breaking the hard edges/angles off a knife

SHOKR

SHOKR

Well-Known Member
hey guys

how do you break the edges (chamfer or round) the hard edges on a knife?

i wanted to do that on my knives blade spine for a while, and i gues can be done by high grit sandpaper

now however i want to make 'bare tang' knives (knives with no handle material at all, so will need smoother edges on the tang. any ideas?
i remember seeing someone who does it on the grinder, but how, specially for tight spaces

thanks
 
In Bob Loveless' video, he uses a file and a radius gauge to check for accuracy. I think its called a radius gauge? He did this to the bottom of the ricasso. As far as tight spaces, not sure, maybe different size round files? I'm sure someone will chime in with a better way.
 
I use a variety of methods for breaking hard 90's. By hand with sandpaper, using a Scotchbrite wheel on the bench grinder, using the ceramic media in the vibratory tumbler, and sometimes a slack belt on the grinder.
 
Steven, thats good idea, but to do all the tang with the curves wouldnt be easy. i am trying to look for a more consistent manner

Shawn, thanks, so far the ones available for me are sandpaper and slack, probably will start testing with that one!
 
A cratex disk in a rotary tool works well to break edges but will not give you much of a radius...it does work well in tight spaces though.
Phil
 
Shokr.
I use a 120 Grit Hermes Superflex belt with the flat platen removed :biggrin: to radius the spine,ricasso and anything else i want to remove all the horns on. I leave it at that grit too so there is more traction on the spine if someone wants to extend there finger on it or use their off hand to press.

Laurence
 
If I just want to de-horn the sharp 90 corner I'll do it with a soft sanding block an 220x paper by hand.

If I'm shooting for "heavily rounded" I'll rough it in with the platen and clean it up with a slack belt.

Just depends on how much material I wanna remove from the corners.

Heavily rounded and tight areas are a PITA. It helps though to split a belt down to 1" for these areas.

-Josh
 
thanks a lot guys

i actually want both, the soft edge break is for all knives and the hard one, be it chamfer or rounding are for the knives with no handle material (i don't know if hey have a proper name), pretty much like neck knives and such

i might try the rotary tool thing actually
and slack or platen then slack

Josh, PITA?

i was thinking about splitting the belt even thinner, or the welding might not hold?

i am working on few designs with the focus on something like on of the first knives i finished
20120920_195450.jpg
 
I use shop roll and shoe shine the paper back and forth keep my hands at the same distance apart from the blade. just go through the grits. I make a knife very similar to yours in the pic and round the spine as well. You can barely see it as I blended the spine into the back cut of the modified wharny by spreading my hands apart while shoe shining to get the amount of crown I wanted. I think it adds to its comfort and use of the blade.

20121216_145459.jpg
 
Ahmad,

PITA = Pain-In-The-Ahhhhh welll you know the rest ;)

I have split belts thinner than 1" If you want to try this use ZERO tension. Just enough to turn the belt. You may get by with 1/2" but I did try about a 1/4" once and the belt broke nearly instantly. At that point the belt is so fragile that you just cant get any work done on it without breaking it.

-Josh
 
Shane, thanks, thats actually the method i used on the knife in the pic. will try itcon the new ones and see

Josh, thanks for the info! much obliged kind sir!
that actually happend today with 1", seems tension was so high it broke in seconds. well, you live and learn :D
 
20130127_143655.jpg


if i break the edge this way (moved it at a fixed angle on a slack), is that considered low quality or unprofessional?
 
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