My first knife

Sawce

Sawce

Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
147
This was made from a file that was temped down. I had two failed attempts prior to this but this was my first actual knife. Please feel free to offer any comments I'm very green and need all the help I can get. Thanks very much.
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Thanks, anything that could be done better? I appreciate the kind words and encouragment.
 
No real knifemaking advice per say except to use it and detertmine what it is you like and dislike about the design, materials, build, etc, and what you would like to change for the next one. Very good for a first attempt I think.
 
I think your next one should have a wood or horn handle.
:thumbup:
 
Im actually open to some feedback as to what kinda handle to put on this one. whats easiest to start. I was thinking about drilling a couple holes and maybe putting a handle on, then I would try to tackle a sheath...
 
Thats a pretty cool looking wee knife :thumbup:

The easiest handle to do is probably a cord wrap, they can look ok and are at least functional if doen good and tight.
A japanese style cord wrap is probaly the best looking and can be done with gutted 550 cord on small knives.

If your using metal from files to make small knives you could normalise the blade and reheat treat it.
You can get some cool temperlines with carbon steel and they make knives look much better IMO.

The knives you are making are obviously just your own so things like the final Rc and finish are not too important but its always good to play around with metals and different materials so you can get to know them.

:):thumbup:
 
Haze said:
Thats a pretty cool looking wee knife :thumbup:

The easiest handle to do is probably a cord wrap, they can look ok and are at least functional if doen good and tight.
A japanese style cord wrap is probaly the best looking and can be done with gutted 550 cord on small knives.

If your using metal from files to make small knives you could normalise the blade and reheat treat it.
You can get some cool temperlines with carbon steel and they make knives look much better IMO.

The knives you are making are obviously just your own so things like the final Rc and finish are not too important but its always good to play around with metals and different materials so you can get to know them.

:):thumbup:
Click to expand...
On the heat treat, I talked with Mykul Morris thru email and he gave me tips on how to temper the files down to around 58 so this one should be right around 58-59. wasn't fully annealed when I ground it so took a while on my 1 x 30 harbor freight grinder but I got there.

I'm not sure i follow you on the temper lines and and re-heating thing, I'm really not that knowledgeable about those things. if you would care to go into to some detail, I would love to know more about it.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
There is obviously a bit more to it than this but basically if you heat the steel up to red hot and let it cool in the air in its own time that will normalise the steel (make it soft)

From there you can heat the steel back up and quench it to harden the steel.
This will give you a temper line where the hard steel and soft steel meet.
You just have to buff off the scale and polish the blade up for it to become visable.

This is a very simplistic explination but if you get a bit of scrap steel and give it a go you will see how it all works.

You can test if the steel is hard by using a scribe or file.
The scribe/file will slide over the hard areas and bite into the softer steel.

:thumbup:
 
Haze said:
There is obviously a bit more to it than this but basically if you heat the steel up to red hot and let it cool in the air in its own time that will normalise the steel (make it soft)

From there you can heat the steel back up and quench it to harden the steel.
This will give you a temper line where the hard steel and soft steel meet.
You just have to buff off the scale and polish the blade up for it to become visable.

This is a very simplistic explination but if you get a bit of scrap steel and give it a go you will see how it all works.

You can test if the steel is hard by using a scribe or file.
The scribe/file will slide over the hard areas and bite into the softer steel.

:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up, I'll give it a go.
 
Great job - I would not put any scales on this one - I think it looks just perfect this way!

David
 
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