Fillet knife

blksmith

Active Member
I sent this blade to Texas Knife makers supply to be heat treated. It came back warped. I called them and sent it back to be straightened.
It came back warped again. You don't get 3 strikes in my game.
I managed to straighten it out and finish it.
440c,micarta handle,rockwelled at 59 rc.
What do you think. My first fillet knife. After 25 years of messing around with knives I finnaly made a fillet knife.
9k=

Take care TJ SmithFilet knife1.jpg
 
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Nice looking fillet TJ, I've only made three myself, the first one about 20 yrs. ago and it was a complete loss due to warpage.
that was before people were using plates for quenching,-that I know of anyhow- I made two recently that I plate quenched and they came out perfectly flat, I ground them after heat treat so I'm sure that made a difference in them not warping towards the tip.
 
I just sent 4 fillet blanks to Peters. They are .070 AEB-L which I'll grind hard when I get them back. I know that Peters doesn't use plates, they hang them which has me biting my fingernails until I get them back. (getting my own oven is my goal for this year)

That annealed .070 tried to bow and bend on me at every turn. Every time I finished a process (cutting the blanks, drilling holes, etc) I'd take the blanks to my surface plate and check for straightness. I'll bet I straightened each of them at least four times before I sent them out. All I know is I did what I could. They left here as humanly straight as possible, and stretch wrapped to the flattest piece of maple I had to keep them that way on the journey.

Fingers crossed. I've tried straightening hardened blanks in the past and broken several. I've come to the point where if the bow is minor enough to grind out then that's what I'll do. If it can't be ground out then the blank is either a loss or saved for my own personal use down the road if it's not too bad.
 
Thanks Bladegrinder and John for the comments.
I had a lot of trouble with the blade getting out of straight during the grinding. It 2was straight when I sent it in to TKS and came back warped. I sent it back it came backed warped a little different. No more sending things in.
I have an oven, built the one in British Blades,works great.
I have 3 more to finish. Hope my oven can take the temp.
Thanks for your comments.
Tace Care
TJ Smith
 
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