Knife making , Suitable steel ?

[Gragson]

Looking really good, given your first one, you clearly have an eye for it, I must have a go at this in the near.
Good to see your hands dirty at last

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Forge getting setup , got some steel plates in vice for clamping after heat treating to stop warp

.Magnet on stick for checking curie point , metal tub of motor oil for quench which I will preheat with some scrap

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Well it worked

Had to get the heatgun and blow into it from above for extra heat the asthmatic snail fail had no where near enough power

Got a video of a file skating over will upload that

Now in the oven at 220 for a 2 hours , rest down to room temp then back in again at 220 for another 2 hours as reccomended by @-tom-

 

[h-dom]

That looks like a good useable knife, well done

Much better than my first knife

 

[Lewis_RX8]

@h-dom thanks looking forward to finishing it

Just finishing first temper cycle

Oh yes also remember to clean the oil off before you put it in the kitchen oven

 

[—Tom—]

Looking good

 

[Lewis_RX8]

First temper finished 2 hours @ 220°c

Out oven , was quite scaly

Will need a bit of sanding , unsure of current hardness files kind of work a bit skatey but seem to remove some metal aswell.

Gave it a quick cleanup definitely worse pitting type effect on one side compared to the other maybe the side on the oil or heat more not sure. I can see why the pros use that stainless foil stuff to stop this happening

Time to go in oven for another 2 hours , will see if the shiny steel changes to straw colour I hope for the temper

 

[h-dom]

I said this in another thread and should have done before you went for the hardening but if you coat it in wd40 before it goes in the fire it helps stop scale building up.

A lot of time I don't bother because I will do the final grind when it's hardened.

Also good to realise that the knife may have got hard but just not as hard as the file. Not a bad thing.

 

[outofthefire]

Time to go in oven for another 2 hours , will see if the shiny steel changes to straw colour I hope for the temper

This is the latest knife I'm playing with from an old file, it's had an hour at 180 it's what I do all my knives at, but we've got a hardness tester at work so if they're a bit hard I can put them in again at a higher temp so far they've all been good. This only had althe edge heated up for the quench so I'm happy as is.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

This is the latest knife I'm playing with from an old file, it's had an hour at 180 it's what I do all my knives at, but we've got a hardness tester at work so if they're a bit hard I can put them in again at a higher temp so far they've all been good. This only had althe edge heated up for the quench so I'm happy as is.

View attachment 350825

Looking good , Seems to have a bit of colour to it? . My blade is quite thick so may need a longer heat time.

I would like to play with some old files I have seen some very nice knives made with them . What do you use for beveling it?

 

[Migmac]

Just caught up on this thread, knifes looking good.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Heres the post quench video , File skates over

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Post heat treat more of a blue tinge which I wasn't expecting but oven set to 220 and this wasn't really that close to the heating element so think it'll be fine now time to get polished up and scales sorted

 

[outofthefire]

What do you use for beveling it?

Usually a mix of pedestal grinder, a linisher and angle grinder. For this though I tried the surface grinder and it came out really nice, I can only fit small blades on it though, and I need to find a better way of mounting the blade so I get accurate angles.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Hard Scale cleaned off with flap disk on grinder , scale was quite deep so unfortunately had to remove a bit more metal than planned but got it all out in the end , slight loss of material during heat treat on the blade where it was thinnest but again hopefully won't effect it much just make a bit more annoying to sharpe

After flap disk hand sanded to 1000 grit

It is not too sharp yet the bevel is looking good nothing razor however cut my finger when I got a little to excited with the sandpaper lol.

I have never ground a secondary bevel in from scratch only ever sharpened them but have a wet stone and wheel to grind it.

next up is cutting the handle scales and pins to length then epoxy time

 

[Lewis_RX8]

 

[magnet]

Brilliant. Taking shape now. Look forward to seeing it finished.

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Getting exciting , will leave the best photos for the final reveal lol , pins sanded down all I need to do is shaping the handle and final sharpen

 

[pedrobedro]

I use drum sanders in the bench drill then the powerfile to do my knife handles, gets them nice and smooth with the progressive grades then finish with some fine paper and polish or oil

 

[Lewis_RX8]

Well here's what you have been waiting for folks , The finished article

Immensely happy with it time effort and c0ck up fixing has paid off in my opnion lol

Got it razor sharp , made secondary bevel with rough stone then sharpening on fine side , Plywood bench grinding wheel with polishing paste to polish the edge right up and a final strop on the leather to get rid of the last burr , Shaved my arm easily and paper slicing like a dream. Will be a good test of the steel to see how long this lasts.

Thanks for all the help guys , Would have been far steeper a learning curve than this thats for sure.

Looking forward to the next one