Dennis Knife Sides

[Glenn]

IForgeIron Blueprints
Copyright 2002 - 2011 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved

BP0305 Knife Sides
by Dennis

 

This is day two of our little knife making demo. Yesterday we closed with the knife ready to be normalized. This process in it basic form involves three cycles minimum of heating the blade up a little hotter than non-magnetic and holding it there, followed by letting it cool slowly. If the blade bends at all during this process, straighten it and then start the count over. If you get to the third heat and it is still straight when it has cooled, it shouldn't bend when you quench it (unless your quenchent is too cool--if the blade warps on quench, anneal it, straighten it at a red heat, and start the normalizing process over, and warm up your quenchent this time. I got lucky, it went through the normalizing process without warping--this is why it was important to only work your blade at an orange or slightly cooler heat. You don't over stress the steel when working it, it shouldn't warp when you normalize it. While normalizing the blade I worked on the scales for the handle.

 

For the scales I used a piece of nice and seasoned maple that I found while splitting wood the other day. I was able to get a few hammer handles out of it, but this one was a bit narrow. I split this into three sections.

 

I should be able to get three or four knife handles out of these. They split nice an straight, far too straight for the wood stove.

 

I selected a medium thick (how thick, didn't measure, just picked one that looked "right") and smoothed down one side with a draw knife.

 

I measured the knife handle and gave myself about an extra 1/2 inch when I cut the scales.

 

Next, I cleaned up the side that faces the handle with a bit of sand paper, making sure to keep them flat while sanding. The rough side facing up will be cleaned up with a rasp in a bit.

 

Check regularly against a straight edge, when the daylight between the scale and the straight edge disappears, you're good.

 

With rasp and coarse sandpaper we're ready to start shaping the scales.

 

Secure the scale and start truing up the face with the coarse side of the rasp, you can clean up the rough surface of the scale with the fine side of the file. Try to maintain an even thickness across the piece.

 

When the blade has cooled after the final normalization heat, sand the surface with coarse sand paper and clamp down. We will now draw file the cutting edge.

 

We will use the fine mill file from earlier. We will be blending the edge into the body of the blade and cleaning up any pitting that may have occurred due to oxidization while normalizing the blade. You can minimize the oxidization by maintaining a deep fire and being gentle with the air.

 

Once you have cleaned up any of the large scratches or oxidization pits begin sanding the blade with 220 wet/dry paper. Note the direction of the blade vs. where my hand is while sanding. You now have a blade that can cut you if you are not careful. At this point the blade is ready to be hardened. Heat it just a bit hotter than non-magnetic and quench. I have a magnet handing on a piece of string that I can lower down to forge level, and then back up out of the way when it's not needed. Learn the color of non-magnetic for the steel that you are working with. When you reach that temp quench the blade in warm oil (about 140F for 5160). Do not use your "meat" thermometer, oil can be very hot and look as if it was just poured from the bottle, DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS IN IT TO SEE IF IT IS WARM! I use vegetable oil, it's cheap and if it splatters you you'll smell like a deep fry cook instead of an oil refinery.

 

After quenching sand any scale off with 220 and proceed to temper. For the handle to blade transition I like to temper to a deep blue, for the blade I temper to a light straw yellow at the cutting edge to a dark straw yellow at the spine, maybe approaching blue. You can temper the blade over the blue flame of a gas stove such as a coleman propane burner or as I did, over the blue flames of a hot charcoal fire in the forge as in the picture above.

 

Here is an attempt at a picture of the blade after the tempering. The flash kept screwing with the colors.

 

The colors that form as you temper the blade are the result of oxidization and are easily sanded off. At this point we are ready to start attaching the scales. I cut it a bit close when I split the maple for the scales. As a reminder to myself as to what side is what, I like to trace the handle onto the scale on the side of the scale that faces in (that is, the side of the scale that is in contact with the metal).

 

First clamp a scale to the knife, and drill the holes. You should have the scale firmly down on a surface that you are not afraid to drill into. This prevents splinters from forming as the drill bit penetrates the scale.

 

We will use brass pins to rivet the scales onto the handle. I used brazing rod for the pins.

 

To drill the holes in the second scale, place the rivets into the holes of the first scale so they stick out just a bit and then place it on the handle, the rivets should line up with the holes that we just drill If not we have problems. Place the second scale on the other side of the handle, line it up and clamp. Next remove the rivets, being careful not to move the scales. Now drill through the the first scale and handle into the second scale.

 

Replace the rivets and drive them through the scales.

 

Next trim the rivets and file them down to about 1/16" above the surface of the scale. If possible try to file them with a bit of a dome, to prevent the rivet's head from splitting as you peen them. I find that supporting the scale on the reverse side with a piece of metal the same thickness as the distance that the rivet protrudes. This prevents the scales from moving or sliding down the rivet if you happen to miss with the hammer.

 

With the rivets set, you are now ready to rasp the scales to shape.

 

Now clean it up with a bit of 120 followed by 220. Trim the scales at the blade to handle transition and you've got a knife.

 

The finished knife, ready to be stained or treated as you wish.
 

 

 

Irnsrgn
If you cut and file your bronze rod to length and take them one at a time and heat the very end red then quench in water it makes them dead soft and they brad down easier

Oakwood
I'd like to add one thing to the knife BP when drilling through the scales clamp the blade and scale to a piece of wood to prevent tear out when you drill through.