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W.I.P knife in progress

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everything to hand ready for heat treatment, poker is in the fire to pre heat the oil (rapeseed oil) which needs to be around 90c. its important to quench as quickly as possible (within a second!) if you can so everything needs to be planned.



poker heating up to dunk in the rapeseed oil... will need to be done 3 or 4 times depending on the size of your quench pot



blade in the forge coming up to temp (cherry red) and soaking for a few minutes. you need to watch it constantly! trying not to over heat especially the tip. its also important to orientate the blade so it heats evenly to reduce warping... when quenching the blade its important to dip it point first and straight moving back and forward in the oil never side to side

 
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For a newcomer to knife making you certainly seem to know your way around the table! Did you have a mentor or just do your homework.?
 
Samon said:
For a newcomer to knife making you certainly seem to know your way around the table! Did you have a mentor or just do your homework.?
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thank you, it interests me immensely which helps i think?... no mentor just lots of homework and trial and error. i started making bows about 15 years ago after becoming interested. i asked a chap at a re enactment fare that was selling them how he made them and he just blew me off so that was it!... i had to make a better one than he could. a year later i was at the same fare selling bows!
 
mark.177 said:
thank you, it interests me immensely which helps i think?... no mentor just lots of homework and trial and error. i started making bows about 15 years ago after becoming interested. i asked a chap at a re enactment fare that was selling them how he made them and he just blew me off so that was it!... i had to make a better one than he could. a year later i was at the same fare selling bows!
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Sounds like you're a fast learner! And some!!

I can imagine the folks here would also dig your bows and a wip!

I've got a few old files I got from a big tool lot, mostly thing stick files but one or two are knife shaped. As I've just cut up an old gas canister to make into a forge I may well have a few on the go soon as well. I do doubt I'll achieve your level quite as fast but I intent to forge too, so I'll be more boss! Hehe

Keep it up though dude, I've been mega impressed since the first one you showed, the blued one.
 
another tricky bit... tempering! normally you'de place your freshly heat treated file blade straight in the oven 400f 3 hours just like the youtube vids! funny they never show you how the blades turn out!
every file is different! its all guess work the only way to do it is slow with lots ove oven time starting from a low temp 175c and every 3 hours let it cool, test and if still too hard up the temp another 25 degrees and go again.... sometimes though the oven just wont touch it and i have to resort to more extreme methods! as in this case.
going steady concentrating on the back of a freshly sanded blade (so you can see the colour change) brush the flame along the spine watching the colour and using it as a guide. theres no way to really explain this its a knackbut watching the colours go all the way to blue i keep going till the colours go and the blade is an even silver grey and stop! on this blade its a few minutes, let it cool and test the edge... in this case i had to go through this cycle 3 times. go too far and the blade will turn too soft.
im watching the edge as i sharpen and looking for chips and sections of the edge breaking away these are the areas i concentrate on by the second passing with the blow torch it was only the rear quarter of the blade that was still chipping so a small amount of heat was applied to that area and i think its done! maybe one more quick pass? but will keep chopping/sharpening and inspecting but think i've got the blade right on the balance...



get it right and you can chop this and still pop hairs...

 
This way of tempering was always known as the "Jay's Wing", take a look at a good picture of a jay's wing and those are the colour gradations you need to try to reproduce on the piece you're tempering :-)..
 
finished tempering and testing the blade so on to sanding using a block starting with 180 and 230 dry before moving on to 320-600 wet (oil) ran out of sand paper!

 
after sanding and polishing the blade is pretty much done so starting on the scales...

using black and white spacer material this time, here i've epoxied the spacer material to the zebrano wood scales and cut the pins


next drilled the holes for the pins, marked out the rough contours leaving a little spare around the edges and about to sand away most of the waste before fitting.
its important to finish all sanding and polishing around the area that meets the blade first! as will be difficult once glued on and you risk scratching the blade


next i mixed up some more epoxy resin, fitted the scales and clamped it. i've used some black pigment mixed with the epoxy to hide/fill and gaps left by the file pattern


next job is to shape the handle, sand and finish... oh and a sheath!
 
tom.moran said:
that is amazing! where did you get your pump from?
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second hand off an internet auction site, its a bouncy castle inflator... £30 posted way more puff than is needed! i have to feather it on and off gently when using it

truth is an old hair drier would have been enough
 
so thats how you make a file knife! heres it is finished... i could explain how to sand and apply an oil finish?? heres some pics





 
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Impecable!

I for one would like to see your handles in the making. As anyone whos tried to make knives can tell you the handle is the hardest part!



Did you do the jimping with a file or drill?
 
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