Comp for the budding knife makers amongst us!

[telwebb]

I cut the shape out of the file with an angle grinder, and when I'd done the blade end by hand used it to take the bulk of the file teeth off the back end (under the handle) - I'd had enough by then Everything else by hand and eye - quite pleased with how its going so far.

 

[dorkingbushcraft]

looking great

 

[lannyman8]

hey Telwebb, looking realy realy good for a first blade.......

id just like to say though IMO, the blade is quite thick, would you do better to have the grind a little higher giving the blade a thinner edge.... it wont be a full flat so will still be robust enough to take what you throw at it........but it will be better for general work.......... just a thought and my 2 pence worth.......please tell me to get lost if you wish......

again great work and keep it up.......

regards...

chris...........................................

 

[telwebb]

no probs Lannyman - I'd already kind of decided that! As a newb my thinking was that if its not enough I can always increase - too much and I'm buggered. In all honesty I'm not going to be whittling chess pieces (having said that I never would have thought I'd be doing this!) - very much a trial and error, one of the reasons I invited comment How deep would the collective recommend the grind?

Ta

tel

 

[lannyman8]

well as you allready said you thought it would be better a little higher so your on the right track.....your also correct to take your time and not bugger it up, the last thing you want now after all that hard work is to mess it up now (trust me....lol...).......

what i would do is look at the spine (back edge of the knife) and just see what you think is a good working thickness and just use your eye and go with what you feel looks right........

its your blade dont forget that.......you need to feel at one with the blade if you like, what i mean is go with your gut and you wont go far wrong........and dont be to hard on your self, this is your first blade, your going to mess up or be peed of at some point, but thats ok its how we get better and know more of what we want next time.....

i made my first blade totaly by hand, took me ages all went realy well.....untill i heat treated and it was not hard.......DOH wrong metal = scrap blade.......the next one went very well again....untill i heat treated, i over heated when quenching, pink blade snapped in half = scrap blade....... same on number 3 realy good blade very happy untill heat treating AGAIN took my eye of the ball for a bit to long and melted the end inch off oooops....lol...... scrap blade.....lol...... then i made a new forge and its fine now...... infact just remembered its round the back of the shed so dont have to make a new one to make demascus after all COOOOOL.......

best of luck mate and just go with how you feel and you wont go far wrong........heat treating your blade will be fine to as its quite thick.......

hope this helps...

chris.............................................................

 

[ex-member Raikey]

Tel,..

my blade on this thread was an accident,..

i went for a high grind but buggered it so ,....

actually ended up a full flat,....

 

[telwebb]

right - so if I read this right I have a blade that requires sorting, but when sorted it'll be quite likely to turn to crap anyway? Oh well, always fancied a 'different' butter knife

 

[ex-member Raikey]

Tel,...

i learnt that i went too far with the grind,...

i should have left more meat on the edge,,,..it just kept dissappearing,...

i learnt to leave half a mm either side of the centre line,..(thus givina a 1mm flat to give an edge to,...)

stops the heat treat potentially melting it too,...

if any experts see this and think i,m mis-leading please step in,...

im just giving details of where i went wrong,.

 

[DaveBromley]

sounds spot on to me mate

i made a similar knife and wish i'd done a higher grind for a finer knife, In my opinion (not expert by any chance)i would of taken it to about 1/2 maybe 2/3 of the depth

Dave

 

[telwebb]

well thats the right way Dave - can always take more off, can't put it back!

 

[lannyman8]

Hi Tel, i say right now im no expert, but i would take another 2-3 mm higher but no higher than the centre line........

the problem is if you have the blade edge to thin it will damage when doing heavy work......but if it is to thick it ends up like a spliting mall with a very very robust edge but not much cop for much else other than battoning wood......

hope this helps a bit more.....

chris..................

 

[telwebb]

I'm convinced Chris - watch this space

 

[ex-member Raikey]

tel

i,m intrigued ,

how did you help centre the grind?...

i kept goin from one side to the other and losing metal,...

do you scribe a line?, or use a marker pen,....?

 

[lannyman8]

go for it Tel, like you said you can always take more of later if need be..........

 

[Loenja]

carried on sanding and grinding

 

[telwebb]

tel

i,m intrigued ,

how did you help centre the grind?...

i kept goin from one side to the other and losing metal,...

do you scribe a line?, or use a marker pen,....?

neither, just kept an eye on it. Thinking about it now I could easily have lost it I suppose - but then perhaps because of the age of the file I was using it took so much effort to remove anything I'd have had to go some

 

[telwebb]

go for it Tel, like you said you can always take more of later if need be..........

do you mean 'go for it' as in go for the flatter grind, or go with it as it is and see how it goes?

 

[lannyman8]

sorry Tel i mean go for the flatter grind but as said before use a mark on the blade so you dont go to high and realy take your time...........you can always move the mark up if your not happy the grind is flat enough.....just do a mm or 2 at a time, it will take longer but be worth the time and effort....... i would not worry about the treating either, im sure it would be fine as the spine is so thick.......

chris.......................................................

 

[telwebb]

glad you said that - I'm already on it! And enough has been said to put me off my rather casual approach - you lot have got me with a vernier gauge out (always wondered if I'd find a use for it other than measuring arrows)

 

[telwebb]

Think I'm going to leave it there.....