My first knife and another project

C

cooks 7

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Jan 27, 2005
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I am a newbie so please forgive any problems.
Here is my first knife, it's a thrower so it's already getting pretty messed up, but it flies great,
It's 3/8" 4140 differentially heat treated, and parkerized, the parkerizing needs work, but it wasn't bad for my first attempt. the handle is usually cord wrapped with black paracord, but i can get a good way to tie it and you can see my filework with it off. oh yeah, the sheet was heat treated to 32 rockwell and i profiled it with an air powered cut off wheel and a bench grinder, then finished it off with hand files, fun stuff but you do what you gotta do

here is a link
thrower4yv.jpg


here is a another picture it's of the thrower and it's big brother, another thrower, my hawk, came from the same sheet 3/8" 4140 heat treated,
it's a bit heavy so i am still working on it, that's why it hasn't been parkerized yet, but they match pretty well, it flies nice, a bit heavy to throw, but man does it stick

here is the link
pair7eb.jpg


let me know what you think, like i said this is my first so your honesty is appreciated, lots of projects coming, including a kydex sheet for the two of these and maybe a couple more knives to complete the set.
 
Pretty good for the first, or second or thirds!

Only thing I would find at fault would be the steel. I don't know a lot about 4140, but I think it would be dificult to heat treat hard enough to hold a good edge. 32 RC is pretty soft for a knife, though it's nice to cut and grind at that hardness. Also I think you'd get a lot more performance from the knife if you took the bevils up higher and thined the tang or drilled larger holes/more holes to reduce wieght.
 
3/8 stock! :eek: Man you have more huevos than I do, to undertake cutting that stuff! Looks like it turned out well though.

I'd recommend on future knives not to have a sharp corner like you do between the blade and tang on the knife. Even with 3/8 (!) stock, that will eventually begin to weaken and might break. I understand your frustration finding a knot that will hold. Try soaking the knot with superglue next time, and it should stay put longer. Wrap everything real tight too.

There's nothing quite so satisfying as the solid THUNK! when your blade hits the target hard and accurate... :D Enjoy and keep it up.
 
Thanks for the comments,
Will52100, the steel seems to hold an edge pretty well, the sheet i had was 32 rockwell, but I heat treated the edges with an o/a torch to get them harder, they seem to keep an edge pretty well, but they really aren't for cutting anyway, as for the bevels, they work well, it sticks easily, the reason i went with such thick stock was for weight, I have never been happy with any other throwing knive i have owned because they are all too light for my liking, it's not fun when they come back at your head from a bad bounce, this one is heavy enough it flies great and if it hits wrong, just kind of falls down, not back.
ddavelarsen, yeah, didn't really think about that angle, on the hawk, i radiused the angles to hopefully avoid stress cracks, but didn't do that to the knife, i'll keep that in mind for the next one, thanks for the knot tip, i was thinking about resin soaking or doing someting more permanent, i'll keep trying

again, thanks for the comments guys, keep it up, i learn best from my mistakes :)
 
4160 tubing is "cromoly" steel, I think, if I remember right, which a lot of BMX bike frames are made from. Not sure what it hardens to or anything.
 
yeah, the 4140 i used is chromoly, according to the manufacturer, if i did my ht right, the edges should be around 57 rockwell
 
Hopefully Mete or someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember from a welding/fabricating class that the 41XX alloys were developed to be deep hardening. 4140 should harden to about the same RC as 1040(which is a little low for most knives but probably pretty good for a thrower?), it will just harden clear through. Its better for parts with thick cross sections like axles and things because you can get uniform hardness easier. It generally comes pre-heat treated to a low RC because in a lot of applications its used for (like guns) that gives you the combination of strength and toughness you need and allows you to machine it to final shape after HT. That way you don't have any warping to deal with or refinishing to do.

Keep up the good work :)
 
If you got it to 57ish rockwell, it should hold a pretty good edge.

What it comes down to is if your happy with the design, then you done good. I think for a thrower I'd hate to get hit with the blunt end of the knife! :eek:

Well done!
 
Chiro75 said:
4160 tubing is "cromoly" steel, I think, if I remember right, which a lot of BMX bike frames are made from. Not sure what it hardens to or anything.
Click to expand...
Usually 4130 chromo used for BMX bikes. I have seen 4140 used for seatposts.
 
I made some knives that look similar to that. I like the design because of the axe like blade.

(How do you add pictures into this text box?)

I think I can help you with the wrapping but I need to be able to show my pics, and I don't know how.
 
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