Survival knife by hand - am I crazy?

I use a 10" Nicholson magicut file for rough work and a smooth single cut just before sanding. YMMV.
 
me2 said:
What selection of files is best for this type of blade shaping? I was thinking a 10" or even 12" and a finer 6" before going to sandpaper.
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I'd use a 14" Bastard to rough everything

then a 10" Bastard for final shaping
then a 10" Smooth (single cut) to start cleaning up
then a 8" smooth to finish all the cleanup

if my technique is good I'll end filing at roughly a 50-60 grit surface.

so I'll pick up with 80 G paper and work up to 600 prior to HT


nowadays I HT at 80G but I have the luxury of a powered grinder as hardened steel is more annoying to shape/polish
 
Got my steel in last night from Jantz. I didn't have much time to work on it, but I transferred the pattern and did some preliminary cuts and a little filing just to get a feel for it.

I have to say, I'm relieved by how easy it was. My hand metal work to this point has been on somewhat detailed small aluminum. I used small tools for that. The bigger saws and files for this made it seem like about the same amount of effort.

I was starting to think I wasn't going to have this done for my trip in December, but I'm pretty optimistic now. I'm going to try to get the rough profile sawed out tonight and hopefully have that nicely filed in the next couple of days. I'm hoping for a couple nights to get the bevel filed and then a week to get everything sanded and polished for heat treating. At which point I'll definitely be starting another thread.

This won't be the last time I say thank you for all of the help from this site. I'm really excited about this project.
 
I would strongly suggest a different steel. 1095 is a problamatic steel for beginners. It is difficult to properly harden, and the old file test is useless with 1095. It will lie to you. 1080/84 is much easier to HT and get a good blade.
 
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