Here are some pictures of my first effort at making a knife. Thanks to all those who gave their advice and encouragement such as Peter Nap, Epsilon, Max Ogg, Alarion, Will52100, tmickley, silent, beowulf, Bruce Bump, Bruce Evans and Lane Fluit of Duel Knives. I am sure there are some that I have missed mentioning.
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=775194&uid=536040&members=1
The blade length is 6 inches and the overall length is 10 inches. The blade material is some 1/16 inch thick Sandvik 15LM (equivalent to AISI 1074) that I salvaged from a bandsaw blade from a timber mill. The handle material is some paper micarta salvaged from some prototype AC motor drives at work. The handle pins are 5 mm brazing rod.
The blade blanks were cut to shape using a vertical/horizontal bandsaw. From there on, it was files and sandpaper and a lot of sweat. It was then normalized 3 times using the heat treat oven in the metal shop at work. The oven was also used to heat it up for quenching. I got some warping of the edge (it was too thin before HT, it would actually cut) that had to be ground off. The finish was taken to 2000 grit then polished with an automotive chrome polishing cream (Autosol). The handle pins were peened by squeezing in a big vice. The handles are also glued with 5-minute epoxy though I would use longer setting stuff next time.
The work was done in the mechanical work shop of our R&D department during my morning and afternoon breaks and at lunch time. Thanks also to Malcom Priest for the use of his shop and to Bob Rowland for the use of his HT oven. Needless to say, my extra-curricular activities eventually attracted a fair amount of attention from my co-workers. Some of them dropping by regularly to check my progress. Maybe some of them might take up knifemaking too so that I will have some company here
Oh yeah, the background for the pictures is a slab of the kind of micarta that I used for the handles. It would be from an AC motor drive with a capacity of about 100 hp or so.
Phil
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=775194&uid=536040&members=1
The blade length is 6 inches and the overall length is 10 inches. The blade material is some 1/16 inch thick Sandvik 15LM (equivalent to AISI 1074) that I salvaged from a bandsaw blade from a timber mill. The handle material is some paper micarta salvaged from some prototype AC motor drives at work. The handle pins are 5 mm brazing rod.
The blade blanks were cut to shape using a vertical/horizontal bandsaw. From there on, it was files and sandpaper and a lot of sweat. It was then normalized 3 times using the heat treat oven in the metal shop at work. The oven was also used to heat it up for quenching. I got some warping of the edge (it was too thin before HT, it would actually cut) that had to be ground off. The finish was taken to 2000 grit then polished with an automotive chrome polishing cream (Autosol). The handle pins were peened by squeezing in a big vice. The handles are also glued with 5-minute epoxy though I would use longer setting stuff next time.
The work was done in the mechanical work shop of our R&D department during my morning and afternoon breaks and at lunch time. Thanks also to Malcom Priest for the use of his shop and to Bob Rowland for the use of his HT oven. Needless to say, my extra-curricular activities eventually attracted a fair amount of attention from my co-workers. Some of them dropping by regularly to check my progress. Maybe some of them might take up knifemaking too so that I will have some company here
Oh yeah, the background for the pictures is a slab of the kind of micarta that I used for the handles. It would be from an AC motor drive with a capacity of about 100 hp or so.
Phil
