Well let's start! Hand Tool Knife WIP Thingy

Steel is here. WOO HOO! And pics of it along with Burlsource's wood. Steel is 3/16"x2"x6' 1095 HR IIRC.

Walnut, Maple, and Redwood. (Its kinda like a wooden neapolitan icecream picture eh?)

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Nice! I've got a couple of Aldo's 4 ft. bars of .25" x 1.5" 1084 on the way. All three slabs I got from BurlSource were the Walnut, so that's likely what I will be using.
 
Well, no steel has arrived yet, so I decided to play around with my new 1x30 grinder anyway.

Took one of the wife's cheap (and dull) SS kitchen knives and attempted to put an edge on it. I know see how easy it is to mess up a blade with this machine. I ended up finally getting an edge on it, but the tip profile is no longer what it was and I had a really hard time keeping the edge straight--I kept getting a dip where I would start the grind.

Is it the speed of the belt that makes this so difficult, or lack of experience or both? Are the 2x42 grinders that much easier to use?

I'm starting to think there may be some merit in hand-finishing a blade, especially the edge.
 
Dremel vs HR 1095.

Dremel 0 - HR 1095 3

:grumpy:

I see I may have to resort to bigger equipment here.
 
Are you trying to profile your blad with a Dremel?
If so, do yourself a favor and pick up a $15 angle grinder from Habor Freight.
 
Yes! 12 ft. of .25 x 1.5" 1084 showed up today :-)

I'm going to try to cut out a blade blank tomorrow, time permitting. I'm thinking the "drill holes and connect the dots" might be the easiest way, lacking a band saw.

Anyone else making any progress?
 
Shows his last activity on here was on 1/30 usually he's on here almost all the time. Hopefully everything is alright on his end.
 
Thats what I was thinking, I usually see him post on here all the time but like you said, it has been a while. I too hope everything is alright!!
 
Wade Jones said:
Are you trying to profile your blad with a Dremel?
If so, do yourself a favor and pick up a $15 angle grinder from Habor Freight.
Click to expand...


No I was using cutoff wheels to take the pattern out and save as much onthe actual piece of stock as possible. I think I can get another knife blade out of it if I can cut it out as is. Aside from that i'll remove most of the stock with a grinder. The problem is getting the pattern off so I can start working on it better.

I wonder if will was hit by the recent ice storms.
 
Danjal said:
I wonder if will was hit by the recent ice storms.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. When we had the big ice storm up here in Maine we lost power for a week--no fun! Though I don't know if they have sub-zero temps down in Alabama. :p In any case, hope he is OK!
 
Just how hard is 1084? The score now stands at steel 1, MBE 0.

Scribed my pattern and tried to drill some holes. All I could manage was some shallow dimples using my drill press. I am using brand new Ryobi 1/8th" bit. I got lots of screeching and some smoke, but no damn hole! Applying more pressure simply drove the bit up into the spindle (and I had it tight).

A file seems to dig right in so this stuff can't be too hard. What am I doing wrong?
 
You need to drill slower. The steel is heating up and hardening around the drill site, would be my guess. Once it squeals, it's hardened up pretty good.
Back off and let it cool down often.

I have a blank I just annealed again because I hardened a hole about 1/8th in drilling too quick.
 
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Yeah I learned that up at Aldo's that 1084 can actually harden if you heat it up too much with a drill bit. You can cut it with a hacksaw, I cut my first blank out like that. Just have a good blade and take your time, don't do like I did and try and rush it, make a dumb move and put the blade into your finger.
 
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