Oh no! Not ANOTHER knife...

thank you, wildmike, (can I call you Mike?). And I agree with everything you've said:thumbup:. It takes a lot longer but the result can be precise(enough:o).

I actually made a bit of a mistake tonight, but I think I have enough material that I can minimize it.

Here's a tip for you; drinking fermented grains prior to working in the shop is not an entirely bad idea, however too much of a good thing...
Like, 'yeah- I drive better when I'm drunk'. NOT.
I drive better when I'm buzzed:eek:

So, I started this knife pretty much same as the last one. Filed a taper toward the tip. I do this prior to the profile being cut because I can scribe a good taper which is consistent top to bottom. I could save myself a lot of work by doing it after the profile has been made, but I do not have the tooling to ensure a symmetrical taper.

The taper is filed to 4" back from the tip, and terminates at the plunge cut for the upper swedge. I brought it down to where the black marking is, but I didn't take a picture of it at that point, I was just glad to have it down. It took a long fucking time, I tell you. Then it was time to move on to my second least favourite job...stay tuned.

Steel whiskers, kinda cute:)

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I went through 4 or 5 hacksaw blades. Hacksawring out the profile is my LEAST favourite part of this stuff. That means I'd like a bandsaw!


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startin to look a little knife shaped, eh?:)
 
not too sure yet my man. The scraps will be chilling for awhile, but one day I will likely make little carving tools out of them.
 
Well, done with the hacksaw. Thankfully.
Now, on to my favouritest tool:)

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These are all the various files I've used up til this point.

I must point out here, that Wolfgang Loerchner very graciously gifted unto me the small files during the original 'uh oh' thread. I am just starting to learn how to use them. Anyhow, thanks again Wolfgang, your support has made a huge impact on me. Not to mention your Artwork:).
 
I'm off to Dave Lisch's knife school tomorrow, and I might not get a chance for a few days to post anything new. I don't want to leave you all in suspense!

So, here's the profile pretty much done. I think I'll have to tweak it a bit due to a bonehead mistake that I made, but this here's pretty much the shape she'll have. I'm draw filing the whole thing in this picture to clean/true it up a bit;

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some more neat pictures;

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I will name my venture 'Steel Whiskas'!
 
I love that second to last photo. Very abstract. I kinda wish I didn't know what it was so my imagination could dream up something different. :p

See you tomorrow.
 
Lorien,
Looks like it is going well, and the pics are good too. You don't ski by any chance? Hope your bandsaw dreams come true. Keep rocking on when you can.

Eric
 
thanks Eric, and yes I do ski. Haven't for awhile, but I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten:o Nothing like carving pow with a wee flask of warmth for the lift up:thumbup:

thank you too, Jeff.


See ya'll next week:)
 
almost forget about this thread!

Well, I received some sad news, and that is that this knife will break:(. I was discouraged to hear that, but I'm going to keep at it and finish it anyway. This knife is for my own self, and I'll use it and we'll see what happens. But I have it on good authority that due to the hardness of the material and the design of the tang that I shouldn't expect it to last forever.

Oh well, the journey for me is more important than the destination at this point:)

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I see my time here as the investment. If I end up with a piece of crap, I'll still be proud of it, and grateful for the time spent learning about how to make a knife. Hopefully it will at least look cool and feel nice in hand.
 
keep up those pic,s i have made a knife by files and sandpaper it,s work. a good way to use your time its looking good
 
Who told you it would break and why? If they mean it will eventually break due to hard use, then ok, that could happen to any knife.
 
ok, let's not get too focused on whether or not the knife will break:D.

A few folks have asked me about that, and I want to let it be known that this critical perspective was valuable input for me, much in the same way as any professional's opinion might be.

The context was, the tang is rather narrow, and because it isn't possible to differentially harden the steel and the tang will remain at full hardness, (around 59rhc) that it may be brittle.
I agree that in general that is true, however, S30V has a transverse impact resistance 4 times that of 440c, 154cm, etc. It is very tough stuff, and although it gets a lot of flak, S30V is amazing steel in my albeit limited experience.

Here's what Crucible says about it;

Although the longitudinal toughness for all three of these grades
is about 25-28 ft. lbs., the transverse toughness of CPM S30V is
four times greater than that of 440C or 154CM. These higher
transverse toughness results indicate that CPM S30V is much
more resistant to chipping and breaking in applications which
may encounter side loading. In knifemaking, its higher transverse
toughness makes CPM S30V especially good for bigger blades.

Just look at the elemental composition;

Carbon 1.45%
Chromium 14.00%
Vanadium 4.00%
Molybdenum 2.00%

the other constituents besides carbon should by all accounts guarantee a really tough steel. My experience using knives made from this material has been extremely positive, and while I don't have a big knife, (yet) made from this material, the edges on my Benchmades and a Marzitelli I have need sharpening far less often than others and are much easier to get sharp than knives I have made from other, (stainless) steel.


I don't agree with the prediction that the knife will break 100%, which is why I'm going to continue making the knife:).

However, that input has already done a couple of things for me;

1. made me question the viability of my design, and to think of incorporating changes to my next knife in order to make it better

2. tested my resolve

I feel that the knife will be fine under the use I'll be putting it to, and part of the reason I designed it the way I did was to keep the weight down. Usually, keeping the weight down comes at the expense of strength. With proper design however, one can have both light weight and strength. To a point. The design for this knife is generally good, I think, but the next one will favor strength a little more. I picked up a lot when I was at Studio 4, when it comes to making a REALLY sturdy knife:thumbup:

A great quotation which found its origin in the mountain bike culture is;

"Light, Strong or Cheap- pick two"
 
Having seen this knife first hand, I will agree that it's not guaranteed to break 100%,
but as you mentioned, the fact that it gets quite narrow and will be at full hardness.. coupled with the stress point created by the guard fit... (unless I don't remember that detail correctly)..well...

My concern about strength will be when you chop the knife and it gets stuck in the log. When you go to pull it out, there'll be some rotational force applied as well and it may break, particularly because the blade is so large.

Definitely go for it and see what happens. I'd be interested to know.
 
Lorien,
I worried about that when I saw your design the first time. I do my choppers with full tangs and only drill a few weight reduction and pin holes in order to retain the additional strength. However, when I started doing these several traditional metal knifemakers said the same thing to me. Don't dispair it may very well work out.

Eric
 
Thank you gents!

Ok, let's move on shall we?:)

I use this blue marker all the time. It works pretty good, but it's ghetto for sure. Anyway, it does help keep me on track(ish).

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I'm loving your post Lorien. Seeing the drawing and what you're doing to make it come to life is really cool. I'm glad you're sticking with the knife until the end. Whether it breaks or not you'll have something to be proud of and a great lesson either way. Besides, if it were to break while in use it will be a cool story, unless of course it's a life or death situation in which case you should have had the Jason Knight special:)
Mike
 
I'm baaaa--aack!:)

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