Hi there, I am new to the forum, but recently I decided to have a go at making my own knife and to see if it could be a potential hobby.
I had the blades cut by water jet and today I took delivery of the three blades. I raced home where the workshop has been prepped for the past week.
I marked of the centerline on the blade and a couple of other reference lines and then I took the course file into my hand that has not seen a file for 15 years
, I build race cars as a hobby and my hands are quite tuff, but how rude was my awakening to reality.
Half an hour into filing ( I decided that I will build my first knife completely by hand as far as possible
) I put on the Mechanix Wear Impact gloves and another 10 minutes later I was sweating like a waterfall, I had a two litre water bottle with me and that dissappeared down my throat in no time.
Two hours later I was drenched in sweat, my hands shaking and out of breath, (I gym 4 X week and run 2X week, need to talk to the trainer, we are doing something wrong :jerkit: ).
I have a blister on my left hand below my thumb, the duck tape made no difference and I have trouble typing this post with very sore and stiff fingers.
I am very much a technocrat (lack of a better word) and I would normally not waste my time with old technology if there is more modern tech that can do the job more efficiently, but the three hours I spend ths afternoon grinding (yes, i cheated after about 2 hours I took the orbital grinder out to speed up the process :thumbdn
and filing away at that knife was great, it was only me and my thoughts and I realised what people had to go through in years gone by to make this world what is is today, good and bad, and that they are deserving of our respect.
Later this afternoon my kids came home from the Creche and I showed my kids my efforts, they were out of their skins with exitement.
The one side of the knife is nearly finished, still a bit of a bubble to the shape, but it is coming right, did some preliminary work on the other side, but I will leave that for tomorrow.
Will I do it again by hand, probably not, I like things to look their best and my metal work skills are not the best, I will go the belt sander way with the second knife to compare the quality of the finish between the two knives.
I have a tutorial going here with pics etc...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=465359
Thanks for reading this threat.
Matt
I had the blades cut by water jet and today I took delivery of the three blades. I raced home where the workshop has been prepped for the past week.
I marked of the centerline on the blade and a couple of other reference lines and then I took the course file into my hand that has not seen a file for 15 years
, I build race cars as a hobby and my hands are quite tuff, but how rude was my awakening to reality.Half an hour into filing ( I decided that I will build my first knife completely by hand as far as possible
) I put on the Mechanix Wear Impact gloves and another 10 minutes later I was sweating like a waterfall, I had a two litre water bottle with me and that dissappeared down my throat in no time.Two hours later I was drenched in sweat, my hands shaking and out of breath, (I gym 4 X week and run 2X week, need to talk to the trainer, we are doing something wrong :jerkit: ).
I have a blister on my left hand below my thumb, the duck tape made no difference and I have trouble typing this post with very sore and stiff fingers.
I am very much a technocrat (lack of a better word) and I would normally not waste my time with old technology if there is more modern tech that can do the job more efficiently, but the three hours I spend ths afternoon grinding (yes, i cheated after about 2 hours I took the orbital grinder out to speed up the process :thumbdn
and filing away at that knife was great, it was only me and my thoughts and I realised what people had to go through in years gone by to make this world what is is today, good and bad, and that they are deserving of our respect.Later this afternoon my kids came home from the Creche and I showed my kids my efforts, they were out of their skins with exitement.
The one side of the knife is nearly finished, still a bit of a bubble to the shape, but it is coming right, did some preliminary work on the other side, but I will leave that for tomorrow.
Will I do it again by hand, probably not, I like things to look their best and my metal work skills are not the best, I will go the belt sander way with the second knife to compare the quality of the finish between the two knives.
I have a tutorial going here with pics etc...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=465359
Thanks for reading this threat.
Matt