Christmas gift wip.

doomtooth

doomtooth

Well-Known Member
Well here goes an attempt to make my brother a good knife from 0-1 3/16 thick steel. Since im terrible at bevels I will attempt to do most of the work with my crappy cobalt file set. Here goes nothin.... wish me luck.
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A little trick a friend showed me. I will update this post as I go.
[video=youtube_share;cKbvpTwDAHU]https://youtu.be/cKbvpTwDAHU[/video]
 
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Well my 6 inch flat file just isn't cutting so I am going to try the grinder and see what sort of mess I can make.
 
Cool concept with the compass, I did more or less the same thing but in reverse.
I colored the flats with a sharpie (could use dykem or something, but I had a sharpie), locked down my calipers, and scribed a line with the tip of the calipers. Shows up very well, as sth sctibe line removes the sharpie, as well as leaving a line in the metal.
 
Started the bevel grinds but the same crap is plaguing me again. I start out with nice straight lines but i get a dip...so i correct and correct until ive removed too much metal. I will keep going with this but I dont think it will end well.
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I'll try some more tomorrow... I hope that im able to grind true. If not I will have another paperweight to add to my already large collection.
 
Grinding for me is a bit zen like. There are days when I can't grind a straight line at all. Other days it falls into place pretty easy. Practice is the key to it and the days you get good grinds will be more than the days you don't

you didn't say what your grinding with or what grit belt. Judging by the heat color your getting, I'd say your trying force the grind. A lot of beginners start with way to fine of grit to work in thier ruff bevels. I happen to be a dipper. Meaning I use water to cool the blade as I grind. I use a lot less water now than I did when I first started grinding because I have practice under my belt. Start with a minimum of a 60 grit belt and for what your grinding a 36 grit would work even better. Progress 60 , 120, 220 and off to heat treat .

You might want to look for another knife maker close to you and see if coffee and Dougnuts will get them to give you a few hands on pointers to get you past the first learning curve.

keep it up and don't give up, you get a great gift out of a little hard work that will be remembered for ever.

Erik
 
Ty for the words of encouragement sir. I have a kalamazoo industries 2 x 48 1/2 hp belt sander. I am currently using norton bluefire 50 grit belts and yes I do use water to cool the steel. I am hoping to start training with a local knife maker but he is a hunter and its deer season in wv so I have no idea when i'll get to start. Here is my progress thus far.
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Well as the saying goes...the devils hands are idle playthings...or something along those lines. Ive started the clean and inspection step. I use 320 grit sandpaper to clean up all surfaces so i can make sure all big scratches and uneven spots are gone. I use a sanding block for large areas. I use the round red pen for round areas and the popsicle stick for those pesky tight flat areas and along the spine and such. Hopefully after two good days of sanding if all is well it will be ready for heat treat.
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