Bad_Rockk

Hello, I'm currently making my first knife. For the stock I used an old farriers rasp. I first annealed the rasp and then quenched the tang and break it to see if it's worth using the material for a blade. It broke easily. So I will heat treat it like 1090/1095. here a picture to get the size of the knife (40x165 mm / 1.5 x 6.5 inch, 4,5mm/0,177 inch thick). The shape is inspired from the "Chunky Monkey" shape of YT Simple Little Life. I want to use the knife for cooking. The rough shape I did with an angle grinder and a 3x21 belt grinder. I did the bevels with a hand file and a jig. I removed the deep scratches with an orbital sander (80 grit) and then handsandend with 120/220 grit. Unfortunately I now already have a pretty sharp edge before heat treating. The handle will be made of Padouk with 6mm stainless steel pins. So my question is, can I heat threat the knife with the sharp edge or do I have to increase the edge width by removing more material? Greetings from Germany, Tim

Hi Thomas, Thank you. I will try both methods. One end of the file was already heated to non magnetic, so I will cut the rasp in two parts. One I will anneal the other one I will draw to the final temper. I have a 3x21 belt grinder, which is mostly used for woodworking, with grits starting from 40. I will give it a try. The annealed part I will do with hand files. Maybe I find some time tomorrow to do the rough shaping with the angle grinder. For the further documentation and questions I will start a thread in the knife making section. Greetings Tim

Hi Welshj, I know what case hardening is and also why to do the hardening, quenching and tempering. I just mentioned it because the post of jmccustomknives says that cheap rasps are sometimes made this way. And if so, it is not worth putting time and effort in it to make a knife out of it. So in conclusion to hand file the bevels I need to anneal the rasp. That was my primary plan, just got confused with Thomas' statement.

Hi Pnut, hi Thomas, thanks for the links. I already got an old railroad piece whitch I could turn into an anvil. But right now I'm totally fine with stock removal knife making. This is my little forge (or how do you call it?) for heat treating the blades. Just firebrick and a propane torch. No rocket science. And no I don't fire it up on the workbench. This was just a picture after I finished it. Thomas, so I don't need to anneal the rasps? Just tempering? What I read so far rasps are often made of 1090 or 1095. I already followed a tip of jmccustomknives I found here on IFI. Heated the tang to non magnetic and quenched it in water. Then I tried to break it in the vice. It broke easily and this is how it looked: For me that's a sign that the steel is not case hardened. So I would go on with cutting the rough shape with an angle grinder, tempering like a 1090/1095 and then starting to establish the bevel with a file. If this goes to deep into detail for an introduction post, I can start a new threat in the knife making section. Tim

Hello Frosty, I know that I could buy knife blanks but that is not what I'm after. I'm working as a mechanical engineer and I'm sitting in front of my screen far to much. I want to create something by myself. I would like to take classes of several crafts but in the actual pandemic situation all of them are cancelled. So I just start doing instead of waiting. Right now I'm building a shed which I designed, just waiting for warmer weather to pour the concrete base. All the framing and roofing I will do by myself. The shed will also have some space for further tools. Perfect, so I will open a threat in the knife making 101 section showing the making of my first knife. Tim

Hello, I'm 33 years old, married, two little sons. I have no blacksmithing experience and got here on recommendation of a YouTube knife maker. I want to start into knife making because I like sharp knifes for cooking and I can't afford high quality knifes or the one's I like. I have some experience in sharpening with wet stones. After watching several videos about knife making I thought that I could give it a try. Forging blades is also very interesting, but not right now. First I thought I could skip the heat treatment by using an old file/rasp. But the farriers rasps i got are pretty hard and it takes forever to grind them with an angle grinder. So I ordered some soft firebricks and a little torch to build a small forge. Also ordered a face mask and eye protection. This is were I am right now. I would like to show the steps of my first knife making and hopefully get some tips and tricks along the way. I already found the "Knife Making Class 101" section, is this the right place for such a threat? Greetings, Tim