Most recent knife

[felix24]

Hello there,
I'm new to the forum and still quite new to the world of bladesmithing (this is my 6th knife). Just thought I'd post up this knife as a way of saying hi. It's one I made for my Dad as a birthday present. The blade is made from O1 tool steel, the bolster is mild steel. Not too sure what type of wood the handle is. Looks nice though It has a hidden tang with a bras pin to hold it in place.
In terms of heat treating, I normalized it three times and then annealed it before filing and sanding. Then I quenched it in cooking oil and differential tempered three times with a small blow torch. Going for light blue along the spine bleeding into straw along the edge and purple for the tip. The tang was tempered all the way to a grey colour.









Let me know what you guys think ;)

[Chad J]

That looks like a great knife! i like the file work, Beautiful!

Chad

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Have you tested any of your knives to destruction to test the heat treating? The reason I ask is that I work with some parts made of O-1. I recently had to anneal a bar loader collet in order to retap it to a larger size. I heated it red hot, and put it in some kitty litter to cool it slowly. The next day it was still to hard to drill, and a file slid on it. I ended up heating it to a dull red on some fire bricks, and heated the bricks also. When all was smoking hot I closed them over the collet, and that did the trick. I have found that O-1 needs some soak time to draw a temper. It isn't like plain 10 series steels that easily draw with a torch, and watching colors.

[golgotha forge & anvil]

That's a great looking little knife...filework is really good !

Gene

[mrkiddi]

Really nice:) that thing is pretty, and the handle is nice. you are
really talented! keep us updated with your work!

[felix24]

thanks a lot for the compliments guys

BIGGUNDOCTOR, no I have never tested completely to destruction. So far I have tested my knives by cutting paper, cardboard and wood and seeing if it will still shave my arm. Also I jam the tip into a piece of wood and jiggle it around to see if it will curl or chip. If not them I'm pretty happy. All the knives I have made so far are pretty small, so I haven't done any chopping tests with them.
I'm working on a knife at the moment using a piece of coil spring. I'm not sure exactly what type of steel it is, but I'm planning on giving it a good hard test (cutting, chopping, bending) after I heat treat it to see what it can do, and to see (as you say) if I heat treated it properly. Hopefully I'll get some good results :)

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Nothing wrong with a small knife. I use my old Schrade pocketknife for a LOT of work; opening boxes, cutting letters open, skinning various road kill for tanning practice, cutting lunch items up, wood carving, and a lot more. I use my knife just about every day. I can't say the same for the large sheath knives I have which stay in the dresser drawer.

BTW the file work is very nice. Personally I think it looks great, but I would probably use only various radii, no sharp corners in order to avoid stress risers.

Overall I really like the design, and I am sure that your dad will treasure it.

[felix24]

That's a good point about the stress risers. I'd say the most work this knife will get is disembowelling letters though. I'll keep it in mind though for future knives :)

[golgotha forge & anvil]

Please keep us posted on all future endeavors !!

Gene