My first file knife, advice needed

G

Grimp2001

Joined
Jan 20, 2018
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Hi, I have never made a knife before but thought I'd give it a go using an M2 steel file I picked up. I used an angle grinder and a very basic sander. It's not perfect but it turned out ok I think, although it was a pretty slow process! I've also had a go with kydex which I found interesting to work with. I have a question though: Should I heat treat this? It cuts pretty well as it is. I also tried acid etching it back to grey (I was hoping for black!) which one of the pics show. Looking forward to hearing any advice :)
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Welcome. Fill out your profile so we know more about you. You could live right next to one of us. Id read through the sickies they have pretty much all the info you will need. Your knife isnt too bad. You need to concentrate on making crisp plunge lines and clean up the scratches as best you can.
I'd also suggest use known steel. New Jersey steel baron and alpha knife supply both have what you'll need. Id suggest 80crv2 in .125 thickness.
 
Grimp2001 said:
Hi, I have never made a knife before but thought I'd give it a go using an M2 steel file I picked up. I used an angle grinder and a very basic sander. It's not perfect but it turned out ok I think, although it was a pretty slow process! I've also had a go with kydex which I found interesting to work with. I have a question though: Should I heat treat this? It cuts pretty well as it is. I also tried acid etching it back to grey (I was hoping for black!) which one of the pics show. Looking forward to hearing any advice :)
iPejSH
bPxqZx
dy1pSH
cs8a1c
Click to expand...

Well , for the first one it is more then good .Are you sure that steel is M2 ?First time I hear that there was a file from M2 steel ??
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Thanks for your comments, I'm really keen to make more so any pointers are well received. The only reason I think this is M2 is due to the 'HighSpeed' stamp on the file end, which I had to Google and that was what I discovered... I'm very new to this as you can probably guess :)
 
That is an excellent first attempt. The profile is solid and has a nice flow.
I wouldn't mess with trying to heat treat it, you don't know what it's made of so anything would be a shot in the dark. Call it practice, get some good knife steel and make another!
 
Many thanks for the encouraging comments. I'm trying to find a workshop at the moment to get started in, until then it's a back garden thing while the weather holds out. Looking forward to seeing what I can come up with though I expect a few disasters on the way!
 
For a first attempt, that's pretty good! lot better than my first knives for sure, nice job on the kydex as well. As far as improvements, be sure to take a little time and clean up any scratches in the blade, hand sanding is time consuming, but truly does pay off in the finished product when done correctly. As for the sheath, not too bad, easy on setting those eyelets though, the coating tends to flake off when hammered too aggressively.
 
I disagree with those that say pass on Heat Treating that attempt at a blade--Unless it is hard already--quite possible--but if not, I would take it to a good cherry red throughout the blade and dunk it in some peanut oil and then test it for hardness--if it does harden, put it in an oven at 450-500 for an hour and let it cool down to room temp, and then stick back in the oven at the same temp again for another hour and let it cool to room temp--the oven part is tempering the blade--in the first part dunking in the oil makes it too hard and also brittle, the tempering takes enough hardness out to make it durable but not brittle.

And also, I like your blade shape and detail! I agree with the other member who said to work on hand sanding it as best you can!
 
Thanks for all these comments. I'll consider heat treating as an experiment. Also thanks for the kydex suggestions - it just proves you guys look at the details! I had an issue with the length of the rivets, ie too short, so had to sand the kydex down and countersink them. Even then it was still a squeeze hence the crushing issues! Annoying as that's what came with the kydex. Will put it down to experience. Am working on a new smaller blade now so will post pics as it develops
 
The files I have used labeled "HIGH SPEED" are chip breaker files. They are made to for fast filing to remove metal quickly and not clog with chips. As far as I know, they are the same steel as normal files. The carbon can range from 1.00% to 1.40%, and alloying varies a lot. I have never heard of an M2 file. M2 is used on rotary things like drill bits, taps, reamers, burrs, milling tools, etc.
 
Thanks for this, I'm new to the game and any advice or information is really helpful! Real life experience is far more useful than Google searches and I'm grateful for any assistance. I have a load of old files and will see how they work out in due course.
 
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