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well, you're not ba-wrong
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WiP! Trail Cutlass
- Thread starter Lorien
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I send it right into my Evenheat!
it's gonna be interesting, though- the 18" blade is exactly the same length as the depth of the oven. I picked up some fire bricks and I'm going to have to get creative. Probably need a little rock wool too
Looks pretty awesome! I have used machete’s since I was a kid and used to keep a waki-tac from Wally Hayes on my backpack hiking. Lots of use for a stout cutter like that! The fuller is amazing to see-can’t imagine the work you put into it.
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that fuller was definitely a challenge!
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B beeinak
Wally Hayes was the author of my first forged blade from a Master Smith. I had ordered one of his stock removal (neck) knives from an ad in one of the knife rags...but he got in touch with me and asked if I would mind if he made a forged knife for me instead (no price increase) from some of his damascus he had on hand. And so, a friendship was forged. (Pun intended.) What a great guy.
Sorry for the diversion, Lorien, but I figured your fellow Canadian deserved some recognition for being a great guy.
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it's always cool to see Wally's work, no apology required
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That sucks! What’s the worst that could happen?I wish a had a deeper oven
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the handle won't get fully hard, but for this particular situation that doesn't matter too much- it's just a model/proof of concept. That said, I am making sure that the blade has a proper heat treatment because I am going to have to test this before sending it to CPK HQ.That sucks! What’s the worst that could happen?
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I kinda figured that’s what you were doing. Differential heat treat, in a different direction, lol…
Some guy’s worst nightmare, lol.
Seeing your other creations, I am sure you will have this one dialed in nicely. Best of luck and thank you again for sharing your work.
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first of all; lolI kinda figured that’s what you were doing. Differential heat treat, in a different direction, lol…
Some guy’s worst nightmare, lol.
and you know I was thinking about that differential aspect to the hardness. It's not unprecedented to temper the handle back or not even harden it. Unhardened steel does damp impact shock better.
I'll be interested to find out where the hardness is at when its all said and done. I think I'll aim for 58, and I'm going to guess that the handle might end up in the 50 range.
Right now it's just stress relieving. Harden and temper tomorrow.
I can't really put it into the oven when the oven is hot because my brick wall fits together tight, so I'm going to bring the oven up to around 1400 with the knife in there, soak it for an hour, and then ramp up to around 1700 for a few minutes. I don't like to do it that way usually, but I also don't like third degree burns, and placing all the bricks is a little fidgety. Not like ancient Egypt fidgety, but let's just say I'm probably a little too proud of the tolerances.
Taking it out and quenching it is going to be a little challenging and maybe scary, so wish me luck! There might be hot bricks everywhere!
thank you!
This model will be all about interface dynamics, I don't expect much in the way of performance testing. But you can't really test one without the other, so hopefully it's dialed enough in the performance realm to not wrap around a tree are shatter into shrapnel. I bought a radial platen, which I'm super stoked about, which may be called into service for this project. It's a 14" radius, so things might be getting more interesting
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And an asbestos codpiece!!! Be careful!!! 
Be careful!!!
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I survived
blade took a bit of a wow- I should've put it in the oven edge up like I usually do. Anyway, it's been tempered once, and I'm thinking most of the wiggle can be dealt with during the second temper and anything past that will just get ground away
blade took a bit of a wow- I should've put it in the oven edge up like I usually do. Anyway, it's been tempered once, and I'm thinking most of the wiggle can be dealt with during the second temper and anything past that will just get ground away
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primary bevels mostly ground in today. Got most of the wonkiness out during the second temper last night, and the rest was easily dealt with while grinding.
it doesn't have secondary bevels yet, so it isn't sharp, but I still had to hack and chop at a couple things just to get a feel for things. Adding weight at the holdy end and subtracting just a little more from the business end is going to result in a pretty exceptionally good handling cutlass. It's flexible, but not whippy, and it feels very solid when it hits something.
I think this is going to be pretty decent.
I think this is going to be pretty decent.
What do you estimate the finished weight at?