Feukair Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Making a sashimi knife for a friend of mine. This will be the first knife that I actually take to fully finished state, which means i will polish it, sharpen it, and give it a handle... (i havent put a handle on any of my blades yet, i still spend all my time working with the metal...) Below are some pics of the progress so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 More pics... That 4th pic is after some profiling of the spine and edge on the grinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 More... The blade portion is about 9 1/16" long... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Nice start. keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Dwyer Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Wonderful! Good sequence of photos. Your forging seems perfect. I look forward to seeing more. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 Thanks for the comments. So far I've just been practicing hammering techniques, hardening techniques, and trying lots of different polishing techniques. I've yet to actually complete a knife or make a handle for one. I've got very little time to spend on this, and if i cant find a way to make the steel look a way I'm satisfied with I don't see the point in spending time making handles. However a friend of mine said he was interested in buying a sashimi knife, so i said hey, i could make you one of those, and here i am. I'm only planning on putting a simple handle of a wooden dowel with the sides planed to an hexagon shape, so i will not have to spend alot of time on the handle. Plus, having someone patiently waiting for what i'm making motivates me to finish it... I hope to make it look like this when i'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompdw Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 What kind of steel are you using? I noticed you had to make a special hardy cutter for your anvil because of the hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 This is W1 drill rod. Yeah, we found a piece of scrap square bar that just fits in the hardy hole. I saved the bar and cut off a few inches to weld onto the bottom of any hardy tool i wanna make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Your forging is great, looks like you'll have a finished knife soon. Good sequence of pics, you can really see the knife evolve, thanks for sharing and don't forget to post your progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Thanks for the comments! More progress tonight... filing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Did you grind then file. Your forging looks like you could go straight to files. Very nice and straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 I did take my time and forge it very straight this time. When hammering the bevel along the sharp edge the blade curved away from the beveled edge slightly. (between pic 7 and 8) The point was about 1/4" higher than i wanted it (if held with the sharp edge down). I did not want to hammer along the top edge to adjust the point back down because i did not want the spine any thinner, so i used a grinder to adjust the point back down by grinding some stock away along the forward part of the spine, a section about 1/4" at the tip to about 1/16" about halfway back the blade. The cutting edge was also cleaned up a little and the inside corner where the tang meets the blade. After that one more heat was done to flatten the blade and remove any twisting. Then to the hand files. Time consuming though, someday i hope to have a belt grinder. The rest of the shape, the tang, and the flatness was forged in. It's still very difficult for me and i don't work fast, i have little experience. One thing i have become comfortable doing is forging 3/4" drill rod in to a flat bar that is nearly the same thickness and width all the way down. Only because all my knifes start out as a 3/4" bar :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveh Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 hi Feukair.i was wondering how you like working with W1,ive got some that i will be trying out in the near future.i guess ill have to pick your brain when i do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 I see I need to slow down. Learn to forge flat and straight, then concentrate on the bevels. Being comfortable with what you're doing is a big key here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Hi Steve, I bought W1 because it was an inexpensive source of tool steel for me. I have made only a few knives with it so far. Mostly i'm interested in making japanese style blades which is a probably one of the more difficult styles to be successful at, double bevel along only one side, slight bevel along the back, differential hardening, the steel flexing during the quenching, enormous stress built up in the steel... etc... alot of trial and error and reading and cracks in your knives... But i'm in love with that style of blade and that's what i want to learn to do. This sashimi project I took up real quick because it's actually an easy shape to forge. And i was hungering for a project that i could make start to finish in a short time. It's only beveled on one side, totally flat on the other side, so after your all done forging you can heat the whole thing up to an orange heat, then flatten it completely on the anvil or other large flat surface, and you have a very straight blade. Japanese style is not so easy because the cross section of the blade (at least the style i want to learn) is kind of a squished diamond shape so there's no "flat" on the blade that you can align against a true surface, you just have to take the twists out with tools... Truly a sashimi knife is supposed to have a light convex shape on the back of the blade, that and being beveled on one side with no secondary bevel, contributes to the sharpness of the sashimi style blades. Mine will not have the convexion, i don't have tools to make that so my will be as close to flat a possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 I see I need to slow down. Learn to forge flat and straight, then concentrate on the bevels. Being comfortable with what you're doing is a big key here. Yep, once i slowed down, worked both sides of the bevels equally, and kept the steel "thick", i had much better success. For a long time i was making the blades too thin, this makes it harder to hammer in a bevel, also harder to polish in a straight bevel with the polishing stones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 Perhaps you should forge yourself a W1 sen to shape the blade backs with; well within your skills! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 You know lots of times its the simple ideas that escape you... I have sen already but i just didn't consider making one for that purpose. Thanks for the idea Thomas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Could you describe what a "sen" is -does Thanks Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Look here. It's a draw knife for metal basically. I have one that I use a little from time to time, i need to get more practice with it as it does take a little finesse to get it working good. When its working good though it removes material much faster than filing. Thomas was basically telling me that i could make one of these with a slightly convex shape and use it to create a slightly concave shape on the back of my sashimi knife... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 Here's the one i made for myself by modifying a file.Sen Draw Knife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 Well guys I tried to harden and heat treat this blade yesterday and it developed a severe crack about 3" from the tip during the quench. Heating blades for quenching is something I need much much much more experience at. (im still very new at all of this). I have developed some good patience while forging but I'm not there yet with the heating before quenching. I thought i had the front portion of the blade a little to hot but it was late in the day and i got impatient and quenched it anyway. This is something i definitely need to work harder on. I've also collected almost all the parts i need to build a gas oven for heating the blades to critical temp with real control. I think i may wait until i build that before i quench another one. Well, next weekend i'll start hammerin' out another one of these babies... ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Sorry to hear that Feukair, you had a lot of time in that blade and it showed. What did you quench in and what temp. was it.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Feukair, I'm just learning myself and your misfortune brought a question to mind. Did you normalize the blade before hardening? This is heating to critical and allowing to cool without quench to releases the stresses that builds up in forging. Some more experienced bladesters might correct me or perhaps fill in the gaps for me But I'm not even sure it has to be done with all steels. It was recommended for the 5160 I am using. the guy that supplied me the material suggested normalizing 3 times before I harden it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 Sorry to hear that Feukair, you had a lot of time in that blade and it showed. What did you quench in and what temp. was it.? I only check the temp by testing with a magnet over and over until it goes just past non-magnetic. In this case the forward part of the blade came up to temp quick, then i went back in to get the part near the handle up to temp, which was pretty difficult because of my setup, and by the time i got the base up to temp the part about 3" from the tip got even hotter, i could tell it was hotter because it was brighter color. But like i said, i got impatient cuz it was getting late in the night and i quenched it anyway. I've been collecting parts and various plans to build a electronically controlled propane forge/oven to use to heat the blades to critical temp. I also don't have a very good setup for doing this. When i built my firepot i made it basically square, like a traditional pot, and that has turned out to not be a good design at all for knife making. Even if i meticulously work the blade in and out of the firepot the middle is always hotter than the tip or the base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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