Made my third knife, opinions and critique welcome.

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mcb

mcb

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So I am a fledgling blacksmith when I am not doing my day job as a mechanical engineer. Been doing this off and on for the past 4 years or so. Mostly learning and making silly things pounding on hot steel in my driveway while my wife and neighbors make fun of me. This is my third knife but the first one that I actually hand forged the primary shape (rather than just cutting and grinding it to shape). The original chunk of steel was cut off a scrapped plowshare and forged to shape. The primary bevels was started with the forging and finished with hand files on a bevel fixture. Final finish was simply hand sanded. The forging marks along the spine were left intentionally and were supposed to be more prominent but it was far from a perfect build. The handle is made form a piece of hickory rough cut on a band saw and squared with a block plane and sanding. Attached with glue and a single brass rivet. Finished with just a simple linseed oil treatment. It is far from perfect or as aesthetically well done as I would have liked but it was a fun learning experience. Despite all its design and finish short comings it appears I got the quench and temper correct this time. It took a very good edge that will shave arm-hair and paper easily.

iqev8dXl.jpg
dCj9Ce1l.jpg
 
Wait a minute... you're shaving paper?! What kinda weird thing is this? I mean, does it hit a certain age and start growing splinters, sawdust, shavings....?

Couldn't you just hire some termites to take care of the problem? I suppose you could just use a planer right?

Ok, I keeed, I keeed.
Looks good, have you tried chopping some meat or small trees? Looks hefty enough to use on both and get the job done.

What else have you made? Got any pics?
 
There's something deeply personal about using tools you made yourself. Far from perfect . . . perhaps, but men for centuries have survived with lesser tools.

This is the difference between your level of skill and mine: if I screw up a custom blade or a high end factory model, I'm just out of luck. And it may cost me dearly in the wrong set of circumstances. With you, you made it, if you need to, you can fix it, an invaluable advantage.
 
mcb said:
So I am a fledgling blacksmith when I am not doing my day job as a mechanical engineer. Been doing this off and on for the past 4 years or so. Mostly learning and making silly things pounding on hot steel in my driveway while my wife and neighbors make fun of me. This is my third knife but the first one that I actually hand forged the primary shape (rather than just cutting and grinding it to shape). The original chunk of steel was cut off a scrapped plowshare and forged to shape. The primary bevels was started with the forging and finished with hand files on a bevel fixture. Final finish was simply hand sanded. The forging marks along the spine were left intentionally and were supposed to be more prominent but it was far from a perfect build. The handle is made form a piece of hickory rough cut on a band saw and squared with a block plane and sanding. Attached with glue and a single brass rivet. Finished with just a simple linseed oil treatment. It is far from perfect or as aesthetically well done as I would have liked but it was a fun learning experience. Despite all its design and finish short comings it appears I got the quench and temper correct this time. It took a very good edge that will shave arm-hair and paper easily.

View attachment 904098
View attachment 904099
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Looks great! What kind of glue did you use? If it were mine, it would be proudly used in the kitchen as often as possible.

I've recently started making my first knife, but I'm doing so with a file I got from a pawn shop, an angle grinder and lots of sandpaper. Funny, I'm a mechanical engineering student. The topics we covered in materials class got me thinking about what's going on in knife-making and I'd like to one day forge my own.

Definitely encouraging to see projects like this. If you have more pics or documentation on the process you went through with it I think that'd make a great addition to your thread.
 
Mk-211 said:
Wait a minute... you're shaving paper?! What kinda weird thing is this? I mean, does it hit a certain age and start growing splinters, sawdust, shavings....?

Couldn't you just hire some termites to take care of the problem? I suppose you could just use a planer right?

Ok, I keeed, I keeed.
Looks good, have you tried chopping some meat or small trees? Looks hefty enough to use on both and get the job done.

What else have you made? Got any pics?
Click to expand...

I have made a few other things. This one is very simple but I am sort of proud of it.

QU2qhfal.jpg

Its a flint and steel striker. The striker is made form a piece of leaf spring, a scrap from the spring I make for the leg vice I restored. Learned the hard way that not only does a striker need to be high carbon steel it also need to also be hardened high carbon. The flint is actually a piece of Tennessee chert rock I found, after much searching, on our hunting property. Made some char-cloth and on my third strike had a glowing ember that would have started a tinder bundle.
 
