Your Opions

Freds Edge

Well-Known Member
I am new to this craft but find that it has gotten a strong hold on me.I have been making fixed blades while putting together a resonable shop.I have recently added a gringer,copied from a MGK and a planer /joiner for handle materal.
Please find photo's of the knives made so far,first at the top( a file knife) after that I purchased 2 lengths of 1095 from Admrial Steel.
I have built a heat treat kiln and am heat treating myself.Knife Inventory 005.jpgKnife Inventory.jpgKnife Inventory 012.jpg
 
Very good first efforts. I wish that I could handle the knives to get a better look. I would say that you have the basics down but you need to refine your technique (as in don't most of us). That is good file work on the knife that you show on it's edge but it looks like the blade is warped, though that might be the photography. You also might try working the bevels of the blade back farther to or all the way to the spine and they might cut better. Keep at it.

Doug
 
My first blades were all done with hand files,I made a jig for a 15 degre angle or composit of 30.With my grinder I will be able to carry the grind higher on the blade.You are correct the blade is straight the photo is warped.
 
One of the things that you will have to learn is to straighten warped blades. I will use a wooden maul and anvil to straighten blades that have not been heat treated. A technique that I have just tried with two knives on the bench is that I hardened the blades and then tempered them for one cycle. I generally do two hour cycles and a temperature appropriate to that steel alloy. After one cycle I check for straightness again. I find a straight edge can be handy to help spot warps and, more importantly, to see where the warp begins.

What I did was get a couple of pieces of angle iron that I could clamp the blades too. The angle iron, because of it's shape, is more ridged and will hold it's straightness. I used my straight edge to sport where the unwanted bend began. I then shimmed it with a penny and clamped the blades to a length of angle iron with two steel C clamps so that the blade was slightly past straight with the counter bend. I then repeated the tempering cycle. One blade came out fine with the first attempt but the other had to be put back in, this time shimmed with two pennies, and came out straight after the first attempt.

Doug
 
I use a 2'x4' steel layout table that has been ground and laped flat to check blades before and after heat treat,a handy leftover from the old machine shop.
 
It's all about repetition and practice.....and seeking to make the next knife "better" then the last one. Some words to keep in mind anytime you're building a knife...... symmetry, smooth, flowing, and above all "fit" and "finish".
 
Good advice above about straightening. Two areas to improve IMO are cleaning up the plunges and bringing the bevels up higher. If it was me, I'd focus on flow, etc. as Ed recommended. I'd ditch the mirror finish for now.
 
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