First puukko. No1 Mk3.

[fleur de lis]

Fisrt puukko. No1 Mk3 (a nod to SMLE lovers)

 

So after failing to fully take earlier advice my second attempt went to the scrape bucket. This here is try 3. May actually finish this one. 

 

Went to a simpler steel instead of the A485-1 I'd been trying with. This is 1095 bar stock. Forged to shape roughly. Didn't forge in the bevels, as that is a still developing skill. Followed with normalizing. Which without a nifty oven, was heating past critical with a short soaking. Can't say how long ad I forgot to note it. Then let it sit cool. Did that twice for giggles. Did the first grind, & then put my stamp to it. Which wasn't done deep enough. Heat treated in warmed canola oil. With no side to side swishing. Read that that's a bad thing. Presto, the dang thing didn't look like a road map this time (the crack looking spot in the pic was cat hair). Skated the best file I have. Quickly ground the surface crud & off to the toaster oven. Did 2 one hour cycles at 450ish. This took the edge to straw. Went back to grinding & grinding like the belts are free. Which where I found out that I need to stamp deeper. Another lesson learned. Which brings me to where I'm at now. 

 

Handle material and fittings. More grinding & sanding. Make a sheath. Not sure what I'm doing there, as I am not fond of leather work. 

 

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I didn't want to touch my phone over the weekend. Was afraid my jerk boss would want more work out of me. 

 

As always, advice & criticism are appreciated.

[templehound]

I like the convex grind and of course Your punch mark,...but that tang is definitely to weak.

[Sly]

New to this site but I would agree on the tang being too thin, thats a huge stress point. the tang should usually taper, it means you have to have a bigger notch for your fittings to attach to but the tang should always taper, strait barstock is the weakest structure, triangles are stronger.

also that looks like a pretty serious crack on the face, if thats a crack and not a scratch, scrap it and start over.

[templehound]

If thats a crack, it is in the middle of the flank and away from the edge. Its IMHO not that fatal like the tang but on the other aspects I agree with You too

in old school technique(sorry I am pretty old school) it is a tapering, form fitting construction from both parts like on the drawing.

(I took it from an explanation to a German fellow so the words are in German and translate tang(Angel), ferrule(Zwinge) and grip material(Griffmaterial))

Cheers

 

[templehound]

.....aah!...cat hair,...I missed that completely

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

13 hours ago, Sly said:

New to this site

Welcome... Have you read this yet? Knowing your location will help with some answers. READ THIS FIRST

[Sly]

I might also add you might get better results quenching and keeping it above 200 and immediately tempering while its still above that 200 line, as one single phase shifting rather then cooling it off all the way and trying to modify it as multiple heats, you will retain more martensite that way. (that method also uses a secondary quench to room temp in water or cold oil to seal the temper)

[fleur de lis]

Templehound & Sly, much appreciation for the info & the picture. Its why I ask for the criticism from folks with a more trained eye than mine. Y'all can see things I dont think to look at yet. 

To be honest, the picture makes the tang look a bit on the small side. It's roughly 3/16" thick by 3/8" in height. The length is were I'm unhappy. Its on the short side. 3-3/4". Which just doesn't feel right in my hand. 

A hidden tang is a new thing for me. Every knife I've ever made before (stock removal) have been a full tang. So more to the learning curve here. Still fun to try though. 

This ones on the back burner for a little bit though. A co-worker has asked if I can make a Ulu or 2 for him. I've never made one before. But if he's willing to sacrifice himself for guinea pigdom & pay me for it, I sure gonna try. 

 

[Sly]

The problem inst necessarily the stock, its the stresses. even though its a thick part of stock the stresses end up located about half an inch to an inch on the right of the blade on the tang. the blades mass adds to that and creates a sheer point, if you have a tapered tang then the stresses end up getting distributed down the tang in a shared load versus localized, not entirely but enough that it wont care. there are a couple ways to avoid that.

