Started making my own knives

[buffalo01]

Your grinds look waaaayyyy better than mine did. I still cant do 3/4th grinds for crap. Im just going to play the disabled and crappy harbor freight platon card now. XD

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Your grinds look waaaayyyy better than mine did. I still cant do 3/4th grinds for crap. Im just going to play the disabled and crappy harbor freight platon card now. XD

Thanks. I've been researching upgrading the platen on the Dayton. Been noticing it flexes a little bit more when it's been running for a while. Also, I don't think it's totally dead flat. Tested a piece of wood and looks like it's proud in the center just a fraction. A square isn't absolutely perfect. Anyways, while practicing, learned light pressure is key! The more I try to jam it into the belt, the uglier it is.

 

[buffalo01]

Im getting a palmgren 2x42 for my next grinder. You can buy ceramic platon covers that cut down on heat and should be perfectly flat.

Thanks. I've been researching upgrading the platen on the Dayton. Been noticing it flexes a little bit more when it's been running for a while. Also, I don't think it's totally dead flat. Tested a piece of wood and looks like it's proud in the center just a fraction. A square isn't absolutely perfect. Anyways, while practicing, learned light pressure is key! The more I try to jam it into the belt, the uglier it is.

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Got some time in my garage today to reorganize my mobile grinding station as it's raining here today, absolutely lovely! Progress pics on both false edges, experimenting on how to create the radius's which I screwed up a bit, but oh well, picked a not so beginner friendly design to start with. still have more sanding to do on all.

mywhitewolf4 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

I have two digs in the blade. For all you longtimers here, if you don't know, DO NOT place your work on an angle on the edge of the belt lol. These two are a "design" element to my blade now

mywhitewolf3 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

The radius in the upper false edge isnt looking too good in the pic but its more even to the first pic. Once again longtimers, DO NOT angle in your work to the belt, you get a "designed" gouge! I'm glad I can help you professionals with that tip

Back to being serious, I learned a little bit more, I got to understand the bevel jig much more, used hand files to straighten a few very small areas on lines and the chainsaw file to create the radius's somewhat. I'm not going to go crazy, I'm going to leave the gouges as reminders, finish hand sanding, send it out to heat treat. 52100 steel. need to make a guard and handle. Appreciate the looks and comments guys!

Next is my Kabar copy:

The false edges are a little wavy and I don't know why LOL. Cleaned up the plunge lines a bit from the previous post. Oh! Best is I lost my tip!!! Oh well, I'll try to fix it. 52100 steel also. This'll be a full tang simple wooden handle with pins. Let me know what you think!

mykabar3 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

mykabar4 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Im getting a palmgren 2x42 for my next grinder. You can buy ceramic platon covers that cut down on heat and should be perfectly flat.

Oh I got my list man! will be upgrading the platen with steel and glass, completely rebuild that piece of crap. all steel work rest as well.

 

[i4Marc]

Dave, I noticed in your post above (#24) you have square corners where your tang meets your ricasso. This is no bueno. Square corners are stress risers and can lead to the knife failing at that location. Leave a small radius in those corners to distribute stresses.

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Dave, I noticed in your post above (#24) you have square corners where your tang meets your ricasso. This is no bueno. Square corners are stress risers and can lead to the knife failing at that location. Leave a small radius in those corners to distribute stresses.

Thanks for the tip Marc, once I get my file guide I'll grind down the tang a little to clean it up and add a slight radius. I cut out the blank early on then learned that part

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Designing the guard and handle shape now and have a question. The width of the guard and where the handle meets it when looking down the knife's spine, is there a good starting point on the width? I'm starting at 1" but that looks a bit too wide, making the handle look too far at the swell, 1.25".

 

[Busto]

Designing the guard and handle shape now and have a question. The width of the guard and where the handle meets it when looking down the knife's spine, is there a good starting point on the width? I'm starting at 1" but that looks a bit too wide, making the handle look too far at the swell, 1.25".

I am attaching a "WIP" of a Bowie build by Will Morrison that contains very useful information and GREAT Photos of the build. I highly recommend this to beginners because of the depth of the information provided. Hope you find answers to many questions.

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bowie-build-along.1200820/

 

[Dave Hamilton]

Since the last time I've been here, sent the blades to Peter's Heat Treat, shaped up the guard and squared up my black walnut, all epoxied and set, started to shaping the handle. Cut out the block on the band saw and hand shaping with a rasp and paper. I noticed it was spinning a little taped up in the vice with oak jaws, not steel luckily, so I pulled it off and have some shallow scratches to work out. Don't judge.

mywhitewolf5 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

mywhitewolf6 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

mywhitewolf7 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

 

[Dave Hamilton]

I need to take photos of my first completed knife the White Wolf copy, but here is the second one I finished in April. Clip point and black walnut. I liked the forged bowie Jimmy Diresta did on his youtube channel so made my own version. Give me a critique guys, please be honest on how I did back in April!

2021-01-17_05-15-28 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

 

[Randydb]

That looks pretty good for a second knife. I'm relatively new to knife making, but one thing I have discovered is that a lot of the "cleaning up" of the scratches and grinding mistakes can happen at 120-220 grit. A mistake happens so fast and gets relatively deep at 36 grit. Then it can get worse when you try to fix it at the same grit. But if the rest of of your work is fine at that grit, you can fix those problems when you get up to 120 pretty easy without making new problems. You make little fixes in your plunges etc with that grit without making a mess at 120 too. So my suggestion is to clean up the blade and make things look cleaner and crisper. Still, that's pretty good for a second blade.
I know a lot of people have told you to practice grinding on mild steel, but it is fun to actually use reasonable steel and actually make a blade even with your early grinding. I did what you did. Started grinding with a jig using steel I could harden and make a knife out of.
Finally, jigs. It seems like there are people that have reasons for using them and others that would prefer not to. I use a jig so far and am getting quite nice results very quikly. I don't think you will lose out if you go either way. BUT if I were you and Marc was offering to give me pointers and he didn't want me to use a jig I would toss my jig under the bench and go for my tutorial with him free hand!

 

[Dave Hamilton]

That looks pretty good for a second knife. I'm relatively new to knife making, but one thing I have discovered is that a lot of the "cleaning up" of the scratches and grinding mistakes can happen at 120-220 grit. A mistake happens so fast and gets relatively deep at 36 grit. Then it can get worse when you try to fix it at the same grit. But if the rest of of your work is fine at that grit, you can fix those problems when you get up to 120 pretty easy without making new problems. You make little fixes in your plunges etc with that grit without making a mess at 120 too. So my suggestion is to clean up the blade and make things look cleaner and crisper. Still, that's pretty good for a second blade.
I know a lot of people have told you to practice grinding on mild steel, but it is fun to actually use reasonable steel and actually make a blade even with your early grinding. I did what you did. Started grinding with a jig using steel I could harden and make a knife out of.
Finally, jigs. It seems like there are people that have reasons for using them and others that would prefer not to. I use a jig so far and am getting quite nice results very quikly. I don't think you will lose out if you go either way. BUT if I were you and Marc was offering to give me pointers and he didn't want me to use a jig I would toss my jig under the bench and go for my tutorial with him free hand!

Thanks man, I've been teaching myself how to avoid a deeper grind at the ricasso when you first place the bevel on the platen, The first few I had a tendency to hit the edge of the platen first, spent more time trying to chase out that gouge at 120. Each time just appling new knowledge.

I've already shunned the jig I bought for my first few, my newer blades im working on have been so much better without. Marc's tutorial plus a little back and forth with him has helped out tremendously. Just doing it has taught me more than any advice of course.