Nolan, yea I'm with you on "polishing something that will be used". It started off with an overnight bath in vinegar and when I wire brushed the remaining scale off, there were virtually NO HAMMER MARKS. Gotta be a first on any of my projects. The only hammer mark is on the bottom of the eye I had a double strike with the slot punch. Anyway, so I figured what the heck and started in on the flat sides of the blade with my 1" belt sander and 220 grit. Once I saw that it "wanted to be polished", I figured what the heck and went for it. It's my first one, and will probably mostly be a conversation / study piece for a while.
Jens, I've actually got a couple of angle grinders but all the flapper wheels I've got are 60 grit and I was a little afraid of putting scratches in that would require even more effort to get out. I forgot to mention in the original post that I was a retard and pretty much completely polished it BEFORE I heat treated so I got to go through the whole process TWICE! I've seen those scotch brite looking pads, guess I'll buy one just to see how they work. Everything a guy can add to his arsenal to make things go easier... You're right about Mike-HR. He's as good as they come, and a very patient willing teacher. He's created a monster, and I think he's starting to realize how big of a pain in the butt I really am! All these questions and stuff.... I was really intimidated by his power hammer the first time or two I used it, but when we made that butcher hardie that we presented on the tue. night blue prints I fell in love. That axle shaft is really tuff stuff and by hand hammer I'm pretty sure I'd have made a career out of that one tool! So camilla and marvel mystery are food safe? Not that I'll be cutting up my steak with this thing (though you easily could), but I've got a couple of nagging knife ideas right now that I'm going to try when I get back from vacation if I can talk Mike-hr out of some more spud-chain....
Tyler,
what do you mean about a "convex grind on choppers"? I've never had any "official" instruction in blades. In fact, I think I really would like to buy one of JPH's books, and/or some other bladesmithing books since I've read everything else my wife already bought me. In college I competed in lumberjack competitions and pretty much ground this 'hawk just as I ground our heavy hit and speed axe's. Except mayber creating a little bit larger "margin" on the edge than on a comp axe. Actually I guess I'd say it's ground exactly as our throwing axes were ground. As ground now it's pretty much a "flat", neither concave or convex. Does the convex work better? Or safer? Or? I could probably be convince of either of those now that I think about it.
Thanks to all for the comments. Next one is going to be made from the tie rod off a 1-ton pickup I think...
Here's some pix of the creation process so you can see the upset and eye creation steps.
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