It's been a long time, but I got my first batch of eight O1 knives finished up. I posted the first a while ago, but I'll put them all here.
This was a set of eight blades I did as one batch (it made sense from a heat-treat point of view: I had Peter's Heat Treating of PA do them for me all at once, and I'd finish them out as I had time.)
My real weak points (that I know about so far!) are:
1. I have a really hard time bringing a convex high up on a blade. I use a 1x42, so maybe that's part of it, but anyway, I need to use a LOT more file-work before heat-treating to get the grind better.
2. "Proud pins." They drive me nuts, to the point where I don't want to use large corbies anymore, especially in wood. I'd use belts/files/belts all over the place trying to get these right, and need much more practice, but I haven't even really found a technique that holds promise. I dunno.
3. The tips of the blades: I found that I need to do them pretty much by hand only, otherwise the tip ticks out a bit, and I need to re-profile. I think a slower grinder would help a lot.
4. My patience/dedication to finishing work. While I'm pretty happy with how these turned out, I do need to spend more time with the sandpaper.
5. Distal taper, as in: I need to do it and make it work.
Anyway, here's some knives I made. All are O1 barstock, stock removal, and heat-treated by Peter's. I look forward to your comments if you care to make 'em.
Here's the red linen micarta ones, 5/32" stock. I posted the short one earlier, and made some changes to it since then. It's okay, but the longer one (made later) just works so much better as a cutter.
Here's some 1/8" blades in BCM and Green canvas micarta. These two work really well all around, and the short (4") green knife is the best all-around knife I've made so far. Balance, size, grind all work really well together. It's gifted to a buddy. The black one has also been ground a bit finer and higher since this picture.
These 3/16" BCM knives are a fun pair: the stubby one is the one I use all the time, great utility knife for me. Somehow, I got a really good grind on this, and even though it seems really thick while looking at it, it cuts great. I tried desperately to reproduce it on the large one, and failed. The big one's not horrible, but I can't get it just right. I love the knife, though, and might send it to someone rather than risk messing it up past the point of no repair. Maybe in 6 months or so I'll have the skill to handle it. We'll see.
Next are two wood handled 5/32" blades, maple and osage. Maple is gifted to the boss for letting me use a workbench in the warehouse (I wouldn't really be able to have any shop space if not for this, so I'm pretty appreciative of that.) The Osage goes to my Dad next weekend for his B-day. Both these blades are fairly nicely convexed up pretty high, and I'm very happy with both edges. I wanted to keep the Osage for myself pretty badly, but they say that you can tell a good gift that way: if you don't want to part with it, it counts extra, right? I think my Dad will like it just fine. I love the way the osage just feels dense. Super solid knife.
Those are the first eight of mine. So far, I'm really happy with the heat-treat. I've beaten on the ones I'm keeping, and they are acting quite nicely. Now, if I ever learn how to grind really well...
Here's one last thing I worked on: it's a CPM3V blank I bought from Matt Roberts a while ago (his Model 2.) It had a guard on it, but I took it off after a while, and am much happier. I re-profiled the handle a good bit as well. This thing is a beast. Note the tip that I messed up- this was actually the first knife project I ever started, and I ticked that tip- argh.
Anyway, the handle is Osage from a block I think is really good. I can't wait to use the rest of it.
That's it. Thanks for looking. Comments and advice welcome, of course!
This was a set of eight blades I did as one batch (it made sense from a heat-treat point of view: I had Peter's Heat Treating of PA do them for me all at once, and I'd finish them out as I had time.)
My real weak points (that I know about so far!) are:
1. I have a really hard time bringing a convex high up on a blade. I use a 1x42, so maybe that's part of it, but anyway, I need to use a LOT more file-work before heat-treating to get the grind better.
2. "Proud pins." They drive me nuts, to the point where I don't want to use large corbies anymore, especially in wood. I'd use belts/files/belts all over the place trying to get these right, and need much more practice, but I haven't even really found a technique that holds promise. I dunno.
3. The tips of the blades: I found that I need to do them pretty much by hand only, otherwise the tip ticks out a bit, and I need to re-profile. I think a slower grinder would help a lot.
4. My patience/dedication to finishing work. While I'm pretty happy with how these turned out, I do need to spend more time with the sandpaper.
5. Distal taper, as in: I need to do it and make it work.
Anyway, here's some knives I made. All are O1 barstock, stock removal, and heat-treated by Peter's. I look forward to your comments if you care to make 'em.
Here's the red linen micarta ones, 5/32" stock. I posted the short one earlier, and made some changes to it since then. It's okay, but the longer one (made later) just works so much better as a cutter.
Here's some 1/8" blades in BCM and Green canvas micarta. These two work really well all around, and the short (4") green knife is the best all-around knife I've made so far. Balance, size, grind all work really well together. It's gifted to a buddy. The black one has also been ground a bit finer and higher since this picture.
These 3/16" BCM knives are a fun pair: the stubby one is the one I use all the time, great utility knife for me. Somehow, I got a really good grind on this, and even though it seems really thick while looking at it, it cuts great. I tried desperately to reproduce it on the large one, and failed. The big one's not horrible, but I can't get it just right. I love the knife, though, and might send it to someone rather than risk messing it up past the point of no repair. Maybe in 6 months or so I'll have the skill to handle it. We'll see.
Next are two wood handled 5/32" blades, maple and osage. Maple is gifted to the boss for letting me use a workbench in the warehouse (I wouldn't really be able to have any shop space if not for this, so I'm pretty appreciative of that.) The Osage goes to my Dad next weekend for his B-day. Both these blades are fairly nicely convexed up pretty high, and I'm very happy with both edges. I wanted to keep the Osage for myself pretty badly, but they say that you can tell a good gift that way: if you don't want to part with it, it counts extra, right? I think my Dad will like it just fine. I love the way the osage just feels dense. Super solid knife.
Those are the first eight of mine. So far, I'm really happy with the heat-treat. I've beaten on the ones I'm keeping, and they are acting quite nicely. Now, if I ever learn how to grind really well...
Here's one last thing I worked on: it's a CPM3V blank I bought from Matt Roberts a while ago (his Model 2.) It had a guard on it, but I took it off after a while, and am much happier. I re-profiled the handle a good bit as well. This thing is a beast. Note the tip that I messed up- this was actually the first knife project I ever started, and I ticked that tip- argh.
Anyway, the handle is Osage from a block I think is really good. I can't wait to use the rest of it.
That's it. Thanks for looking. Comments and advice welcome, of course!
Last edited:
