Anyone play with making knives or hatchets??

[2004LB7]

finally got the knife blanks back from the heat treater. finished grinding the kitchen knife and put a handle on it. made my first wooden scabbard. a little rough but will do. might resand & wax it a bit more and try and polish it up. now since I missed finishing it for his birthday and ended up making those knives in the above post, do I give this to him right away or hold onto it for a Christmas gift?





after this I get to work on that 2nd knife from post 55. that one will be easier as it won't require as much post heat treatment grinding to finish and I'm not going as thin with it. not sure yet if I'll go kidex or leather for the sheath. and do I keep this one or give it to my uncle as a skinning knife for his hunting trips?

 

[TheBac]

That is a beautiful knife.
Great work!

 

[Dozerboy]

finally got the knife blanks back from the heat treater. finished grinding the kitchen knife and put a handle on it. made my first wooden scabbard. a little rough but will do. might resand & wax it a bit more and try and polish it up. now since I missed finishing it for his birthday and ended up making those knives in the above post, do I give this to him right away or hold onto it for a Christmas gift?
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after this I get to work on that 2nd knife from post 55. that one will be easier as it won't require as much post heat treatment grinding to finish and I'm not going as thin with it. not sure yet if I'll go kidex or leather for the sheath. and do I keep this one or give it to my uncle as a skinning knife for his hunting trips?

Personal I like the finish you have on it. Especially if he likes the rustic look.

 

[2004LB7]

Another set for you to see. One is a push dagger the other, i don't know, maybe a fighter?

Cut from 5160 flat bar


Cut the bevels by hand with a file. Mostly draw filing. Turned out better than I thought it would


After a little touch up on the belt grinder. And ready for heat treatment


I'll either fill in the handle lightening holes with epoxy, wood or micarta. Not sure yet

 

[shakenfake]

Sick butt plug

 

[2004LB7]

Sick butt plug

Not cool

 

[shakenfake]

My vote would def be epoxy though, that would look sweet. Throw some food coloring it in or something too maybe...
Only on the fighter though, push dagger I would leave alone.

 

[2004LB7]

Heat treat complete. I'm going to try out a Paracord wrap handle for now. Easy to reverse if I don't like it. Other then making their sheaths they are done

 

[Dozerboy]

I think the Paracord looks great.

 

[2004LB7]

Finished them up with some sheaths.

 

[TheBac]

Looks good. As the guy on Forged says, "Will they keel?" I think they would.

 

[PureHybrid]

Doug Marcaida... I think he's the best to watch test stuff. One of the other guys just likes beating the piss out of the blades

 

[2004LB7]

Yeah, they are all pretty bad for real world testing and use but Doug is probably the best out of the bunch. Ben Abbott has the most respect from me as a blade Smith. Actually being one and winning the competition twice and beating out on of the other judges in the process too. Other then that their testing process is suspect

 

[shakenfake]

What are the sheaths made of?

 

[2004LB7]

Plastic. Not sure, I think possibly PVC. Heat formed in my vacuum press

 

[Dozerboy]

Kydex maybe? That I have used before for a moldable plastic.

 

[2004LB7]

Kydex maybe? That I have used before for a moldable plastic.

I use kydex sometimes. This was a random plastic tube I found and used. Worked great. Have no idea if it is as durable as kydex but seems to form just as well

 

[2004LB7]

Wanted to try my hand at actual forging. Got me a cheap Amazon two burner propane forge. Not a bad unit. Requires a lot of assembly.

Anyways. Decided to start with just the bevels. Leaving the more intricate handle forging for when I'm more skilled and aquire the tools needed.

Leaf spring steel. Possibly 5160 but can be a number of different alloys. Started out well. Put the bevels and curve in. Was making a large chopper as I feel it would be a little more forgiving with errant hammer blows.

Hammered out the basic shape


Ground in the bevels. Shaped the handle and hardened the blade


Then... During tempering. Well actually after removing it from it's 2nd cycle and cooling it off it split in two. It's weird because it didn't make any "tink" sound or any warnings. It just kinda fell off


The grain structure was not too bad. Almost ideal. Just slightly more texture then optimal. But should have been serviceable. There is a brown section near the spine that gives the tell-tale sign of the issue. This must have been there since the initial quench and remained unnoticed


Welp, time to get some more propane and start again. Luckily I have a lot more leaf springs to play with

 

[darkness]

There is a very definitive line between the browning and clean forging. Is that do to more hammering of the bevel?

 

[2004LB7]

There is a very definitive line between the browning and clean forging. Is that do to more hammering of the bevel?

Unlikely. The "brown" crack extends a little past the straight spine section and into the bevels a little. It would also be much darker if it happened during the forging process. It would have to have gone through multiple heats for forging, normalizing, annealing and the austenitizing. It would probably be black by the time. From the light browning it more than likely cracked near the end of the heat cycles. Probably the quench where the chances are the highest