WIP give away knife - concluded & winner picked

Cypress & KuRUpTD - both of you are in. 2 more days to enter.

Chris - Good idea to use diamond to clean up the blade. However the blade is still not totally straight, so I use AlO (with mud) to abrade away the soft stainless lamination and not getting deep scratches. 60 grit AlO scratches leave very shallow scratches on cpm-m4 at 65rc, equivalent to DMT Fine. btw - #4 is quite straight & clean. #5 is about perfect at this point.

I'll sharpen #5 and test it, to check/guess amount of Retained Austenite. If RA is too high (i.e. performed poorly), I will apply sub-zero or Cryo soak + tempers (if I can get my hand on lN2 without spend big buck for a dewar).

edit: I will use/try 120 grit ceramic belt to clean up, just dunk in water often.
 
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I like #3 the best, followed by #4 and #2. Really nice stuff in the making!

I'm in and thanks for the chance!
 
Kristopher - you're in. Of course, I don't mind.

WIP:

Test #5 (small 3" slicer in cpm-m4 at 65rc) until it no longer cuts catalog paper (about the same of phone book paper). Sharpened: ceramic 60, ceramic 80, ceramic 120, diamond 140, diamond 230 (XC), diamond F, diamond E (briefly), balanced strop (60 seconds). btw - use my 3K W inverter for computer & belt sander :D

I hit a peg with hard glue while slicing pine board, get a couple micro chips but still slice paper fine. So hard to whittle oak board with a lot of lateral force, after a small shaving pile the knife has 3 0.5" long dull/rolled spots. I can see them with naked eyes, light clearly reflected back.

cuttest_20130626.jpg

Does this test knifes performance looks/sounds OK to you?

edit: here what the tip looks like at 15x loupe + 8x camera
IMG_0620.jpg
 
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Well, got power back around 16:30 today. Managed to broke a blade (cloned of #5) and straightened #3 & #4. If I press to straighten any more, chance of breakage is 50/50. I'll try to grind & hide minor warps.

straightened 20130626.jpg

My Spyderco Gayle Bradley (cpm-m4, 62rc) edge dulled (no longer slice catalog paper) faster on oak whittling than the test blade #5. However the GB edge is around 26* inclusive vs #5 at 30*... I'll match their edge angle and re-test later.

From sharpening & testing #5, I think RA (retain austenite) is less than 10%. While my earlier ht cpm-m4 via a forge, where the blade is hard yet roll easily during sharpening & testing, RA must be over 20%. I might push for to sub-zero (dry ice + acetone) treated all blades tomorrow afternoon, shooting for RA below 1%.
 
Chris "Anagarika";12349967 said:
Bluntcut,

Never testing anything close to that, but if GB is outcut, then it should be great already!
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You're right Chris + it's too late to sub-zero #3 blade now. Anyhow, I managed to straightened out the blade some more this morning before the power went out. With a generator, I belt sanded most of the lamination & minor warps. There are a couple gradual large warps on the spine but the edge is almost arrow straight.

The blade is quite clean with a decent edge. I'll carve tang inset (for hidden tang) on scale. What do you guys think of an octagon wa-handle shape by the red line, which taper toward the neck/choil to allow more knuckle clearance, :thumbup::thumbdn:?
qru3.jpg

Spalted tamarind (from Lao).

edit: changed my mind, I'll book match the scale instead of butterfly.
 
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Chris "Anagarika";12352823 said:
Bluntcut,

The taper of the handle looks good. What do you mean with the 'butterfly'??
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As shown by picture, where the matching pieces are flipped opposite way to show mirror image. If you were looking from the top view, you'll see that the spalted pattern for butterfly don't match. While book-match is 2 piece fit together as if they were 1 piece before saw into 2.

I revert back to book-match because after seeing from top-down (spine) view, the mis-matched bug me :). I'm using #5 blade to carve the tang inset + yup need a chisel to finish the digging...
 
This is really shaping up to be something special. I love your wood choice! Heck, that fact that it's wood alone makes it awesome.

Do you epoxy between the scales and tang to reduce the chance of corrosion? I like the profile with the red line btw.
 
Packna45 - you're in. Entry to this give away end at midnight 6/28. Drawing when this knife #3 is done (WIP is over).

Strigamort said:
This is really shaping up to be something special. I love your wood choice! Heck, that fact that it's wood alone makes it awesome.

Do you epoxy between the scales and tang to reduce the chance of corrosion? I like the profile with the red line btw.
Click to expand...

I dug tang inset so the scale can be epoxy together - hence hidden tang. I use West System epoxy, which is very strong, so I skip the hidden pin (I drilled it pre-ht just in case).
IMG_0636.jpg
Other way of hidden tang is to drill & burn a tang hole in a handle block (1 piece). Ok to do this way for very dark wood.

Well, I bought some dry ice today. Oh what the heck, I sub-zero treated this blade (wouldn't hurt) and re-tempered. Blade #2 (52100 utility) is being temper after quench and sub-zero treated. I'll sub-zero it again in 30 minutes. Here is my 8 lbs of dry-ice + acetone bath after 3hrs so most dry-ice crush are evaporated.
IMG_0638.jpg
 
Thanks for the explanation about 'butterfly' :o

I hope this is not asking too much, as you are doing a GAW, but perhaps you can educate us on why certain steps are bein done (i.e. sub zero). It'll be good to know what is being the goal and if it doesn't work, perhaps some theory (I enjoy much 'hand waving physics :D).
 
I'm in if there is still a slot, Please. I love the look you have going, and really love cpm-m4 after having a chance to try it out on my m4 griptilian, the wood is pretty sweet as well!
 
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Chris "Anagarika";12355911 said:
Thanks for the explanation about 'butterfly' :o

I hope this is not asking too much, as you are doing a GAW, but perhaps you can educate us on why certain steps are bein done (i.e. sub zero). It'll be good to know what is being the goal and if it doesn't work, perhaps some theory (I enjoy much 'hand waving physics :D).
Click to expand...

I second all of what Chris said (and asked).

:)
 
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