Karn3 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Hey everyone. Here is the "as forged" blade of my first ever attempt at knife making. The billet this is made from was forged from a chainsaw blade. I first spot welded the chain together then fire welded it into a cohesive bar. I folded it a couple of times to make sure I got rid of any gaps that may have been there, and then forged the tang followed by the blade. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far, as a whole it's 23cm long. Both the tang and the blade are 11 1/2cm long. The edge is currently about 2-3mm thick and I was wondering if I should forge it down smaller before I begin cleaning and polishing it. Once it is heat treated and fully cleaned up I intend to etch it to bring out the pattern created by the different metals in the chain. What do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregDP Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I think you have a great idea of what you're doing. You've got a nice looking knife in the works there. I wouldn't bother forging it down any more personally. Any thoughts on handle materials yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Usually early attempts take a lot of grinding/filing to get a nice smooth surface. I'd leave plenty of metal to support that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karn3 Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 @ RaggyRead There was a big walnut tree in one of our fields that fell over, I was thinking I might try and get a chunk of the root to make into a handle for it. @ ThomasPowers Yer, I think this might require a reasonable amount of grinding so I'll leave the edge as it is. I'm going to start cleaning it up tomorrow, I'll post some pictures so you can see how I get on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karn3 Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 I've started to grind and clean the blade now. There are just a couple of pits left to get rid of. Should I refine the edge now or after I have heat treated the blade? At the moment it is still 1-2mm thick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregDP Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Remember you want to hone to a straight section of the blade the edge still looks uneven I'd fix it while beveling the blade to an edge. Not a perfect edge but an dull edge. Before heat treating. I don't know how well chainsaw chain Damascus hardens and tempers personal. Good luck and draw filing is a lot of work looks like you've had some practice! Walnut root sounds like a well thought out choice have you worked with it before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karn3 Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Finished the the grinding and finalized the shape. The edge is smooth now where it was a bit wavy before, and the top curves have been refined. I'm going to heat treat it tomorrow so I'll let you know how the chain works out. I actually have minimal woodworking experience but I know that walnut root is a really attractive wood and I have easy access to it so that's what I'm going with. This whole process is pretty experimental as I've never actually made a knife before so I'm fully prepared for the whole thing to go horribly horribly wrong. It seems to be going remarkably smoothly though at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregDP Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 That is a great looking knife but you seem to have the same habit I have. I always forget to re-size my photographs! I forget how annoying they are at times. Luckily it let me notice a few deeper looking scratches that may come out during the finishing stage of your knife. (They're near the edge, I'd be happy to send you a picture highlighting where). That being said, I did a small sword recently that once refined I noticed no matter how hard I tried they just didn't smooth over. It looks really good considering I don't own a buffer. I still see them. It was something a lot of people like but far from gold. I hope you have my luck with your first knife. Consider those scratches though. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shimanek Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Not a bad job at all for a first effort; have you thought about a handle yet? The best time to consider handle style is before the tang is forged, ask me how i know : Aloha, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karn3 Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Blade is now hardened, tempered, polished, and etched. Heated it to a dull orange colour which is when it became non-magnetic, then quenched in oil. This seemed to be a success as the file skated across the surface of the metal and didn't mark it. I did two quenching cycles; the first at 200 Celsius for an hour and the second at 220 Celsius for another hour. I used the household oven for this . Spent a good few hours polishing it up with increasingly fine grades of sandpaper before etching it. I got hold of some Ferric Chloride which I mixed with water at 4:1 water:Ferric chloride. I submerged the blade for about thirty seconds to bring out the pattern you see below. I resized the image this time as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 The best time to consider handle style is before the tang is forged, ask me how i know Yeah, me too. What you're going to find out with this blade (a nice blade, by the way) is that if you go for a "through tang" handle, the spine of the blade will not line up with the top of the handle. You'll get that kinda Scagel-ish offset or step. If you want the blade centered in the handle, the tang will need to be centered in the blade. You could always draw the tang on out, maybe weld in some more length, and curl it around as a "blacksmith knife" where the handle is simply a continuous loop of the tang. Keep us posted, Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karn3 Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Yer, I realised as soon as I started thinking about the handle that I had forged the tang in the wrong place for what I had in mind. I wanted to have a flush guard with a centered blade, but I obviously cant do that so I'm having to rethink. The tang positioning is the major thing I will change on my second attempt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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