Blade Attempt Number 2!!!!! (Pictures and story included!)

[Jonathan Smidt]

Well, it's been a...journey, but I finished the second blade I mentioned I was working on (knife number 2 done!).  This blade caused me a lot of trouble, and I learned a lot as I went, but as always, suggestions/critiques always help! 

Story time first!  I am still working on edge geometry and the bevel...trying to figure out how to improve upon those two with my hammer for the initial shaping, and then my angle grinder (really hoping for a belt sander for Christmas...think that might help just a tad).  

So, shaping this blade went well in my opinion, I got close to the shape I wanted, though it was a little shakier than I would have preferred.  I am going to apply the techniques given to me in a previous post next time, to try to keep the blade straight and flat!  I tried to clean it up as much as I could, but in the end, when I went to quench, I developed a slight bend that I just couldn't get rid of :(.  The temper went well though, so the blade is definitely nice and hard :).  

Grinding away after the heat treat was a little difficult...the wife wanted me to try to leave some of the dark coating that appeared after tempering on the middle....and well...I just don't have the angle grinder skills needed to make that look pretty just yet....will keep trying in the future!  

Onto the part that taught me a whole lot...the guard and handle....

So, my initial idea for the guard was to take this piece of brass I had, and forge it out nice and pretty like, to make a fancy guard....  I learned quickly, brass is not my friend.  Now, as I failed at the brass, my light was leaving, and my forge was setup outside because it was a nice day, so I grabbed the closest piece of metal ( a thin piece of 15N20) and tried to forge that into a guard.....it did not cooperate, so I just kind of forced it into a guard shape, and said it would be a forever reminder of my frustration and failure that night....  I then drilled through it (I don't have a drill press...so that was a pain too haha), and then filed away, until it fit my tang.  

Next was the handle.... I got a nice piece of blackwood for this blade (thought it would like striking with a brass guard....as we know that didn't work out haha).  So, without a drill press, I placed my block of wood in my vice, and tried to use my powerdrill to punch through both ends.  That became quite the struggle, and after a lot of fighting, switching bits, and changing which angles I was drilling at, I sort of had a path for my tang to go through.   However, it wasn't wide enough, and my file broke on me....(cheap files are definitely a lesson learned), so I thought, well, might as well try a burn through...only problem, my forge was off and cool, and all I had for a heat source was a little plumbers torch..... Lets just say my patience lasted to about 3/4ths of the way burned through...and then the hammer came out.  Proceeded to accidentally crack my handle material...so out came the epoxy.  (I attached everything before I cleaned my guard up....ugh).  

Today, after I let my epoxy set for 24+ hours, everything was held nice and tight together, so out came the angle grinder again, as I worked the guard the little I could, and the handle material.  Then I took it home, polished it up by working my way up to 2500 grit sandpaper on the edge, and am now, finally, sharing my second attempt at making a blade, with all of you!  (Will also attach a picture below that has my first and second blades sitting side by side).  Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed my story!  

Blade is made from 1095

Guard is made from 15N20

Handle is Blackwood

[lyuv]

Half way through the story, I started sweating. By the end I was exhausted . What an ordeal!

You have my full simpathy, as this is what my usual day at the smithy looks like. I think I should name it "The Murphy Smithy".

I wish you a belt grinder.

[Will W.]

I would recommend *slowing down*. Almost every mistake in your story can be broken down to the result of being way too hasty.

Saying that your patience wore thin burning the tang through so you grabbed a hammer and beat it in, well, it was too tight to begin with, hence the burning in, so you were asking for trouble with a hammer.

If youre ever in a pickle, the best piece of advice i can give you is to STEP AWAY FROM THE BLADE, take a few breaths, and think things out logically. If you dont have a proper piece of steel to make a guard, then get a different piece of steel. If you dont have the file to perfect the notch for your tang, then get a file. Otherwise, if you just rush into things hoping it will turn out fine, well... you saw what happens. 

You also do not need to drill your guards. Youre a blacksmith, after all, heat it up, punch it out, and drift it to size. 

Good luck. Keep learning and having fun. 

[Latticino]

58 minutes ago, Will W. said:

I would recommend *slowing down*

This is great advise, and I would add that it is sometimes worth taking a break for even a day and coming back to your project with fresh eyes and more tolerance.  Happened to me just last night as well.  I'm rushing to get some blades ready for heat treatment for a local class and screwed up the grind on a nice large bowie.  I knew I was starting to flag after workign all day and then grinding for a couple of hours, but I foolishly tried to keep the filing jig in place for several grits, right up to 600, on the blade side without finishing the ricasso correctly first, then when I ground the ricasso the file guide was in the way and I ground the blade off center.  Tonight I get to see if I have enough stock left to fix this, but it will be a thinner knife than I wanted...  Wish I had stopped and taken a break when I felt myself loosing focus.

[Jonathan Smidt]

1 hour ago, Will W. said:

I would recommend *slowing down*. Almost every mistake in your story can be broken down to the result of being way too hasty.

