My first knife

fast14riot

fast14riot

Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
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Sort of. I started with a blade blank; 440C, 6.75" overall, 2.75" blade. It came to me already HT to Rc 57-59, Mirror polished and some poor detailing in the profile. I cleaned up the profile, took it down to 800 grit finish, did some basic file work on the tang. Scales are Myrtle wood that came from my grandfathers shop years ago. I cut some small slabs off the end to show the ring patterns in these scales. 3/16" brass pins. Scales are Tru-oil armorall method, with some flaws from final finish that I will fix. I just wanted to get some pics up right now even though I had less than ideal light and a fussy one year old trying to play with my tripod. Enough typing...

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I have a notebook half full of patterns and ideas so now all I need to do is find some steel. Anyone have something easy to work with in either .060 or 1/16" by about 10"? please pm any offerings.


Maybe tonight I can get some better pics up here...


Enjoy-

-Xander
 
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Hey! That looks good! Great job there! As for steel try Sheffield Knife Supply (free .pdf catalog, $5 hard copy) or Admiral Steel (a bit cheaper than Sheffield, but not as many extra's and do-dads to blow money on lol) If you want a good description of the hardening methods, at least check out Sheffield's catalog, it tells you composition and Temps for desired Rockwell hardness, as well as HT temps. and the best quenching methods.
 
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Are you sure it was already HT? If it was hardened, you couldn't do filework. Unless they hardened the blade and clay-coated the handle. A process which I not sure would work with 440c. You very well may have an unhardened blade. Of course, you could have done the filework with a rotary diamond grinder and achieved the same effect.
 
Looks perfectly respectable for a first, even if it was a blank. What Zaph1 said is true, most files will not cut into a blade at 57hrc. What kind of file did you use?
 
I used a rotary file (HSS I think) and ended up ruining a rat tail file trying to do it for more than just a few passes. I went through about 3 sheets of SC paper getting the finish I wanted. Yes this was very hard steel. No it was not easy to work this steel.


-Xander
 
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No problems then. Just realize that normally filework is done before the HT. It turned out nicely. Diamond burrs will work after HT and you can them them pretty cheap at HF.
 
yeah I know file work is done before, but I didn't want it to look like just a kit knife. Plus I don't have any real way to do HT myself so buying a blank that was already ht'd was my only option at the time.

Well now I need to get some sort of steel to put my idea's to work and really test my ability to take information from print to fruition. also some new files.


-Xander
 
Thank you everyone for the kind words. The praise from some of the people here really goes a long way! I am really trying to scrape together a few extra dollars to get some steel but don't exactly know what to get. It needs to be annealed and able to be sent out for HT. Oh and did I mention it needs to be cheap! I have a grinder on my X-mas list so maybe I can make some decent knives.


Xander-
 
I might have gone for more palm swell on the handle, but overall it looks like a comfortable handle design. Not the rounded off edges common to a first knife, but actually rounded handles. Also, I really like the filework and overall finish of the handle. The fact that you ruined a file and still finished the filework shows determination.

(company line) You should probably start with some cheap 1080/1084 from Aldo or Admiral. I think I bought 15' of 1.5" x 1/8" for under $40. Great stuff for beginners. Easy to shape and HT.

Personally, I started with Titanium then 304 stainless because they were cheap. However, they don't HT and won't hold an edge. I don't recommend them. The first steel I bought was S30v. It's a pain to work but produces an exceptional quality blade if HT properly. Also, it takes forever to screw up bad enough that you can't fix it. 1 second on the edge of the platen and a 1075 blade is ruined. It takes 3-4 seconds of attention wandering to mess up S30v. If I forget to take my ritalin, that extra 2-3 seconds is worth the extra effort of S30v. However, if you're making the blade by file only, I probably wouldn't recommend it.
 
I might have gone for more palm swell on the handle, but overall it looks like a comfortable handle design. Not the rounded off edges common to a first knife, but actually rounded handles. Also, I really like the filework and overall finish of the handle.


well I know what you mean. I thought about that but then this knife is going to be a skinner so I decided on a handle shape that felt similar in edge up or edge down orientation and narrowing toward the ricasso for a pinch grip on the scales. This handle shape works out to be a more or less 3 finger hold for my large hands which is about how I handle a skinner anyway. The wood finish is the Tru-oil and ArmorAll method I mentioned in an earlier thread.

Determined is not usually the word my wife uses, but yeah, I couldn't just leave it half done.


thanks again!
-Xander
 
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To address your question about steel. Since you don't have a way to do your own H/T yet, I advise you to spend the extra money on some ground and annealed tool steel like O-1, A-2, or D-2. You can buy an 18" bar for less than $20 bucks from Jantz supply and that will be enough for 2 blades. Peters heat treating will H/T them for you. The few extra dollars spent on Blanchard ground and annealed steel will save time, aggravation, and money in the long run (ask me how I know). Any of these steels will make an excellent blade. Hope this helps.
 
Great lookin knife Fast14, kit or not. And you were able to make it look like it's not!

+1 on Darrin's advice. Personally, I quickly found that I like working with 0-1 the best, even though you'll be doing some shipping for HT. It's a good steel, easy to grind, and your end result will hold some quality as a real tool if treated right. Jantz has great prices, great selection, and you'll definitely not want to learn the hard way on trying (and not using) various types of steel....it's expensive.

As for my HT, I ship my stuff to Lee "Bear" Oates in TX. Very affordable and pretty quick turnaround. And if Santa brings you that sander, you'll have blades in transition while you're making new ones, so you probably won't be sitting around waiting a long time between projects!
 
A Dremel cut off wheels and Dremel chainsaw sharpening burrs work good for "filework" on hardened blades. You can not do the fine work but the larger stuff will come out good.
 
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