I kept having the urge to make something bigger, more along the lines of a mini machete or camp chopper. However, the only steel I have to work with is 1/8" 1080, 1.5" wide.
Eventually I decided to just go for it, and use it as a practice piece if nothing else. The original plan was for a G10 or Micarta handle in black with aluminum corby bolts. Of course it would/will get a thong hole. As you can see, I didn't go as far as the handle or even fully finishing post heat treat. I ground the edge and sanded it down for the most part but the heat treat was only partially a success. It got hard, that part was a bear due to the length (too big for my little HT forge) but worked out. The problem is that it wound up pretty badly warped and despite my best efforts I couldn't get it close enough to straight to even consider putting up for sale. It's not even really flat enough to put scales on, I'd have to go to a lot of effort to avoid a distinct gap and it's just not worth the time, it will never be straight enough overall (my skill is at fault, I'm sure someone with skill at forging could straighten it easily enough). I put the cord wrap on just to test the blade and will most likely drill a thong hole next time I'm doing that for another knife. Who knows, maybe I'll slap some scales on it later, a little colored epoxy as filler.... It'll be good enough to toss in my camping gear.
The blade is a convex grind, slight recurve but most of the curve is actually at the spine where I dished out a bit. I'm not sure I like the design or not, particularly in 1/8" steel, it was kind of light for the concept already. Perfectly straight wasn't working for me though, and I didn't want to take the weight off at the tip.
I learned a bunch making this oddity. The biggest thing I learned was that my little heat treat setup is NOT sufficient for something this long. Maybe if I add a muffle tube or something, but trying to get the whole blade up to temp at once was very difficult. Only the blade and maybe an inch past the plunge lines is hardened, so putting holes in won't be a problem. If I make another, or anything else this big, it will have to go out for HT. That opens up other options in steel as well.
Overall I'm a bit bummed about the failure, but I knew going in that it probably wouldn't turn out as planned and used it as an opportunity to try new techniques and ideas. If nothing else, it's one heck of a chopper for the weight, just with a funky warp. The more I think about it the more I think I will put some scales on it anyway. The cord wrap's almost as bad as nothing on this and unless I'm scrapping it entirely it needs a handle.
Eventually I decided to just go for it, and use it as a practice piece if nothing else. The original plan was for a G10 or Micarta handle in black with aluminum corby bolts. Of course it would/will get a thong hole. As you can see, I didn't go as far as the handle or even fully finishing post heat treat. I ground the edge and sanded it down for the most part but the heat treat was only partially a success. It got hard, that part was a bear due to the length (too big for my little HT forge) but worked out. The problem is that it wound up pretty badly warped and despite my best efforts I couldn't get it close enough to straight to even consider putting up for sale. It's not even really flat enough to put scales on, I'd have to go to a lot of effort to avoid a distinct gap and it's just not worth the time, it will never be straight enough overall (my skill is at fault, I'm sure someone with skill at forging could straighten it easily enough). I put the cord wrap on just to test the blade and will most likely drill a thong hole next time I'm doing that for another knife. Who knows, maybe I'll slap some scales on it later, a little colored epoxy as filler.... It'll be good enough to toss in my camping gear.
The blade is a convex grind, slight recurve but most of the curve is actually at the spine where I dished out a bit. I'm not sure I like the design or not, particularly in 1/8" steel, it was kind of light for the concept already. Perfectly straight wasn't working for me though, and I didn't want to take the weight off at the tip.
I learned a bunch making this oddity. The biggest thing I learned was that my little heat treat setup is NOT sufficient for something this long. Maybe if I add a muffle tube or something, but trying to get the whole blade up to temp at once was very difficult. Only the blade and maybe an inch past the plunge lines is hardened, so putting holes in won't be a problem. If I make another, or anything else this big, it will have to go out for HT. That opens up other options in steel as well.
Overall I'm a bit bummed about the failure, but I knew going in that it probably wouldn't turn out as planned and used it as an opportunity to try new techniques and ideas. If nothing else, it's one heck of a chopper for the weight, just with a funky warp. The more I think about it the more I think I will put some scales on it anyway. The cord wrap's almost as bad as nothing on this and unless I'm scrapping it entirely it needs a handle.
