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First knife at the home forge


markyboy07
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As you may know from previous posts, i have spent a long time building a gas bottle forge and a grinder suitable for knife making. Now these are all finished ish, i couldn't wait to start my first knife, due to the heat wave and unbearable temperatures in the workshop i thought id start with just stock removal rather than forging. i toyed with different designs and thought about downloading a template but really wanted it to be all my own work. i went for a clip point as I've always liked Bowie style knives, now its complete i may try the same design again but with a drop point to make it a bit less pointy. 

I started by drawing my shape and gluing to some 1095 steel. It appeared a little short so i cut and opened it up slightly.

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I then cut the rough shape with an angle grinder before belt grinding the final shape

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I then fitted the smaller wheel to grind the front finger groove.

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I then set up my tool rest ,its huge i know! i thought id make it big just in case i want to make some larger knives it also really helps with keeping the handle flat for the whole length of the blade. This is a 10" wheel that i recently purchased (recommended by fatchap👍) then drilled holes in the handle.

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next a bit of research on quenching 1095, you have to let it soak for about 5-10 mins at critical temperature (non magnetic) before quenching in oil that has been heated. i had no way of measuring how hot the oil was so had to wing it somewhat by quenching a hot length of angle iron first. i put the blade in a piece of box section to try and distribute the heat evenly and tried to keep an eye on the colour, this would have been easier done in lower light. after heat treat i tempered in the oven at 410 degrees c for two hours and then left to cool overnight in the oven.

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I then polished up the blade ready for the handle, i think i went 60,80,120,240,400,600,800,1200,1500 and then 2000 grit before buffing but i need to get some polishing compound for this to be more effective. also eagerness got the better of me and i rushed this process resulting in not a great finish. (next time will be better)

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For the handle i used a piece of oak burl that a friend had given me many years ago, i had no idea if it would be suitable or not or whether it would need stabilising . i tried to cut it with an old band saw of my dads but the machine was either under powered or had a blunt blade or both? so i just clamped and hand sawed it.

 

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Unfortunately one of the scales had a large void. Rather than throw it away i thought id have a go at filling it with epoxy and sawdust and using that side once sanded to be inward facing and glued to the handle so it would not be seen.

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It actually came out ok

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i then cut the rough shape of the scales and drilled the holes and pinned the two together an proceeded to sand the front of the scales, this is to prevent scratching the polished blade when fitted.

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Once the handle was glued together i wrapped the blade and started to profile the handle.

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Once i was happy with the shape i started to hand sand the wood and brass pins

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and the finished result

 

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For a first attempt, without supervision I'm over the moon with the result. I know its not perfect and next time i will work on the polished finish, i have learnt a lot and will use this to improve moving forward. i will invest in more belts to assist with this, i have a lansky sharpener arriving tomorrow so ill be able to put a good edge on it also. like i said before i may keep this rough shape and maybe try with a drop point next time. ill post some more photos when i have started the sheaf.

 

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Brilliant post, well informative with lots of pics and a nice finished job. Hope to see a knife forged from a billet next time. I must admit i am not a big fan of metal reduction knife making, if one has the money to go out and buy a nice milling machine they can become a bladesmith overnight, that same person would find it a different ball game creating a knife from a billet in the flames. 

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as its a bit cooler next week i will accept your challenge lol

 

Just now, markyboy07 said:

as its a bit cooler next week i will accept your challenge lol

 

  • 21 minutes ago, la bala said:

    Brilliant post, well informative with lots of pics and a nice finished job. Hope to see a knife forged from a billet next time. I must admit i am not a big fan of metal reduction knife making, if one has the money to go out and buy a nice milling machine they can become a bladesmith overnight, that same person would find it a different ball game creating a knife from a billet in the flames. 

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as its a bit cooler next week i will accept your challenge lol

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1 hour ago, la bala said:

Brilliant post, well informative with lots of pics and a nice finished job. Hope to see a knife forged from a billet next time. I must admit i am not a big fan of metal reduction knife making, if one has the money to go out and buy a nice milling machine they can become a bladesmith overnight, that same person would find it a different ball game creating a knife from a billet in the flames. 

This ^^^^^

very nice knife and good to see you make use of the power tools 

but 

by hammer and hand is the way to go 

all the best 

of

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Very nice, love the handle. grain has really popped.

You mentioned a Lansky is it the deluxe one with the yellow to black stones? If so if you haven't used one before I would recommend a bit of practice on some scrap the same width as your good blade, The instructions aren't great and there are different angles you can slide the rods on, pick the wrong one and you can seriously scratch your polished blade and make a whole lot more work for yourself. Know this from experience, I wasnt a happy chap.

Bit of practice and you get a seriously scarily sharp edge, Just remember you need to get the burr on the opposite edge before you flip it. otherwise it don't work. 

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As JDog says..superb thread and pics............very instructional and well thought out..........love the way you show everything as you go along...........it will get other folk to fire up their imajination.............very impressed...:good:

like the tipping table on the linisher..............

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13 hours ago, fatchap said:

Very nice, love the handle. grain has really popped.

You mentioned a Lansky is it the deluxe one with the yellow to black stones? If so if you haven't used one before I would recommend a bit of practice on some scrap the same width as your good blade, The instructions aren't great and there are different angles you can slide the rods on, pick the wrong one and you can seriously scratch your polished blade and make a whole lot more work for yourself. Know this from experience, I wasnt a happy chap.

Bit of practice and you get a seriously scarily sharp edge, Just remember you need to get the burr on the opposite edge before you flip it. otherwise it don't work. 

yes the deluxe model, which arrived today so will try it out tomorrow after some scrap practise and some tutorials from youtoob.

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