52100 Bearing Steel Knife

[Dustin Quade]

So a friend of mine gave me a whole bunch of truck bearing raceway steel for me to use in my smithing. I had done some research on the steel and was excited to give a proper knife a try. The main issue I had is that I’m used to working from flat stock which making a knife blade out of it is not too bad in terms of hard hammering. This stuff though comes in this weird profile which all needs to be flattened out first before you can really start the knife shaping process. I have also been working damascus mostly lately and don’t usually forge down the bevels on those so I don’t mess up the pattern which meant I was a bit out of practice. So after getting the stock down to about a rectangular section i started forming the blade shape handle and forging in the bevels.

This was the first knife I tried with a handle that has a finger groove for the index finger, my handles are also usually a bit on the small side so I made sure this one would have a nice long handle and to my credit at least I got those parts done.

Then it went to the grinder and made a personal mistake, see I had left the blade pretty rough from all the hammering and so I figured I would use a convex grind to get out all my rough work and knew it would leave me a nice edge for chopping which it did, however I just hate the look of it, can’t really say why but I just can’t stand it. I usually do a flat grind and I wish I had just gone with the norm here. What I had not thought of was that the convex grind basically turns the blade surface into a big arc, that meant putting my mark in was also annoying since there wasn’t a proper flat surface for me to rest it on.

Over all this knife is the worst I have made in a long long time and something I can’t even sell because it’s just an embarrassment but what I will say is that the steel itself held up remarkably well. After it was all made I wanted to test the steel and so I got the edge shave sharp then chopped a 2x4 in half and the edge still shaved so I guess at least that was a win. The blade is also nice and true for straight which is another win.

[ThomasPowers]

You have to be careful with using the raceways as larger bearings often use case hardened lower carbon steel---like 9620; but if yours is taking and holding an edge you've got the good stuff!

[Will W.]

I like the design of the knife. Looks unique. 

[Dustin Quade]

21 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

You have to be careful with using the raceways as larger bearings often use case hardened lower carbon steel---like 9620; but if yours is taking and holding an edge you've got the good stuff!

Thanks for the heads up, i did not know that but I did do a spark test and a harden/break test as well before working with it. Always better to be safe than to spend hours working on a piece of mild steel

12 hours ago, Will W. said:

I like the design of the knife. Looks unique. 

Thanks very much for saying so

[Will W.]

No problem. I realize you already explained what you did wrong and what not, and you didn't ask for critique, but why not take a file, grinder, etc, and clean up your edge, bevels, spine, and ricasso? Like I said, the design is neat, but your lines are a little wobbly. 

[Dustin Quade]

4 minutes ago, Will W. said:

No problem. I realize you already explained what you did wrong and what not, and you didn't ask for critique, but why not take a file, grinder, etc, and clean up your edge, bevels, spine, and ricasso? Like I said, the design is neat, but your lines are a little wobbly. 

Thats totally fair, I only didnt ask ask for critique specifically because its my expierience that just posting on this site pretty much garuntees some critque anyways I think I will work on your suggestions in an attempt to salvage the knife, no need to toss it aside just yet.

[JHCC]

17 minutes ago, Dustin Quade said:

its my expierience that just posting on this site pretty much garuntees some critque anyways

Ain't that the truth....

[ThomasPowers]

I always save my "experiments"; well the ones that are not tested to destruction, handy to have a shop or camping knife you feel free to abuse AND the effects of abuse can teach you a lot about how well you are doing things!  Sort of test to destruction while getting work out of it!  Generally you can tell which blades are set aside for that as they get "using handles" rather than purty handles.

[Will W.]

I second everything Thomas said. And fixing mistakes often teaches one that it's a pain, and more caution should be taken to do it correctly the first time around. This is my experience anyways haha. Good luck! And keep us updated if you do clean it up. I, for one, would like to see it.