My first (almost) finished knife

I

internet person

Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
24
The blade is D2 tool steel. I made it with a 4" angle grinder and a 6" bench grinder. I hardened it in the fireplace. This is my first time making a decent knife out of decent steel. The scales are my crappy attempt at micarta, but obviously I did it wrong because it looks really bad. But they work and I'm happy with them. I glued them on because I haven't had time to get rivets for them yet, but the glue has held up to some pretty serious chopping so it should be fine until I get some. The blade is hollow ground, and works really well both for chopping and carving. It's 7"x1"x1/4". Total length is about 12". It holds an edge incredibly well. The tip is actually a chisel, not a prybar, but I guess you could use it as one.
Let me know what you think of the work, how I could improve it, and what kind of rivets or pins or whatever would work well. Feel free to mock it, criticize it, tell me I suck at this, or make fun of my parents. I just need some qualified opinions.

I realize the pictures suck, but I still can't get my camera to work the way I want it to.


 
my only thought is the d2 in the fireplace might not be the best idea. maybe some of the pros could answer that. the fireplace would probably work with 1095 and O1. but it sounds like youv'e put it through some hard use and it still holds an edge well.
 
Not bad for a first knife, much better than my first one (I threw it away, wish now I hadn't even though it looked like something mule threw up.)

here are a few suggestions.

D2 is a difficult steel to heat treat. I wonder if you really got it hardened correctly in a fireplace. Maybe so, but I would look into a more consistant form of heat treating. If you must use D2, I would consider sending it out for heat treat until you have an electric oven. Someone please correct me here if I am wrong.

I will give you the advice my mentor told me. Hand sand until there are no scratches. It takes forever, and is tedious, but makes the knife look like it was done professionally.

Get some pins or rivots on the next one. The glue will only hold on for so long. keep in mind that a knife should be made to last 100 years or longer. after 10, epoxy will probably crack and lose its adhesiveness, if that is a word.

In general, the grind lines look straight and pretty clean. you have a good start there. Keep it up. I wish I could show you my first knife. It looked like crap (can I say crap here?)

I mean no offense with anything I said. you are doing well for the first knife.

Matt
 
internet person said:
But they work and I'm happy with them.
Click to expand...

If this is how you feel about the whole knife then, imo, that's what matters. If you're not making to sell then you only have to please yourself.
As for critiques, you are probably the best judge of that. You have learned a lot, I'd wager, doing this knife. Some things you realize would work better another way next time around. Just always learn from your mistakes and they will be well worth the frustration you felt while making them.
I realize that's a pretty ambiguous answer but without a specific question I'm not to good at critiquing.
About pins. Did you harden and temper the tang when you did the rest of the blade? If so then I'd say you have a learning expierence on your hands because it's really hard (pun intended) to drill pin holes in a hardened tang.
I usually drill my pin holes before I heat treat then after tempering I apply one side of slab and drill through it , then the other.
Hope some of this is usefull.
Welcome to the wonderful world of knife making and God bless,
Stitch
 
ya the only thing im wondering about is how the HT really worked out.

at first i saw the blade and thought "WTF that looks bad" then after i looked at it again i thought "hmm, well actually, thats kinda cool, hmm i wonder how well that will function", i wonder how hard it is to sharpen it really.

would you mind if i try out that shape (i ask because you are the first i have seen with that shape)

o and since you said i could.. Your father was a hamster and your mother smelled of elder berries. :p

-matt
 
Yeah, SR_matt. Go ahead. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :)
Anyway, thanks everyone for the feedback. I do intend to put some rivets in this thing as soon as I get around to it, but for now the glue is holding up quite well. Maybe I'll make new handle scales while I'm at it.
 
I kinda like that design, pure function, no flash. With that chisel tip and the exposed tang, that will surely hold up to some heavy bashing. I hope the fireplace heat-treat "took".
 
I should probably mention about the heat treating... I didn't just build a fire and stick it in there and hope for the best... I took about 20 pounds of charcoal in a small firebrick box and aimed a leaf blower at it. When I took the knife out to quench it, it was yellow the entire length of the blade. It was that hot for about a half hour. I quenched it in mineral oil.
 
Cool, then it's really hard and should be tempered back some. I'll let the people who know what they're talking about tell you how.
 
Unless your fireplace was burning at about 2000 degrees for 20 minutes, i doubt that blade is heat treated....Perhaps its partially hardened or you have some hard scale on the surface....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top