One of the ways to avoid that would be to have a curve instead of a 90* angle where the blade meets the tang, just a single one. On smaller knives you might not care but on a bigger blade like this you would notice it if you took the spine of the blade and smashed it on your anvil repeatedly, its kind of difficult to make that though with the fittings snug against the blade (assuming that is your intention), a popular way of doing it is to have that curve meet the tang and then have the fittings further down the tang.

The second method is to quench the entire blade and then on tempering, bring the tang short of glowing and let it air cool to give it strength.

the third is to do the tang as found on swords.

Its especially important when you add the holes for your pins, I would recommend giving that hole at least a inch n a half distance from the blade on the tang if you add one that close, you don't want it on the stresser.

[fleur de lis]

Alrighty then. Got the Ulu for the feller at work done now back to my own devices. 

After reading the good information from Sly, I just hung up the last one & started another. No point trying to polish a turd. 

Went back to the coil spring instead of the 1095 for my last magnificent almost blade like thingy. 

It's been hammered to rough shape. Normilized twice. Rough ground. Mixed up the heat treat & used charcoal instead of my regular anthracite ( I'm too cheap for the .35 cents USD a pound blacksmith coal, I really do need to just get the good stuff ). Quenched in heated canola oil. Tempered at 225° C twice for 1 hour cycles, or as close as the toaster over gets to being accurate. Started to finish grind at a brisk 60 grit to get the crud off. It's at a 120 grit right now. The is at maybe 2mm right now. Not real sure of that, as the kids have releaved me of all my measuring sticks. Metric, Imperial, Newton, they took them all & won't tell my what for. They're up to something......

Much more to do still. I 

I'm not sure what to use for handle material. I used to make custom pistol grips & just found a lot of left over wood. I've pictured some of what I found. 

4/4 Paduak. Bloodwood. Purple heart. More Paduak I think it's 3/4, it's lighter than the first. Lacewood both Australian & South American (not real sure about the S. American). African Blackwood. And a big square of something. Thought it was walnut, but sanding showed it to be orange.

Will be using brass pins & bronze for bolsters. 

 

[ThomasPowers]

You can buy coal at 35 cents for 100 pounds! (Or was that an extraneous decimal point?)  ISTR that the MO ABANA affiliate(s) had coal depots scattered around the state.  Is that where you are getting your coal?

Lots of pretty wood; it's nice when a previous interest can help out a subsequent one.

[Sly]

that new knife looks really good, I like your tastes in woods as well, the big rectangular block (bloodwood) in the center is what I would use for that, save that sexy purple heart for something special

[fleur de lis]

I was thinking the bloodwood with either a Tung oil or Danish oil finish. I like a superglue finish, but it hard on my lungs not matter what kind of respirator I use. I really like wood work. Handles are the first thing I ever did with knives. It probably the main reason I'm wanting to forge knives. So I can put my handles on my blades. Sounds a bit silly to my own ears, but if it keeps me motivated & learning from my mistakes. Then so be it. Course the folks around here are a godsend as well. So thanks y'all. 

 

The special wood I've been holding on to, is a big round of Birds eye maple. Its maybe a 12" round x 6" or so thick, and quarter sawn to boot with a bit of burl on one end. Been waiting for something special for about a decade now. I've got something in mind, but I need to get the fundamentals of forging knives down better before I can tackle it. I'm wanting to make the kids matching slip joint pocket knives as a graduation present. I've got a few years yet, but the girls both started high school this year & legally driving next year. So its going by quickly it feels like. 

 

Thomas Powers. There is a ornamental iron shop a few miles from me who sell blacksmith coal at 0.35 cents a pound cash and 0.40 cents a pound charge. Bring your I in bucket. I don't think their a BAM affiliate, but they are listed on the website. I need to go by there, but I'm always making excuses to put it off.

[ThomasPowers]

0.35 cents is 100 pounds for 35 cents.  That's a great price!  I was wondering if you meant 35 cents a pound and not 0.35 cents a pound?

[fleur de lis]

Stupid auto correcting phone. Its hasn't learned my bad grammar yet. Yes no decimal point. 

