New guy and a question

V

vikingGoalie

Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
70
Just wanted to say hello.
I'm kinda a guy like I think most here are, where I like to make things, tinker with things, fix things, etc. One thing I've been meaning to really improve doing is making knives.
I started off with basic stuff, I made some bat-a-rangs that actually work well, more did it as a prank and my kids thought they were cool.
I've made a few pretty basic knives, and some mini throwing axes.
At this point in the journey i'm not someone forging but rather just removing material.

Still working out a few things in my shop, right now my only belt grinder/sander is an old craftsmen 1x42, and a 4x36.
The work ok, and I know they aren't the best for knife making, but they were free ;) so the price was right.

I have a mr volcano forge that I'm preparing, and I know this will make some here groan. But I made a forge out of a paint can and a combo of plaster paris and sand.
It works and can heat a knife up hot enough to harden.

Ultimately I'll either buy or make a 2x72 grinder, I lean towards making because I like making things, and if I source the parts (including the motor) for free/low cost seems like a why not give it a try.
But meanwhile I'm wondering, is it a bad idea to put a stronger motor on the 1x42 sander? I mean I can get a 1-3hp motor for free basically from a junked treadmill but just wondering if anyone's ever done that.
thx!
 
Welcome. You should post over in Shop Talk and search for old threads. Short answer, you don't want a treadmill motor.
 
thx everyone. i looked at shootr's 2x48 grinder that he put a treadmill motor on and it *seemed* like he was happy with the results of it. I'll dig a bit more. I admit I am, um, frugal on things at times ;)
I also take a bit of satisfaction out of re-purposing something that was headed for the landfill and is free.
So i cut out a basic knife out of some 1080, and starting to profile it.
Trying to up my game from this first attempt at a knife: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7eNjiHhZWEDzWkgD8
Now that was a couple of years ago, and in my defense.. I actually had the shape cut out ahead of time and I did that knife while camping ;)
I used charcoal with a pipe and a battery powered fan forcing air in to do the heat treat, the steel was mystery circular saw blade donor stuff.
Scales I used gorilla glue, and I trimmed the handle down by eye (the scales were just red oak from the big box store) with a cordless circular saw and then sanded and put my half ass edge on it with paper and a stone.
It worked, it will cut but trying to up my game from that.

So I had some scrap L shaped remanent from a 4x4 post that I had trimmed out a 3x3 square out, leaving me with a perfect 90 L shaped piece of wood 6 feet long. So... I made two jigs, mainly because it was just easier (took like 10m to make both)
So my jig to do profiling. I just use my protractor gizmo to set the table at the right angle: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XZfbCFdjoE2TnK2M7
With the long base it makes it easy and consistent. But I am already seeing that profiling this with a 1x42 1/3 hp sander is a slooow process. So a DIY frankenbuild grinder is probably in my near future.

But this leads me to a question. (er dumb question perhaps) So I want to profile this steel (1080) before I do the hardening and do the final edge after as I've read if the edge is to thin you can warp.
But my question is I've seen others when they are profiling they are cooling the knife down constantly. How necessary is that if you are going to heat treat it afterwards?

(i reserve the right to ask more dumb questions later) ;)
 
vikingGoalie said:
But my question is I've seen others when they are profiling they are cooling the knife down constantly. How necessary is that if you are going to heat treat it afterwards?
Click to expand...
Cooling while grinding just helps to hold the blade without burning your hands, and should not affect the final heat treat. Now grinding post heat treat is yet another story.
 
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