Mike awesome shop! It's great that you share your place of work to others.
I have been so inspired by your work. I actually started to gather files from sales/flea markets before I first met you at a Birch Run show but have been delayed in making knives out of them due to health reasons and money problems.
I wish I could afford one of your knives right now but I most certainly cannot with the hospital bills. I'm almost 22 and have no health insurance which sucks terribly. Since most of the hospital visits are out of the way, I can now continue on my quest to produce small keychain/pocket knives out of old files.
I have a couple of old files lying around that I wish to turn into a small knife and was wondering what exactly your steps are?
Do you just start grinding on a file that you cut down? Or do you anneal/soften them first? Get them to a thin edge then heat treat them? Then put a fine edge on it?
I don't wish to hollow ground the file, just a simple wharncliffe design for a small pocket knife.
Any info would be great.
You should hold some knife making courses at your place of work. I'm sure you'd get a lot of interest! I certainly would pay to come see you work!
I'm in Michigan too and would love to check it out.
Keep up the great work and I doubt that shop will always look that clean.
Take care
-Matt
