wmhammond
Well-Known Member
Hello, my name is Wallace Hammond, I’m from Oklahoma. I am 67 years old, retired, married to the same woman for 44 years (Shari), raised three good kids and now live in Las Cruces, NM. I am a lifelong, hunter, skeet shooter/reloader, fisherman, golfer, hobbyist and pretty good at working with my hands. Some of my pursuits have been: model building (as a boy), woodworking, welding, taxidermist, golf club building, golf course modeling, architectural modeling, lapidary, silversmithing and now, hopefully, knife making. I have a well equipped woodwork shop, a fully equipped lapidary shop and a silver/goldsmithing bench.
As yet, I have not started even my very first knife. In preparation to build a knife I have watched about 25 hours of You Tube videos, I have purchased a sheet of 3/32” X 6” X 72” 440c steel from Admiral, some Corby screws from USA Knifemaker Supply and a 1” X 30” belt grinder from Harbour Freight. Guess I’m ready to go.:52:
I love to cook so I will be attempting to build some kitchen knives as well as knives for outdoor use. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to start with a set of steak knives; build them one at a time and number them. Then take a look at how the 8th one differs from the first one. That ought to give me, and everybody else, some idea if this is for me.
One question before I start, though. Admiral tells me that the steel I bought has been annealed and should be as soft as possible. My question is this: After I cut out the blank and render it into it’s final profile shape at 3/32” thick should I put the initial grind on the knife blade before I send it to heat treat? My concern is this: my steel starts at only 3/32” thick and the spine will taper over the length of the blade to about half that and my initial blade edge grind will also reduce the cutting edge thickness to about 3/64”. I have read and watched videos that tell me that a blank worked this thin before heat treating will tend to warp. Should that be a concern or should I just shape the blank profile – have it hardened –then grind the blade after hardening? Thanks for your help and I look forward to getting to know a lot of you.
Wallace
As yet, I have not started even my very first knife. In preparation to build a knife I have watched about 25 hours of You Tube videos, I have purchased a sheet of 3/32” X 6” X 72” 440c steel from Admiral, some Corby screws from USA Knifemaker Supply and a 1” X 30” belt grinder from Harbour Freight. Guess I’m ready to go.:52:
I love to cook so I will be attempting to build some kitchen knives as well as knives for outdoor use. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to start with a set of steak knives; build them one at a time and number them. Then take a look at how the 8th one differs from the first one. That ought to give me, and everybody else, some idea if this is for me.
One question before I start, though. Admiral tells me that the steel I bought has been annealed and should be as soft as possible. My question is this: After I cut out the blank and render it into it’s final profile shape at 3/32” thick should I put the initial grind on the knife blade before I send it to heat treat? My concern is this: my steel starts at only 3/32” thick and the spine will taper over the length of the blade to about half that and my initial blade edge grind will also reduce the cutting edge thickness to about 3/64”. I have read and watched videos that tell me that a blank worked this thin before heat treating will tend to warp. Should that be a concern or should I just shape the blank profile – have it hardened –then grind the blade after hardening? Thanks for your help and I look forward to getting to know a lot of you.
Wallace
