preface: I know. I should buy good known steel. That's not gonna happen until I get a job, and $1 files from the garage sale are great practice even if the HT is somewhat (very) suspect. I should also buy proper quenchant and warm it up.
What I'm working on now is my 3rd knife, and the 2nd I've done from a file complete with HT. It was an old 12" Nicholson Black Diamond. I got a fistful of old files at a garage sale for $5, some decent but this one was pretty dull so into the forge it went. I built a 2BF a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I can heat a blade now. I designed it to be a short EDC/hunter, while fitting within the size of the file and the length of the forge. I think I made 8 drawings and then 3 cardboard prototypes before I cut it out. Knocked up a file jig for the bevels- man does that make it so much easier. Aaron Gough's video was very informative.
Hand sanded to 320 before HT, then stuck it in my little 2BF. I think my torch flame is shorter/smaller than optimal, I could only get the first 4" or so to red. That's ok for now, it covered about an inch past the blade on this one but I might have to put a hole in the back of the forge so I can move the blade around in the flame in the future. Tried to take it evenly about a shade past non-magnetic then quenched in cold motor oil. Triple tempered for 2 hours each at 400F, and after the first temper I noticed that the edge had gotten a bit wavy... it ended up way too thin before I could HT it, probably 0.020 or maybe even less. For the next 2 tempers I clamped the edge between 2 aluminum scraps and that took most of the wave out.
As it sits now, I've got it back down to 800 grit and it's looking pretty good IMO.
I think this one will get the same curly maple as no.2, with 6 pins of 1/16" 308L stainless filler rod. I've got some pretty plain walnut left over from no.1 too, but it's kinda boring and I hate the little pits that are left after sanding.
I noticed something interesting after quenching no.3: the oil scale wasn't even. The first 1/2" up from the edge didn't have much scale at all, while the spine and the rest of it were pretty evenly crusty. After getting it down to 800, I can see some texture in the surface if I get just the right angle. You can kind of see it in the last picture. It seems like there are very small patches of varying hardness in the blade that the sandpaper just rides over, in a stripe about halfway up the bevel. I would hesitate to call it a hamon, but it seems like the spine was thick enough to cool appreciably slower than the edge. Probably explains the wave in the edge too. I can feel the different hardness when filing the spine, the first inch or so from the tip skates nicely and then starts to bite a little as you move away from the tip. I might try a vinegar etch and see if I can bring out any pattern in it, was thinking about doing that anyway.
Anyhow, there's my projects to date. I hope to get the scales on no.3 this weekend, and I'll keep it updated.
Cheers,
Drew
