My Knife Making Journey - Advice Would Be Greatly Appreciated

[Frank Niro]

I too believe you have done a good job on the grinding. Your convex grind looks even and not too much left on. I will be watching to see more. Frank

 

[Stark Knives]

Thanks Frank!

 

[Stark Knives]

I started a new one in the last few days.

My 1x30 broke so I haven't done the grind yet, in the meantime I've started on my first kitchen knife. I'll try to get a pic in the next few days.

One question, I'm not sure if the handles are completely straight, will this affect the ability to attach the handles? If so, how can I straighten them? During HT?

 

[Stark Knives]

I think I straightened the handles well now.

Here's a pic of the kitchen knife I started.

My sander is supposed to come on Friday so I'll be able to do the grinds then.

 

[gixxer1237]

How thick is the kitchen knife?

 

[Stark Knives]

1/8".

 

[HallHandmade]

Take a piece of the scrap from the bar and test the belt with that. In normal grinding, you use moderate pressure to grind the bevels. Start with a few light passes, to get your position and angle right, and then repeat with more pressure to take off the metal.

Warning - a 60 grit Norton belt will remove steel fast. It will also remove skin even faster. Try and avoid any contact between your hands an that belt. I rarely use a 60 grit belt for smaller blades. On blades with a 3-4" edge, I start with a 120 grit Blue Zirc belt and cut the bevels in a couple of passes.

Second warning - If your grinder is a single speed unit, that speed is pretty fast. It can pull the blade out of your fingers in a flash, and will heat up the blade to a point where it is too hot to hold in a second or two. Dip in water every pass, and use a push stick or a grinding magnet to support your blade. I use a 9" or 5" grinding magnet to hold most of my blades when grinding bevels.

Third Warning - Some grind free-hand, and others use a work rest. If you use the work rest, make sure you adjust it so it sits just clear of the belt, but with a minimum of gap. A work rest that "wraps" around the belt is best. These have a "slot" ground into the rest so the side arms go past the belt .

+1

I'm new to knifemaking, but I'm a couple decades in on general metalworking. All of my "best" scars come from belt sander belts, angle grinder discs, or the items I'm sanding with them deciding to make a quick stop at my knuckles before going on an unauthorized walkabout in the shop.

Luckily I managed to avoid any serious injury by the time I learned proper use of the equipment. I thank my father for drilling SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY into my head as a child in his workshop. To the OP, a healthy fear of your tools and workpieces, as well as personal discipline (well-rested, sober, patience, no distractions, etc.) will keep you safe. It's just like a car accident... impairment, fatigue, lack of concentration will literally kill you.

 

[Stark Knives]

Here's a rather large update...

I did the grinds on both knives now. It's definitely getting easier the more times I do it.

Tip geometry.

Edge thickness.

Here's the other knife.

Tip.

Thanks for looking!

 

[CrisAnderson27]

Looks great!

A couple questions though. First, what are you quenching in? With edges that thin I hope its some kind of oil . Second...what is the intended purpose of your kitchen knife? 1/8" isn't a bad starting thickness above the heel, but you'll need to be able to taper that spine down relatively quickly to make it cut anything usually encountered in a home kitchen with any reasonable efficiency. Shooting for maybe a little bigger than 1/16" by midblade would be good, and then full taper to 1/32nd about half an inch behind the point (these are finished numbers, not pre-heat treat). This would be a good, simple grind that would be tough but still effective in the cut. Many makers don't even grind in bevels on kitchen knives before heat treat...just the distal taper. Knives this thin warp badly enough without the added complexities of spine to edge taper thrown in .

Now...a suggestion. Stace mentioned getting a bigger forge...and I absolutely agree! Even my paint can forge (about 7" of usable heat) was barely enough to reliably harden 8" kitchen knives. Understand, it wasn't getting the heat into it...that was easy! The problem was maintaining an even heat on a thin blade that overheated quickly while inside the forge, and cooled just as quickly outside. And don't even get me started on the tip!! Blades with a bit more thermal mass fare much better being heated to critical in a 'pass through' type scenario, because they hold onto the heat longer while outside the forge, and heat up slower while inside. For kitchen knives and a newer smith, I'd recommend at least 2" longer than your blade (more is better...for a while I used a cut down 5gal air tank that was 18" long. It was heated with three plumbing torches lol), with multiple burners and a good, heavy wall 3" diameter pipe or square tubing muffle to help radiate the heat evenly. Slide the blade inside with a lump of charcoal to use up the oxygen, and you'll be good.

Actually, here's a link to a Facebook gallery with some pictures of both my paint can forge, as well as the larger heat treating forge I built. Ironically I built it specifically to deal with heat treating kitchen knives. Even more ironically, I didn't feel comfortable with the level of control I had, and a week later built a $200 heat treat oven .

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...73741827.1401471526737415&type=1&l=59fb26ee75

Anyhow, again...nice work, and great grinding!

 

[sicily02]

Ben you did a awesome job for the first one. Man you are on your way.

Bryan