deputyrpa
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2013
- Messages
- 26
I finally made my first knife - a little skinner - out of one of my grandfather's old stone chisels. I can only guess it's 1080 or something of that family.
Sorry about the pic links, but I could not get any form of Imgur link to work to post the actual pictures. I registered a long time ago, but only started reading the forum a few weeks ago. I came across a pipe forge I never finished from about 8 years ago as I was moving stuff into my new farm shop. I finally finished it and found a new winter hobby, as I gave up skiing due to being too old to be a maniac. It seems only proper to now buy a membership here.
I made the forge from a 10" steel pipe, homemade insulation and made an entirely inappropriate propane burner for it. The forge insulation melted. So I bought Kaowool and satanite, and detuned the burner. I welded some scap angle iron and closed the back in with sliding firebricks. I'll get some more for the front. My old Carhart sleeve only caught fire once.
Melted forge
Since I was fortunate enough to inherit my grandfather's 125# anvil, leg vise and shope vise (he was a mason, plumber, etc.), I had a head start there. I bought a HF cross pein hammer and ground the pein down so it was usable to move steel instead of dent it. Someone at work gave me some flat tongs years ago, which are sometimes adequate. Welding to some square bar is much better. I've had a HF 1x30 grinder for years, which has been abused by working it way above its pay grade with all sorts of farm equipment repairs and fabrication. I just got the Grizzly 2x42, which is definately a few steps up. I'll be breaking that in on some 52100, which I cut up from scrap machine bearings I had laying around.
So I pounded out the chisel, and cut two blanks out of it. I shaped it with an agle grinder and flattened it with the HF grinder. I hardened it in Canola oil, as that's what I could get my hands on other than the buckets and buckets of used diesel oil I have. Then I tempered it 2x at 400 for two hours. Then I made the other blank into a similar knife for my neighbor. His came out better, of course.
Rough blades
I didn't polish the blade, but sanded it to my patience limit of 320 grit. (The next one will spend the day in my brass tumbler.) Then I blued the steel to protect it to a reasonable degree. I did not burnish it, because it looks cool as is - almost like monotone case-hardened. I had sawed off a chunk of maple burl years ago, so that was rolling around the basement. I used a 30 year old can of concrete, brick and wood waterproofing stuff for the wood finish. They don't make it anymore. Probably illegal now. I think it came out ok, and the steel is hard and sharp as f*(k. It takes and holds an edge really well. As you can tell, I didn't spend a lot of time on detailing.
Finished First Knife
And then I made a Kydex press from a hunting seat pad, scrap wood, and a hinge. The riveting was unsuccessful with a homemade punch and mini ball pein, so I ordered a rivet setter to finish my neighbor's sheath.
Kydex Press
Thanks for any comments.
Sorry about the pic links, but I could not get any form of Imgur link to work to post the actual pictures. I registered a long time ago, but only started reading the forum a few weeks ago. I came across a pipe forge I never finished from about 8 years ago as I was moving stuff into my new farm shop. I finally finished it and found a new winter hobby, as I gave up skiing due to being too old to be a maniac. It seems only proper to now buy a membership here.
I made the forge from a 10" steel pipe, homemade insulation and made an entirely inappropriate propane burner for it. The forge insulation melted. So I bought Kaowool and satanite, and detuned the burner. I welded some scap angle iron and closed the back in with sliding firebricks. I'll get some more for the front. My old Carhart sleeve only caught fire once.
Melted forge
Since I was fortunate enough to inherit my grandfather's 125# anvil, leg vise and shope vise (he was a mason, plumber, etc.), I had a head start there. I bought a HF cross pein hammer and ground the pein down so it was usable to move steel instead of dent it. Someone at work gave me some flat tongs years ago, which are sometimes adequate. Welding to some square bar is much better. I've had a HF 1x30 grinder for years, which has been abused by working it way above its pay grade with all sorts of farm equipment repairs and fabrication. I just got the Grizzly 2x42, which is definately a few steps up. I'll be breaking that in on some 52100, which I cut up from scrap machine bearings I had laying around.
So I pounded out the chisel, and cut two blanks out of it. I shaped it with an agle grinder and flattened it with the HF grinder. I hardened it in Canola oil, as that's what I could get my hands on other than the buckets and buckets of used diesel oil I have. Then I tempered it 2x at 400 for two hours. Then I made the other blank into a similar knife for my neighbor. His came out better, of course.
Rough blades
I didn't polish the blade, but sanded it to my patience limit of 320 grit. (The next one will spend the day in my brass tumbler.) Then I blued the steel to protect it to a reasonable degree. I did not burnish it, because it looks cool as is - almost like monotone case-hardened. I had sawed off a chunk of maple burl years ago, so that was rolling around the basement. I used a 30 year old can of concrete, brick and wood waterproofing stuff for the wood finish. They don't make it anymore. Probably illegal now. I think it came out ok, and the steel is hard and sharp as f*(k. It takes and holds an edge really well. As you can tell, I didn't spend a lot of time on detailing.
Finished First Knife
And then I made a Kydex press from a hunting seat pad, scrap wood, and a hinge. The riveting was unsuccessful with a homemade punch and mini ball pein, so I ordered a rivet setter to finish my neighbor's sheath.
Kydex Press
Thanks for any comments.
.....
. So should he...
Looks great! A little constructive criticism: the pins should be centered on the handle, and I like when the front pin is the same distance from the front of the scales as the back pin is from the back. Can’t wait to see your next one!