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sparkyv said:
Nice cleaver. I like the slight upward angle you put on the handle. Full tang? How big is it? You figure it's carbon steel? :thumbup:
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So from my research most plowshears are usually .7 - .85% carbon so that is fairly high carbon steel. Most are made from 10xx or 11xx steel. I did two normalizing cycles (heat it bright red hot and allow it to cool slowly to room temp. Then back to red hot (hot enough to were a magnet will not stick anymore) and quench it in canola oil. From that it went to two tempering cycles in the wife's oven (she wasn't home), two hours each time at 425 deg. I am guessing from the apparent hardness that my plowshare was probably on lower end of that carbon content range. It's hard but a file will almost bite into it so probably in the low 50 HRC at a guess.
 
Olon said:
Looks great! What kind of glue did you use? If it were mine, it would be proudly used in the kitchen as often as possible.

I've recently started making my first knife, but I'm doing so with a file I got from a pawn shop, an angle grinder and lots of sandpaper. Funny, I'm a mechanical engineering student. The topics we covered in materials class got me thinking about what's going on in knife-making and I'd like to one day forge my own.

Definitely encouraging to see projects like this. If you have more pics or documentation on the process you went through with it I think that'd make a great addition to your thread.
Click to expand...

I am trying Gorilla glue on this one. I have used two part epoxies in the past but the new clear Gorilla glue was much easier to work with and seems like its going to work. Time will tell for sure.
 
Nice work. The amount of hammer marks you preserved, shows that you hammered it pretty dang close to the final shape which is something not many people can do.
 
Brin said:
Hi Mcb, that looks like a great knife for the kitchen to cut up carrots and veggies. I have never used Gorilla glue, but I highly recommend Bob Smith’s two part 15 min. epoxy. You can get 9oz of it for $12-$14. I get my adhesive and 2x72 belts from TRU-GRIT, here’s a link. https://trugrit.com/page/8/?main_page=index&cPath=198_1_145_146
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The Gorilla glue on this one was sort of an experiment. It's a little bit easier to work with than the two part epoxies but only time and use will tell for sure if it was a good idea.

Thanks for the link. I am presently using a 1x30-inch belt sander and local sources of belts are very limited. Harbor Freight belts don't hold up at all and the local Lowes and home depot only seem to carries 120 grit belts and not all the time. I will order a few of their and see how they work, I would expect far better than my local sources and the prices seem good. Thanks again.
 
Nice work. Mine look they were made by a ..... lets just say someone with 100 percent less skills. Oh, not giving up. Keep at it.
 
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I've made a heap of knives now, but mostly just stock removal. I only really use my anvil to set pins and hammer metal flat. I've found Gorilla Glue to work quite well. I started out with the brown, but when I found the clear variety, switched to it. I don't brad my pins. Just drive them through long, and grind them down with the handle material flush. Never had a scale turn loose yet. The knife in my avatar is an old file with Gorilla Glue between the tang and scales. And yours looks great. I really need to try to forge one out on the anvil.
 
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I grind on a Porter Cable 4x36 that came from Lowe's. It has plenty of grinding power for steel. Most professional knife makers would frown on it, but like you, its what I have. 36 grit belts will hog off metal pretty quick. Then go to 60 or 80, then to 120. Hand sand after that. My stepdad has given me a 1x30, but he and mom are old and I'm not going to go get it until things clear up. Some day, I'll have one of those nice 2x72's.
 
mcb said:
I am trying Gorilla glue on this one. I have used two part epoxies in the past but the new clear Gorilla glue was much easier to work with and seems like its going to work. Time will tell for sure.
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I've had good results with Gorilla Glue on a lot of different projects. Want to find and try the clear. Did I say anything about the knife you made? Love it. Were it mine, it would see daily use in the kitchen. To me at least, it's the santoku upgrade. The back of every santoku I've ever owned or used seemed too thick and as a result, sliced goods tend to stick to the blade. Even the ones with the divots near the edge. Result for me at least has been to use traditional chef's knife for anything a santoku would be asked to do. I also use thin longish for the task blades in the kitchen. Probably just me. Regardless - like that knife a lot. The flint and steel at my house has Bic written on it somewhere.
 
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