Almost done. First Cleaver, and a kitchen knife.

[DanielC]

So this big hunk of steel has been forged and sitting in storage waiting for 5 months or so now. I have been waiting for my wood stabilizing equipment to arrive, and it finally has.

 

The cleaver is forged from Aldo's 1084. It can from 1/4"x3"x36" stock. Instead of forging the handle by hand, I saved the steel from a lot of decarb trying to forge one out, and instead cut it out. Decided against my plasma cutter, and instead went with a cutter wheel on a 25,000rpm pneumatic grinder. It did the trick. After that I contoured the handle the way my father wanted it. Other than the very end which needs to be rounded off a bit, the handle area is done. I did forge down the bevels as you can see by the outward stretch of the steel on the two ends of the blade. He also wanted those to stay, so they shall.

 

I initially had trouble HT'ing this hunk of steel in my coal forge. With a little bit of patience I was able to normalize 3 times. The first attempt at hardening did not work out. At first I heated the entire blade and tried to edge quench in about 3 gallons of veggie oil heated to 130F. I left that edge in without any agitation of course. The only problem was the rest of the blade was still red hot. After pulling it out of the oil, I am assuming that leftover heat tempered the edge out, OR because I did not agitate, it did not harden...OR the upper part of the blade was so hot that it did not allow the submerged section of the blade to cool down fast enough to harden.

 

Either way, I made a second attempt by bringing the first 1"-1.5" to heat, and quenching it in 130F veggie oil with a tremendous amount of stabbing agitation. That did the trick.

 

After hardening I threw it in the oven at 450F for 3 hours. Stupid me forgot to clean the oil off prior to temper though. Going to be fun cleaning that sticky black oil gunk off. Hopefully the edge hardened from one end to the other. Initially it looks like the first 2 inches closest to the hand may not have. At least that's what the oil line left over looks like. Problem at that point lies at my quench tank. I had issues getting that last section submerge the way the rest of the blade was. I will deff. be shopping around for a longer container in the future. Don't want to deal with that another time.

 

I will post pics as the cleaver progresses.

 

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Then a smaller kitchen knife also made from Aldo's 1084 1/8"x1.25" stock. This one is made for my cousin since he helped me gather various anvils across state borders. He loves to cook and thought he would appreciate it. Still working the lines on this one. It has been ground down to 120 grit, and I decided to etch with hot vinegar to see results of a long ago edge quench in 130F oil that actually worked. It hasn't been sharpened, but the edge thickness as it is, is .08". From what I've read, its time to sharpen. Need to work that shallow pit out though.

 

The handle material is 50 year dried walnut. Turns out my wife's grandparents have a huge bundle of walnut boards (Like 100 of em or more) that are around 2'x6'x12'. Their parents had them milled 50 years ago, and they have made furniture out of them over the years. Now they sit and accumulate dust. Turns out I also now have an endless supply of gorgeous walnut.

 

After being stabilized, it will take on a deeper, richer color. Currently have it in my dehydrator along with several other handle blanks drying. I had some bad luck getting walnut to dry enough to be stabilized in cactus juice when following supplied directions. Apparently the density of the walnut was not allowing it to dry enough in the time I was instructed. For some odd reason I just gave it the ol' college try and failed miserably. This time I am weighing them out on my sensitive digital scale. I was instructed to dry my wood in an oven at 200F. Problem there, is that there is not air moving, so the drying process is terribly slow for this wood. It worked wonders for very porous wood like the buckeye burl I have posted in another thread. Walnut however I have taken a different approach. My dehydrator moves a lot of air, and has many temp. settings. Starting at 115F progressively moving the temp up until it reaches the max of 155F. I will keep it there until the wood stops losing weight, or 0% moisture (Currently evaporating at a rate of 5mg per hour at 135F). Then I can finally stabilize with good results. Wish me luck!

 

Thanks for looking.

[Aden Cassidy]

Looks good, but take the kitchen knife up to at least 400 grit since that way stuff won't stick to it as bad.

[DanielC]

Thanks. I plan on hand sanding from here to 2000 grit. I have a 800/4000 grit King water stone on its way for the edge as well. I will set the angle with my 200/300/400/600 grit diamond sharpener first tho.

[DanielC]

Got a little bit done this weekend. When I say little, I mean it though.

 

I have been experimenting with my wood stabilizing system, but on the down time I started polishing the beast. Now I know why many smiths sell their cleavers $300+. It's a lot of scratches to remove!

 

Started off on my 4x36 belt sander with a 120 grit ceramic belt. Used my bare hands to make sure the blade stayed cool and didn't ruin my hardening line. After I finished the profiling, I put on a rough edge, and took it to my hand sanding set-up. I am not sure how most of you do your hand sanding, but this method has worked very well for me. I have several kiln dried hardwood blocks that range in length. A few have a very tight grain and do not soak up water very well. These are the ones I have employed for my hand sanding.

 

For one direction, I clamp the blade down on a block, and press the end of the block against my anvil, and the end closer to me against my hip. Doing this while sitting down, I have the block wedged against the anvil and my waist (With a chunk of leather between me and the block to keep rubbing at a minimum). With another block, I have my sand paper clamped on, and I go to town in a forward and backward stroke. Pass by pass I take out the scratches of the 120 grit, with 220 grit sandpaper. I could use 180 for faster removal, but I find it unnecessary to worry about another grit at this low grit stage. In these pictures I only sanded the one side with 220 grit. It took a few hours, but these 120 scratches are gone. After that I do the opposite, and clamp the sandpaper down on my wedged block, and grasp the unsharpened knife in my hands and take the scratches out with a 320 grit, moving perpendicular to the previous grit. I plan on going to 2000 grit, with an etch to show the line. Then work it like I would a hamon. Even though this paper is not really meant for wet sanding, I still use windex as an anti-clogging solution, and a slurry. Works better in my experience than doing it dry. Will also refine the edge further as I go, with each grit. Right now its even for the most part except near the end.

 

There is something very tranquil about hand sanding. Not sure how to explain, but even times when I do it without music or any other form of entertainment, I can go hours non-stop no breaks and just reflect. Makes me want to invest in natural japanese stones that I have been eyeing.

 

I also keep a bucket of water between my legs for cleaning, and wiping.

 

Also in the pictures is some of the walnut vacuum sealed to keep out moisture. They have ~0% moisture, after 5 days in a dehydrator at 155F with forced air. Once I was down to losing 1-2mg in 12 hours I pulled them and immediately sealed them up to use at a later date. They are truly beautiful pieces of wood. I cant wait to get them on some knives.

[DanielC]

This one is polishing up nicely. Edge is rough. Still waiting on some stones from Japan to get here. Also, I need to make a lightbox. Waiting on baby to exhaust through current supply of diapers so I can get another 200 pack, and use that. B)

 

Also, the polish is to 2000 grit. The blade thickness at edge before I sanded the current edge in, was ~.08" thick.

[Rich Hale]

I know wot you mean about the time it takes to get a hand sanded finish on a blade that big,,,About double the time I would take for a similiar length blade for a knife.

And also why I use power tools for that work....lol

[Rich Hale]

If you would like thoughts on that private message me.

[DanielC]

And my 800/4000 stone came in this evening. Cant wait.