...

You also do not need to drill your guards. Youre a blacksmith, after all, heat it up, punch it out, and drift it to size. 

Good luck. Keep learning and having fun. 

You're entirely right Will.  I believe there is that old saying "Haste makes waste", and I definitely feel that is what happened this time around.  I could have kept the handle from cracking if I did as you mentioned, and went and got the files I needed, and took my time.  I am planning on starting a new project this weekend, so I think I'm going to ensure I have all my materials lined up, everything chosen and set aside before I begin, and also make sure that I have everything I need (perhaps with a backup when it comes to my files etc), before I start.  I will also try to do better at my time management, and not try to just keep pushing till darkness or exhaustion, but instead approach the task in steps, taking breaks and making sure I stay focused.  (Taking your advice Latticino, gonna make sure if I feel myself wavering in the slightest, to step back from my project so I do not ruin it.)  As always, thanks again for all of the help and advice you guys offer me, hopefully I can move forward and start presenting you guys with some nice blades. 

One last thing @Will..... I can't believe I didn't think of punching the hole into my guard....

[Will W.]

It does help to have quality files, and many of them. I actually just counted it up the other day, i have over 40 files and no two are the same. The great part is, when a file is worn out, turn it into another tool! 

If you break a tool that you need, and cant get it until tomorrow or something, work on some other aspect of the blade until you can get the proper tool for the job. That way, youre still making progress, and youll always be working efficiently. 

And dont worry about not thinking about it. I have let far more obvious things slip by me!

[JHCC]

Slow down. Waaaaaaaaaaay down.

Everything said above is perfectly correct, and everything that's wrong with this knife could have been fixed by taking more time.

First, you've still got hammer marks showing. You didn't grind enough.

Second, your grinding isn't even. You needed to take more time to look for the high spots and low spots (hint: grind the former more than the latter).

Third, your surfaces are horribly rough. You didn't take the time to smooth them with finer grits.

(We'll give you a pass on the warp in heat treat; that happens to everyone. Still, you could have chosen to anneal it, straighten it, normalize, harden, and temper all over again. More time, but possibly better results.)

Fourth, the problems as described with fitting the handle. Take more time!

The British writer and craftsman David Pye defined "workmanship" as the maker's ability to bring an object into the world that matches a closely as possible the designer's concept. In these photos, I can see where you were going, but you need to put in the time that it takes to do each step well, so that your idea doesn't get obscured by hammer marks, sloppy grinding, and cracked handles. 

The first two knives I made were done almost entirely by hand, with a LOT of drawfiling and hand sanding. That's not what I did for the ones that halve followed (and, full disclosure, I am not a bladesmith: just a guy who's made a few blades), but the experience taught me a great deal about how each step leads to the next, how you can't skip to finish sanding if you haven't finished getting the bevels shaped, and so on. So, take the time to take the baby steps, and you'll be running before you know it.

[Will W.]

14 hours ago, JHCC said:

That's not what I did for the ones that halve followed

Finally, the stars are alinged, and fortune has smiled upon us. The opportunity to correct the Grammar Hammer is upon me! I shall savor this;

*Have*

[ThomasPowers]

perhaps "have" instead of "Have"?

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, Will W. said:

alinged

"aligned".

1 hour ago, Will W. said:

this;

Use a colon, not a semicolon.

1 hour ago, Will W. said:

The opportunity to correct the Grammar Hammer is upon me!

"If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as if our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'." -- Lina Lamont

[Will W.]

But i thought i spell checked it! Ugh...

I have much to learn 

[Jonathan Smidt]

Of all the places I expected to see the Grammer Hammer come into play....this was unexpected haha

[JHCC]

45 minutes ago, Will W. said:

But i thought i spell checked it! Ugh...

Capitalize first person pronouns. Ellipsis at the end of a sentence still gets a terminal period.

[Buzzkill]

On 11/16/2017 at 9:09 PM, Will W. said:

I would recommend *slowing down*.

 

On 11/16/2017 at 10:15 PM, Latticino said:

This is great advise, and I would add that it is sometimes worth taking a break for even a day and coming back to your project with fresh eyes and more tolerance.

 

On 11/17/2017 at 10:23 AM, JHCC said:

Slow down. Waaaaaaaaaaay down.

I know I'm late to the party, but I'm going to "+1" this.

I can't tell you how many times I've created more problems and work for myself by either continuing to work when I know I'm getting tired and short on patience or by trying to rush on delicate operations.  Usually the thinking is something like "I'm almost there.  Just a few more minutes and I'll be done, so I don't want to quit now."  Either that or I know I have to quit working for a family obligation or something similar so I try to speed up.  Inevitably, especially when grinding, a mistake is made that requires more time to fix than if I just set the piece down and came back to it later.   It's *really* hard to put small amounts of metal back on, but it takes very little time to take metal off - and mistakes become very obvious in most cases when you're close to final finish.