2nd homemade knife

[BhmBill]

I made my first knife last week (http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=440138) out of an junk my dad had sitting around his garage. I had such a good time making my first knife, that i knew I wanted to make another. I was at my dads again a few days ago and found a piece of 1/4" mild steel scrap that was about 18" x 5". I busted out the grinder with cutting and grinding wheels and cut out a rough knife blank. Here's what I had after about 10 mins of work.

I decided to take another route than my first knife and use a file and sand paper to make the knife, rather than a bench grinder and grinder.

Heres the knife after filing the *#(& out of it for about 5 hours. It isn't tempered or sharpened yet.

I had some orange and black shoe lace left over from my first knife, so I figured out a comfy lil cord wrap for it just to see what it'll look like. It's brushed with 600 grit sand paper, it'll be polished when finished. Don't mind the dirty fingers, lol.

Btw, the knife isn't that small, I just got big ol hands!

So to finish, i need to make a sheath, temper it, and sharpen.

Hope you guys like it. I didn't think makin knives could be so fun!

 

[bikerdoc]

good work, my friend, Keep learning and having fun.

 

[06]

Been many years and I have forgotten what color to get the steel to before cooling and sequence of cooling. Can you enlighten us?? wc
BTW, nice looking work

 

[BhmBill]

thank you gentlemen.

06, The color that seems to work best for me is between a very dark blue and blue-green. Thats right around 650* C and I believe for annealing, you want between 550 * C and 700 * C degrees. At 750 degrees the heated steel should have a light red glow in a dark room. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[KevinAbbeyTech]

nice work.

 

[hso]

Good for you.


Look at the transition from edge to handle. We should always try to make sure it is difficult for the hand to slide up on the edge while using the knife. This can be accomplished with a ricasso that gives some transition space, a pronounced finger choil or even grippy handle material (or a combination of all of them).

 

[BhmBill]

Thank you gentlemen.

Hso, I was planning on fashioning a brass or one piece lexan/polycarb handle w/ ricasso built in. As it is, when properly holding the knife, its diffucult to "slip". I made notches in the handle for the cord grip to "sit in".

 

[JShirley]

I like the design pretty well, though hso's comments are something I strongly believe, as well. I tend to like the idea of extending the bottom of the blade to also act as a guard.

The only other thing I saw that might improve grip in the hand- for me, at least- is to taper the base of the handle in a bit.

All in all, a pretty and useful-looking design.

John

 

[BhmBill]

Thank you JShirley.

Taper which way? narrowing at the bottom of the handle?

 

[JShirley]

Yeah, kind of a "coffin-handled" end. Personal preference, of course.

 

[BhmBill]

I'll definitely keep that in mind when finishing the handle.

Thank you again, sir!

 

[JShirley]

Really depends on how you hold a knife. I hold a knife most firmly with my last 2-3 fingers, which are of course shorter...