New guy here...

L

lemming303

Joined
Aug 24, 2010
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2
Hello all, My name is Kevin and I am trying to make my first knife. I bought a damascus blank (I guess that's what it's called) at the last gun show I went to because I like to make things and I thought it would be cool to make a knife.

Well, I came up with a design and put it on the steel. I cut the majority of extra metal off with my Dremel and then used an angle grinder to get close to the shape of the blade. I ran out of time since I had to come back up North to go to work, but when I get back to Texas again I will work on it some more.

I have a few questions though. The main question is how much do I do to the blade before I get it heat treated? I don't know all the lingo of the art, but should I go as far as putting the final edge on it? Or should I just file it into shape, heat treat it, and then do the polishing and putting an edge on it?

Is etching done very last?

Well, I guess really that's the two main question I have right now. I looked on youtube and all I found was videos of guys making it and really no explanations. I looked on the fact and fiction page here, but it didn't answer my "newbie" questions. Thanks for the help yall, and I hope this knife turns out like I expect it too!
 
Welcome Kevin!

I'm new too, but i think you just bought a piece of steel... The blank is a semi-finished or finished blade, ready to be completed by adding a handle.

Before heat treat, as much metal as possible should be removed while the blade is still annealed (soft), like it is now... Hardened steel is far harder to drill, grind, etc. Some leave the cutting edge slightly thicker than desired during heat treat to avoid warping, then grind in the final edge after the blade is hardened.

My understanding of damascus is that etching is a finishing step, done after the hardening process is fully completed.

I know it's not much, but i hope this helps. Good luck!

-Trip
 
There are several books I own that I used to check out at the library, while they don't give step by step blade grinding/filing, I still refer to them. They are by Jim Hrisoulas. "The Complete Bladesmith" and "The Master Bladesmith". Another is the "Western Bladesmith" on Tim Hancock. You won't find it at a library, but it's an excellent book and takes a damascus dagger from start to finish with excellent pics.
 
You will want to get the edge down to about 1/32" before you send it off to heat treat. When you get it back you will need to grind or sand (a file will no longer touch it) the blade to the final edge. You will then want to sand to finer and finer grits until you reach a pretty good polish (others may be able to give you more specific advice). You then etch the blade, which will make the whole blade dark. You then polish the blade so that the high spots become shiny again, while the low spots remain dark.
 
Welcome to BF, you will find pretty much all the information you will need about knifemaking. Do some searches here on the subject, read through the many forums about knifemaking.

As for your present project, try to get the knife nearly finished prior to heat treat. Drill all holes for the handle, and do all your grinding. leave only the finishing of the blade for after heat treat, and then assemble and finish your handle. The steel will be hard to work after heat treat.
 
With damascus leave the edge about as thick as a dime.Will need clean up after H/T.
Get all deep vertical scratches out before H/T.May cause cracks.
After H/T sand up to 1200 grit then etch,
Stan
 
Hi Kevin, welcome to BF. If you want a very good "how to" tutorial on knife making here is a great one. Why it's not stickied I have on idea but it's a great reference. If you have damascus you don't want to go to the point of getting the blade sharp. With any steel that isn't an air hardening steel you run the risk of them warping if they're too thin when they are quenched. You're going to want the edge thickness to be about the same thickness of a dime when you're ready for HT. Bear in mind when working with your heavier grits you're going to have to still do a fair amount of sanding through the finer grits to get the scratches out. Generally going up to about 400 grit or so is pre HT I believe is fairly common, give or take a bit in either direction.

One thing I will say that it VERY important before HT is to make sure you have ALL the scratches from a previous grit out before you go up to the next grit. Check different lighting, use a magnifying glass, etc before moving on. Once you see them after the blade it hardened it's a pain to get out, and you're work 3x's as hard removing it after the HT as you would've pre HT.

As for the etching, I haven't worked with damascus yet as I'm a new maker myself but to the best of my knowledge it's done after the HT. I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in on that. In the meantime as questions in the meantime you can use this link as a crude search for the forums. just put a space after the final / then start typing. Feel free to post some pics as you go along. If there is one thing everyone likes to get behind on here and read it's WIP's (work in progress).

EDIT, Stan got in there while I was typing about the damascus. See I told you someone would :D
 
Cool. I appreciate it yall! Like I said it will be a couple weeks til I get home and work on it again, but I will definitely post up a thread showing what I've done. Only problem is in Texas its still pretty hot this time of year, and my garage isn't any better. So, this limits it to how long I can work on the actual grinding of the blade.

Thanks for the help yall! I hope this thing turns out well!
 
Wow, 6 replies and no one said "Read the stickies at the top"?

Definitely read the thread Fletch mentioned. Hopefully STacy will make it a sticky now that he is a mod.
 
zaph1 said:
Wow, 6 replies and no one said "Read the stickies at the top"?

Definitely read the thread Fletch mentioned. Hopefully STacy will make it a sticky now that he is a mod.
Click to expand...

No kidding, I got that 3 or 4 times.

Stacy's thread is amazing, it has so many little things that I never would have thought of for my first knife.
 
Isn't it a great thread? I never knew to hold off wet sanding until 800 grit. I always started at 220. That would probably have saved me several hours, and will save several on the current knife. It definitely needs to be a sticky of it's own, and not just a link inside one of the others. It really covers one of the most asked questions on here.
 
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