It takes decent pictures, but is the village idiot of smart phones. It has gotten noticeably worse since I started taking Russian lessons. I think the back and forth of languages has fried its little brain. And I should proof read too. 

 

Sorry about that. 

[ThomasPowers]

I don't have a smart phone; though my phone is so old and dumb the phone store told me to expect it to stop working when 5G becomes the norm.  They couldn't offer me what I wanted: Phone, text, camera, physical qwerty keyboard.  That's all---no app's, no suggestions for places to shop/eat/no financial info, no tracking, no nothing.  If I want a computer;  I'll use a computer!

I'm just an old Luddite with a history of decades of working for world famous research organizations and  a multinational computer company. Shoot some of the early Cellular patents from the late 50's early 60's had my Father's name on them.

[fleur de lis]

If it wasn't for work, I still wouldn't have a smart phone. I swear that I'm dumber for it. Lazier at the very least.

I'm a tactile person. Computers are a wonderful tool but I much prefer live & in person and simple mechanical things. 

 

Heck, a guy at work thought that I'm a Mennonite since I still cut & split wood for both heat and cooking. I about feel over laughing. 

[SLAG]

Learning a "foreign" is a wonderful way to trash your English spelling.

SLAG.

[fleur de lis]

Bloodwood & bronze. Me thinks that I am liking it. 

Got the blade ground to where I'm comfortable with it. The spine is 4mm thick & the edge is at 1mm & 145mm from the tip to shoulder. 247mm overall. 

Gonna pick up some 220 belts tomorrow & will probably not proceed any higher. Now to see if I can remember where I left the brass rod. 

 

 Slag. You are too right, I'm constantly screwing up words now. I switch between alphabet without thinking & I've given up spelling kat with a C anymore. 

 

[SLAG]

Sorry folks,

I goofed up the last post.

I meant to say,

"Learning a 'foreign' language is a wonderful way to trash your English spelling.

SLAG.

[fleur de lis]

So I far a hair up my XXX at work today while waiting for a service truck to show up for my truck. I really prefer knives to have some form of cap on the handle. Just ties everything together better in my opinion. 

Been meaning to try my hand at Mokume Gane for awhile now & there's no time like the present. Cleaned the couch of a few bucks worth of quarters (American) & had at it. 

Had to play around some to get it to take a weld. Steel seems to be less involved somehow to force weld. But reading ten years worth of peoples posts on here definitely helped. Got 15 quarters into a stack to take a weld & now I know why seemingly everyone who make Mokume uses a gas forge. Its kind of a pain in the backside with coal. Was a bunch of fun though and a good learning lesson. This is only ground to a 220 and I can't can't find my acid to etch, so it is kinda hard to see. 

I've got a bunch of 90% silver half dollars & some copper bar I intend to try to use next. 

But the best surprise of the day, my wife really loves me. Got home from work to find a nice new 5 pound can of 1084 &  a 3 pound bag of Ti dioxide. Such a wonderful woman.

[Steve Sells]

I suggest buying silver to use, most of the time those old coins are worth more as coinage than  silver.

[JHCC]

On 1/3/2019 at 9:30 PM, SLAG said:

Learning a 'foreign' language is a wonderful way to trash your English spelling.

“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[ThomasPowers]

Learning several foreign languages can help the chaos along right smartly.  I sometimes find myself using a german word when I'm speaking spanish in the factory...I blame it on Charles V Holy Roman Emperor; but unsurprisingly the factory workers are just as uninformed about European history as my American co-workers are...

[rockstar.esq]

Fleur, your last few photo's remind me of something I learned at a bladesmithing demonstration.  The demonstrator showed how to forge a square corner at the transition from blade bevel to tang on a ricasso-less knife like yours.

He forged the bevels partway down, then he used a ball pein at that corner to pinch out material diagonally towards the future corner.  Then he went back to forging the bevels.  The material filled in the "pinch" because he'd created an easier place for it to flow to.  The lump at the corner moved to the corner as he forged the bevel.  It takes longer to describe than to do. Honestly, it was really impressive how naturally everything fell into place.