Recycled bushcrafter (kind of messed up)

[big_swede]

Have wanted to try a woodlore, or rather a woodlore clone, since they're so bl¤¤dy expensive. But having the oppurtunity to make one myself, I thought, why not? Always an opportunity to learn something new.

Started out with a big heavy coil spring of good quality steel. Straightened it out using a forge, hammer and big black smith pliers.

Tried to transfer my pattern (taken from greenpete), but I made the misstake of not letting it cool thouroughly, which resulted in the pattern burning up! (misstake No 1)

So I had to draw on free hand. Hmm, that wasn't as easy as expected, and I was a bit careless with the forge so the steel piece got a bit shorter than I wanted. Hmm, the handle had to be a bit shorter.

Anyway, I started with a angle grinder. Then used a belt sander to get the bevels. Here I made mistake No 2, using the sander the wrong direction, the grind ended up being convex, rather than the wanted scandi grind. Well, why not? Seems unnecessary to chuck just because the grind was wrong. If fällkniven can sell convex', I'm pretty sure it's good enough for me.

no bevels:

After rough sanding it, and rough sharpening it, I heated it up until it wasn't magnetic anymore, then wisked it around in a big barrel of water. I know next to nothing about metalurgy, but the black smith was confident that this was the way to harden it. Ok, it sure as H€ll got harder. The files wouldn't bite at all, and it turned out that the rough sharpening I'd done was insufficient. Misstake No 3. Hmm, it took hours sharpening it, and honing it.

newly hardened:

Then came misstake no 4. I was recommended to polish it with a machine. This messed up the sharpening as well as the firesteel properties. Had to resharpen it again, and try to restore the back of the blade! Hmm, after this i annealed it. Now it sits happy on my shelf and awaits a handle.

the shiny knife:

The handle part isn't so smooth, but I wanted it that way, so that it becomes more surface for the epoxy glue to stick to.

the knife and the coil spring it came from:

Finally, some nice deers grazing outside the forge:

sorry for the low quality of the pics..

Anybody got any good tips for how to attach wooden scales to a tapered handle? (misstake no 5)

Thanks for looking!

 

[Draven]

nice one mate
As a mechanic, I see a whole lot of metal getting scrapped, broken springs included, and I always wanted to make something out of them. Perhaps this shall be the answer once I get around to learning how to forge

 

[Ogri the trog]

Excellent work Big Swede.
I'm part way through a similar project, though my spring isn't as big and I'm using the kitchen range as a heat source. Might be the encouragement I need to get the thing finished.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[weaver]

I hope you didn't mean to say you annealed it after you hardened it.

Tempered maybe?

Try again mate! You learned a lot on that one.

 

[TheGreenMan]

Oh man, this was a funny read, big_swede. I particularly enjoyed the mental image of the pattern bursting info flame

Very generous of you to post this, I’ve had a good few laughs. Thanks

Mind you, I’ve got to say that as a first effort at the forge, this is a creditable piece of work.

The handle scales shouldn’t be a problem, unless the tapering starts after where you intend the front edge of the handle to come into contact with the blade tang, and so long as the taper is straight edged and not curved.

I’m guessing the tang gets thinner toward the pommel end of the tang – if it gets thicker toward the pommel end I can’t imagine that would be a problem at all, again unless the taper is curved – and if the tang taper is curved, either toward the tip or the pommel, then you’re pretty much ‘screwed’.

If the taper is straight and not curved, just fix the scales with rivets and epoxy, and file to shape.

If I’ve not understood the geometry correctly, an alternative would be to get the hacksaw out and modify it to a hidden or stick tang…voilà…triumph out of adversity!

Good effort, that sure is some haevy metal you made there! .

Best regards,
Paul.

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

If it is tapered use epoxy to glue it on but also use it to fill in the taper. dye the epoxy with powder paint.