First (sort of) finished knife!

Gundog48 · September 30, 2012

If you don't want to read this, watch the video, it covers most of what I'm going to be typing! Having not fully finished a knife before (first time I've heat treated one), I decided I'd try and get one made for a camp I was going on the following weekend. Inexperience and rushing is usually a recipe for disaster, but this came out okay! I got all the forging done over the weekend which took about 16 hours in total. I then spent the rest of the week doing all the rough grinding which was done mainly with files with a little help from the angle grinder to get started! It was hard to find time as I was at at school all day, and had homework and other commitments. I got the heat treating done Thursday (after getting home at about 5PM after Army Cadets), and spent the rest of Thursday and Friday hurriedly polishing and sharpening as I had to leave for camp at 6PM Friday!

I got it all finished to a standard I was happy with. In retrospect, I would have liked to have made the whole blade look a bit rougher, like some of Stormcrow's blades, as this type of chopping blade gets some rough treatment, so the 400-grit finish gets ruined after quite a bit of use making the blade look ugly, whereas if I had left some marks in, it would not be a problem and may have made the blade look better overall. It was forged from 5160 spring steel and has a 1/4" thick spine, which tapers all the way down to the blade, rather than having bevels. It makes it very useful for splitting kindling up. The blade is 7.5" long. The sharpening was done quickly, but ti is still plenty sharp enough to cut yourself by accident (I discovered that quick enough!) and to cut through materials with little resistance such as falling paper. The temper turned out softer than I would have liked due to mistakes during my first heat treatment, meaning that I haven't tested it too thoroughly on steel, although I tested it on the edge of some 3mm steel plate which it cuts into nicely and doesn't damage the edge, but I don't think it would stand up to extended use.

Here is the video if you're too lazy to read!

Anyway, I got it done in time which I was pleased about. I used camp to test out the blade, and it turned out quite well. I was splitting small logs, cutting old tins and letting other people play with it. It came back slightly scratched and slightly less sharp, but it stood up nicely. The handle was a temporary solution, but I actually quite like it and it seems to work well, so I plan to stick with it! The weight of the blade made it perfect for using in the same way as an axe, but the sharpness made it good for whittling and carving. It was also very good at hacking off smaller branches and cutting bits of wood in a V as you would with an axe. All in all, it was everything I wanted from a camp knife, and not a bad first effort by my standards! Also managed to throw together a sheath from an old bit of boot, another rushed effort!