Second go-around

letinsh · 04-28-2015, 18:57

Showed my first knife to a buddy before I gave it to my best friend, and he said he wanted 3 to give as Christmas gifts. Having picked up a spindle sander, belt grinder, band saw, and drill press, I thought I'd give it a go.

Well, between some procrastination and some self-doubt, I let the deadline creep up on me. Long story short, I finally finished them up last night.

As before, 3/16" O-1 tool steel, 10.75" OAL, 5.125" blade. Homemade black and green canvas micarta handle scales. Not differentially hardened this time - did the whole blade (got a kiln at work, made things easier) and did a 600 grit satin finish rather than an acid etch.

Personally, I think these turned out much better, but I still have a lot of work to do before I think I'm turning out a good blade. My grinding need work and the design needs refinement.

(also working on my photography skills - these are much better than the cell pics from the first thread, but much to learn here, too)

Barbarian · 04-28-2015, 20:00

Funny, I was just re-reading your "first knife" thread earlier today.

Glad to see you back at it. Your design is solid overall and if those are your 2nd, 3rd and 4th knives, then you're doing very well. Grinder skills come with experience so I wouldn't sweat it. The more you do it, the less time you'll spend fixing mistakes. Putting the cutting edge on a blade is what I had the most trouble learning.

I'd say the owners will be proud to carry your knives. I would.

letinsh · 04-28-2015, 20:20

oof. Putting an edge on these was a process, too. I'm terrified of warping a blade during quench, so I left them pretty thick at the edge. The first one took me ~6hrs to get to a sharp edge using my stones and the Lanskey sharpening system.

That pissed me off, so I tilted my 2"x42" back, so the belt was running horizontal (felt more comfortable holding a consistent angle that way). It made some bad noises and let the smoke out of somewhere near the bearing for the disk grinder portion, so I set it back upright (seems to be working ok....). Gritted my teeth and went slow and established a decent cutting edge and finished with the Lanskey. I need to get more confident with quite a bit, apparently.

Barbarian · 05-01-2015, 20:50

Edging knives on a grinder is difficult to learn because is it over so quickly. There really is no other practical way to edge a blade though (that I know of). Probably the easiest way to get it down quickly, would be to get a handful of junk knives, grind the edges down flat, and then practice grinding edges back on them, one right after another.

In retrospect, I wish I had done that.

Debo · 05-04-2015, 07:33

L-

Those look fantastic. Keep it up.

D.

TCT_Knives · 05-11-2015, 06:57

Wow, I wished my first knife looked that good. Heck, I wish my first 100 or so looked that good!
Great work, keep it up.

letinsh · 05-12-2015, 10:17

Thanks, Debo. I owe you a phone call - we'll get together soon.

Darrin, thanks! I've got a tremendous amount to learn - it seems like I spend more time correcting my mistakes than making the knife correctly to begin with. Your work blows me away and it's an inspiration.

TCT_Knives · 05-12-2015, 14:11

haha, You've learned the secret to knife making! Nothing but fixing mistakes, there's always a knife in there somewhere, you just have to keep at it until it comes out.
Let me know if you're going to the Blade in Atlanta.

**Roguish Lawyer** · 05-12-2015, 14:37

Nice effort!

letinsh · 05-18-2015, 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCT_Knives

haha, You've learned the secret to knife making! Nothing but fixing mistakes, there's always a knife in there somewhere, you just have to keep at it until it comes out.
Let me know if you're going to the Blade in Atlanta.

Thanks, RL!

Darrin, I won't be going this year, but as I get deeper into this, I'll try to make it there.

Broke this one. Was messing around in the forge with normalizing, etc and it warped while air cooling. Straightened it in the vise without an issue, but when I hardened it, it warped again. After tempering I tried to straighten it again and it just wasn't having any of it.

A couple things I learned: no need to normalize precision bar stock. I need to up my temper temp (was at 400F - I'll try 450 and 500F to get some more toughness). When straightening, don't put your fulcrums right next to the bend - trying to kink the blade back straight with break it.

letinsh · 06-03-2015, 22:44

Got that blade remade, better (i.e. it didn't break

)
This was for a graduation present for a student helper my wife had this year. He was a real help, especially as her pregnancy progressed.

Everything is the same as above, excepting black canvas micarta bolsters with brass pins, green canvas micarta handle slabs with stainless pins. I tapered the tang (had to "modify" things after a slip at the grinder) and made some changes to the profile (I like the changes-that second finger groove just never felt right when you grabbed the knife). Had to rush a bit to finish it up, so didn't get the tang sanded just the way I want, but best knife so far. Much to learn, including how to consistently place my makers mark.

x SF med · 06-03-2015, 23:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by letinsh

... Much to learn, including how to consistently place my makers mark.

Easy way to place the Maker's Mark. Pour in glass with 3 ice cubes, raise to mouth, pour over tongue and swallow to place in bloodstream. Voila, you have consistently placed the Maker's Mark.

Oh, damn, you meant on the blade.... my bad, I thought I was talking to TR.

Sohei · 06-04-2015, 10:14

I certainly like the look of that knife.

Nice work as always!