Tests of Finished File Knife

[me2]

About 3 months ago I started making a knife from an old file from the shop at work. I finally finished it and it ended up w/ a ~4" sheepsfoot/wharncliffe blade, chisel primary grind, conventional V grind edge, somewhere between 17 and 20 degrees per side. The edge is thicker than I wanted because I ran out of 40 grit belts and cant find them in the new location after moving. I tested it in the hardness tester at my old office and came up with a 63-64 HRc hardness. This was after grinding off some of the teeth, so I dont think it was case hardened. The brand was unreadable on the tang. I did not soften it except at the handle to drill holes for the pins. Just thought I'd post some test results. I locked it in my vice w/ a 3/16" diameter brass rod, and cranked it about 1/3 - 1/2 way through, without chipping. It was dull afterward, and the blade started to turn, due in part to the chisel primary grind I suppose, or uneven loading in the vice. I then tried the brass rod flex test in a different portion of the edge, using one of the safety rods from the sharpmaker. I pressed until the edge deflected, and it returned to true in 2 or 3 locations on the edge. Today I used a claw hammer to cut around a piece of cherry wood so I could break it for use as a handle on a smaller file knife in the works. The rough grinding marks of the spine were flattened a little, but no noticable damage. It did chip when I tried to cut some off the spine of one of my kitchen knives. These are stainless steel of unknown treatment or composition. I did manange to cut some of the edge off the kitchen knife, but this chipped some of the file blade too, unless very small shavings were taken. Just so you know, I will be softening any future files I use, just to save time and belts. This thing took forever to grind, especially with having to be careful about overheating. Any parts that changed color were ground off or cut off. Thats why it ended up being a sheepfoot instead of the American tanto I had in mind at first. However, I do like this shape, and the Spyderco/Perrin bowie style deep finger cutout. The point is surprisingly sharp for digging splinters and such, but not very good for deep penetration I suspect, as I have only tried on cardboard moving boxes. The blade turns a nice rainbow/violet blue when used on food or in the yard. I'll have to look into turning the whole blade that color in some sort of uniform fashion. Edge holding tests are coming up this week, compared to a Vapor II from Kershaw, an Old Timer Peanut in 1095 (I guess), and a Benchmade TSEK.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I have tried the edge cut off on a few occasions as it is claimed by some makers who note that tool steels are used for such tasks. However the geometries are not the same obviously. Do you have a picture?

-Cliff

 

[me2]

Sorry, no picture. I figured since it cut metal before becoming a knife, it would work afterward. Of course without knowing the kitchen knife steel or hardness, its basically just a stunt.