W.I.P knife in progress

[mark.177]

thought ide share the making of a file knife from start to finish as im going so heres a 7mm thick old stubbs file soaking in the forge at cherry red for 20 minutes before being placed into a tube full of vermiculite to cool slowly... the point of this is to anneal the file so its soft enough to work.
im using and DIY old gas bottle forge with a bouncy castle blower and fuel is lumpwood charcoal.
more tomorrow...

 

[subzeer0]

i love the forge ..ingenious...keep the pics coming

 

[Albus Culter]

More pics please

 

[Two Socks]

Really like the milkcarton-engineering. I`d also love to see more!

 

[Steve27752]

I like it. But, it looks bloody dangerous.

 

[John Fenna]

I like it. But, it looks bloody dangerous.

No more dangerous than my Wok and airbed pump ...I would have thought....

 

[mark.177]

checking the annealed file this morning seems to have gone well... no warping and as you can see in the second pic is now workable.
its important to heat the file evenly to prevent warping so try and keep it in line, edge up and central in the heat with a hot spot long enough to accommodate the full length of the file. you dont need huge amounts of air once the fire is hot i just feather the fan gently till the file starts to glow a dull red and let it sit

next job is to get the tang holes drilled! this is the part i dread as some file steel seems to work harden you have to go slowly and use lubrication. if you rush it you may need to resharpen and re heat treat you drill bits several times! even annealed its hard stuff!

the other little piece is a left over im going to make into a fire steel striker

 

[brancho]

That is cool set up. Looking good so far.

Really like the milkcarton-engineering. I`d also love to see more!

I agree with that.

I like it. But, it looks bloody dangerous.

Why is that.



Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk

 

[Clouston98]

Loving this mate! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[Samon]

Damned rain! Slowing all of us down.

Looking good so far!

 

[mark.177]

first job this morning was to mark out the position for the holes on the file



right from the off i knew it wasnt going to be easy! plenty of lubrication, i use an old drill for the file knifes as dont want to burn out my piller drill! had to re sharpen and heat treat the drill bits 4 times!



bit of cake while i wait for the drill to cool down enough i can hold it!



an hour later and the holes are drilled! the larger one i'll work out with a file to take weight out of the tang... has been a beast to drill! but thats the hardest part done...

 

[mark.177]

about to start cutting out and grinding the profile... safety first!



first cut the larger pieces with a cutting disc



and after half an hour or so with a grinding disc the rough profile is done



next... breaking the 90's with the grinder before moving onto the belt sander to grind the bevels...

 

[Magentus]

Thanks for sharing this - you're doing a brilliant job and I love your ingenuity!
Looking forward to seeing the finished knife

 

[Two Socks]

Good work! I`m enjoying this thread a lot.

 

[weekender]

This is a great thread really enjoying this.


Sent from somewhere?

 

[Clouston98]

That's looking great! So enjoying this! You do a great job on them mate!

 

[mark.177]

thats all for today, hollowed out some of the tang to help with balance and put a rough bevel on the blade with the angle grinder which i'll tidy up on the belt sander tomorrow

 

[Clouston98]

Liking this loads, starting to look really good!

 

[mark.177]

got the belt sander set up this morning, using a 40 grit ceramic belt. yesterday i roughed out the about 50% of the bevel with the angle grinder today got it to about 75% leaving a thick edge so as not to distort during heat treat and will finish the grind once thats been done.
its dificult to explain how to grind but there are lots of video's on the net showing it... next a little file work before heat treatment...

grinder all set up ready to go, water in jug to keep blade cool while working


blade bevel about 75% done with 40 grit ceramic belt on my 1x30 clarke sander

 

[mark.177]

little bit of detail work done before heat treatment... which is next