Second project: KnifeShapedObject

[Meisenmann]

Here is my first try on a knife shaped object:


It is made from an old file. I annealed it the day before. After that I removed the teeth with my big monstrous file (I named her "Brunhilde", she works like a charm).

Then I tried to hammer it to shape, made the tip and so on.

I really would like to have three hands. Then I could have removed the scale before hammering. If I tried it the whole mess was cold the time I wanted to start pounding.

I really thought the file would have more "meat" (it was a triangular one) after hammering it flat. Now I have a blade that is too thin to harden without a big bang I am afraid...
It is only a good milimetre thick and due to that I could not file clean the whole thing because I would have had to remove too much material.

After forging I normalized it three times as good as I could and tried not to get it too hot (heated to nonmagnetic).

After that I hand filed and sanded the blade up to the "point-of-it-gets-too-thin-if-you-remove-more" I rounded all the sides, the point, and so on.

I will try to harden the day after tomorrow, I have to make some improvements on my forge for a better, more even heat beforehands.

I will quench in vegetable oil, pre-heated of course. (at least if you folks do not think different...).

Now to the pics:

[coltpax]

looks good for a first knife. If you use a normal file instead of the triangle ones, it will be much easier i think.

[Finnr]

Nicely done. Keep practicing and soon it will all seem easy.
Finnr

[Meisenmann]

I hardened the blade today. I applied a clay insulation on the spine of the blade for differential heat treating. First I tried fire cement but that decided to go seperate ways when I heated the blade.

I annealed two times for one hour each cycle at 200°C in my kitchen oven.

Tomorrow I will sharpen and polish the blade and carve a grip out of wood.

[Meisenmann]

My knife is now finished!

I am not really satisfied, but it is a first try of course. I carved the grip out of linden wood and oiled it several times. It doesn't really fit to the shape of the blade to be honest.

I do not understand why the hardening line doesn't show as good as when I tried to etch it the first time. Back then I just wanted to see if it was there...







My first etch was this: