Please tell me that I don't have to junk this blade....

psycho78 said:
I've had the piece of steel forever. I don't have it in front of me at the moment to measure and can't remember exactly what I ordered. Inch and a half wide and 3/16ths - 1/4 thick maybe. It's heavy stuff.
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3/16 or 1/4 " you got room to play . Match the sides , grind into the spine , check the thickness . You can then either , draw a new center line on the tang and thin it down to match or you can round out the spine and blend in the grind . Once you match the grinds you can decide . What do you have to lose ? The whole thing is just a little thinner and it is all good practice . Turn mistakes into new designs .
 
Hey man:

If thats your first, why not just keep going? There are lots of other places to mess up that you might encounter and avoid during your next knife if you do.

I have a number of "broken spine" shop knives myself :)
 
I think I'll just use this one as a pattern, and a lesson learned. I wanna use the limited belts and tools i have to start something new.

I'm gonna order some more steel and start over.
 
Put it on your desk and call it a letter opener and a reminder of the beginning of your learning curve with the coote.
 
Practice grinding on the other side and try to make a scary sharp/thin paring knife for the kitchen.
 
The grind being too high on one side will not keep it from being a serviceable knife. It will just have a cosmetic flaw. I would finish it and keep it for a user or give it to someone who cannot afford but would appreciate a good user. It will also be good practice for other aspects of knifemaking such as handle finishing, sharpening, etc.. No matter how bad I butcher up one part of a knife I always finish it, because like I said, it may have a cosmetic flaw or two but it is still a good usable tool. Just my $.02.
 
I would finish it. From the looks of how deep it is, I would guess that the taper is going to be troublesome too. You will have to sacrifice some of the tip to get both sides even, and get ready to fix warpage in heat treat.
 
Send it to me . I'll fix it or ruin it and send it back to you . Finding ways to fix errors is educational .
 
I think the suggestion to swedge the top edge would look very good. I prefer the top edge of knives to have a bit of a roll to them. Take the swedge down the tang and fit the scales to the bottom of the swedge so that the metal rises a bit above the scales in a smooth flow.

Swedge - Also called a false edge, it is a ground edge on the back of the blade's spine, that is chamfered, or non-sharpened. It removes weight from the blade and can change the blade's balance and penetration performance and appearance.
 
Just grind the tang down to match the grind. The blade will be thinner-so what?
Pretty simple.
 
Great grinder, I have one as well.
Next time, start with your bad side and you will have more luck matching it with your good side, go slow with a light touch, just because it is grinding on a nice grinder does not mean it can be done well in 5 min, slow belt speed, light touch, examine it frequently.
I would try and finish it and use it anyways, thats how you learn, the master craftsman knows how to fix the oops, nothing to loose. Besides who other than the other knifemakers, looks to see if both sides are the same. The Rellies who I give my bothched one to never notice, they are just glad to get a free knife. Or if you keep it and you have a knife to use for ugly stuff that you would not want to use a "nice" knife on, those get used a lot around my place. Cheers Ron.
 
Mungo, YES! The Coote rocks my socks. I don't even have it set up all that great, and it's still a joy to use and see in action.

I thought about sharpening it and slapping on a crude handle and using it in the garden or kitchen or something....but if I sent that to a heat treater, they'd send it back to me with a note on it that says "LOL!"

:p

I'll do somethin with it... I'm leaning toward just having it around as a template and a reminder of my first experience on a good machine. Much like a shopkeeper frames their first dollar etc.

I'll surely get my butt back out there and try it again. If I screw any more up I'll mess with them, give them away or use them. This one is somehow special to me in it's own little way.

I want to look at this knife like object 20 years from now....ya know? Maybe later on I can show it to a new guy just starting out.
 
psycho78 said:
Mungo, YES! The Coote rocks my socks. I don't even have it set up all that great, and it's still a joy to use and see in action.

I thought about sharpening it and slapping on a crude handle and using it in the garden or kitchen or something....but if I sent that to a heat treater, they'd send it back to me with a note on it that says "LOL!"

:p

I'll do somethin with it... I'm leaning toward just having it around as a template and a reminder of my first experience on a good machine. Much like a shopkeeper frames their first dollar etc.

I'll surely get my butt back out there and try it again. I'll mess with them, give them away or use them. This one is somehow special to me in it's own little way.

I want to look at this knife like object 20 years from now....ya know? Maybe later on I can show it to a new guy just starting out.
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If I screw any more up

IF :confused:
 
haha WHEN! When i screw up...lol.

I just plan on being way way more careful the next times is all...lol.

Any of the ones i mess up on after this one will get modified, used etc. I'm just gonna keep this one.
 
Save it and have it HT with some others, or save it and use it for a test when you get to Ht yourself.
If you have the pully wheel with some spped changes go to the slowest speed, or consider buying the pully wheel not all that expensive and might save on steel costs.
PM sent I think? Cheers Ron.
 
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I would try to even it up as best I could and send it through HT with a batch of blades, and use it for testing purposes. If you do your own heat treating this is especially important. Even if you are out-sourcing the HT, it is worthwhile to know first-hand what your knives are capable of. You can also use it to evaluate different edge geometries, which should become important to you at some point in the near future. Just because it isn't pretty dosen't mean it has no value, just that the value is not as obvious.
 
Put cut swedges all the way down the top. Make it look like you did it on purpose. I learned a lot about knifemaking fixing problems. Cut swedged or drawn swedges will make it look better than before.
 
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