newbie knife building question about shaping steel blanks

J

jagdman

Joined
Sep 28, 2014
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I was thinking about trying to make a blade. I have limited tools. I do have a 4 inch belt grinder, angle grinder and a drill press. I was thinking about buying a piece of good steel to do it. My question is, do I need the equipment to temper it, or can I just keep it cool while I grind and sand? Will that keep the original hardness of the steel blank?
 
jagdman said:
I was thinking about trying to make a blade. I have limited tools. I do have a 4 inch belt grinder, angle grinder and a drill press. I was thinking about buying a piece of good steel to do it. My question is, do I need the equipment to temper it, or can I just keep it cool while I grind and sand? Will that keep the original hardness of the steel blank?
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If the origional steel blank is annealed it will be butter soft and easy to cut file and shape.

You have to have it heat treated, but you can send it out to pro HT companies, or custom makers here at blade forums

Look in the services offered section for a HTer


Look here for some tips
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...to-build-first-folder?p=14063914#post14063914
 
I am also relatively new at this also. I have made about 30 knives now. I have cut O1, A2, CPM154, and 154CM with an angle grinder. I make no particular effort to keep the steel cool while I am cutting it. If it gets to glowing, I might back off a little. Then I hand file and hand sand, with no problems. When the blanks come back from the Heat Treaters, they are much harder.

Edit: there may be some steels that will "work harden" from the heat of cutting, but I don't know which ones.
 
Taking reds advice can save alot of hard work and heartbreak. Go to the stickies and find a HT company, most can do air hardend, A2, and all stainless, some (Peters) also does oil quench, all simple steels 1084, 1095 and and many others. The best value I have found for a single blade or two is texasknifemakersupply, will price by the piece and not as a batch or minimum. Cut away everything that does not look like the knife of your dreams, send for HT, check mail every day. Then finish the knife.

good luck
 
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