Bushy No. 5

[Lord Farquhar]

When one is forging their own blade, how does one test the rockwell hardness of it? How does one know it is 58hrc?

Curious!

Adam

Basically you heat the blade to critical (when it looses its magnetized properties) then quench it in warm oil. Them you temper it to a certain level ie 250C and that then softens it and lowers the rc

Fully hardened O1 is 64 rc and if tempered at
160C = 63-64rc
200C = 61-62rc
250C = 60-58rc
300C = 54-56rc

Its only aprox, the data I got from the side of the bar of O1

Most steels used in knife making or any tooling including springs all have data on how to harden then than how to soften them (tempering). The info can easily be found on the net.

Experienced smiths learn to temper using the colour of the steel. Lots of people use ovens and kilns to precisely control the tempering temperature of the steel. In the olden days before we had such ovens the smith would have to temper the blade with the use of his eyes. Shiny silver steels change colour as they get hotter they start yellow and go orange and go various purples and blues depending on what temperature is reached. O1 needs quite precise tempering so I use and oven for it but for some forged blades made from 5160 (a very forgiving steel) I will use my eye to do the tempering. eyes tempering is much quicker but a lot more haphazard.

I hope this helps

i cant wait to see the results.

its good to see a bladesmith challenging the WL bushcraft style and comin up trumps

keep it up sir!

I am in no way shape or form challenging the WL. Alan pretty much sets the standard when it come to woodie knives in the UK. His work is second to none and his quality controll is awe inspiring.

 

[Treb]

OMG, what a piece of rubbish, get rid of it really quickly. Give it to.... me!

 

[C_Claycomb]

Very nice. Lovely clean lines. You did an ace job polishing the tang, I hate that job, always seem to find one more scratch after thinking I got them all out.

You can buy hardness testing files from Cromwell Tools for about £46. They come as a set in 5Rc steps, 45-65Rc. They have shown me a lot since I got a set.

No critisism intended! Just some thoughts for the next version.

How about making the pommel flare out rather than having it all come to a domed point? A wider pommel makes it more comfortable if you need to drive the point into wood using your palm heal on the pommel. A long handle might give room to do this without changing how the handle feels? Starting the blade grind a little nearer the handle gives more leverage when making feather sticks. I can't tell how you have got the slabs meeting the blade at the ricasso, the joint is easier to keep clean and dry if the front of the handle slabs are angled so they meet the blade at more than 90deg.

 

[addyb]

It seems to me that most general purpose knives are in the Rockwell Hardness range of 56-58. Is this because that range is about the hardest one can go with a blade before ease of sharpening is affected? I understand that anything below 55 is probably too soft to hold a decent edge, and that anything around 60 is quite brittle. Or am I way out of the ballpark on this one?

Adam

 

[C_Claycomb]

A little over simplified, but not a bad rule of thumb. I have read that hardness is the greatest contributor towards edge holding and that a lot of the value of alloying is that you can keep a higher hardness while maintaining sufficient toughness (not brittle).

D2 can be hardened into the low 60s without becoming too brittle.

Steels that have lots of fine carbides can be softer while still slicing efficiently and holding their edge. Hardness as measured by a Rockwell or Vickers test is not the complete story on how hard it is to sharpen, how abrasion resistant it is. Carbides provide additional abrasion resistance, but carbides can exist within a softer steel matrix.

 

[Lord Farquhar]

No critisism intended! Just some thoughts for the next version.

How about making the pommel flare out rather than having it all come to a domed point? A wider pommel makes it more comfortable if you need to drive the point into wood using your palm heal on the pommel. A long handle might give room to do this without changing how the handle feels? Starting the blade grind a little nearer the handle gives more leverage when making feather sticks. I can't tell how you have got the slabs meeting the blade at the ricasso, the joint is easier to keep clean and dry if the front of the handle slabs are angled so they meet the blade at more than 90deg.

Thanks for the advice. I will have a bash at the pommel flare. The far forward position of the grind start was really due to the fact that the scales of wood I had were shorter than I thought

Mozzy

 

[JohnC]

Very nice.
Having had a bash at this I can appreciate the amount of time and effort that has gone into a such a piece of work .

 

[BorderReiver]

Beautiful work as usual LF.

Only reservation is that I personally would like a bit more metal left at the pointy end.

 

[Mr_Yarrow]

Mozzy,

Thats a truly lovely piece of kit, the handle and blade shape look very appealing and I love the idea of combining a forged finish with the precisness of a stock removal blade - genius.

Will keep an eye out for this on BB if you plump for a final version and want to off-load some, for the suitbale readies

Rgds

 

[scruff]

its good to see a bladesmith challenging the WL bushcraft style and comin up trumps

I am in no way shape or form challenging the WL. Alan pretty much sets the standard when it come to woodie knives in the UK. His work is second to none and his quality control is awe inspiring.

oops i dint realise how that sounded sorry. i simply meant that its nice to see an original design. one that looks every bit as practical & bushcraft friendly as the WL style.