John Martin Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 (edited) Well, my blacksmithing friend came over yesterday, we get out to the shop, and pretty much just start messing around with metal. Seeing how far we make a piece of 3/4" piece sq stock, 12" long go. And he's like I'm gonna make a machette. So he starts on that, burns it up while talking to me. Hehe:) So he starts on another one. Well, me wanting to make my first knife ever, take a piece of leaf spring and stick it in the fire. Take my hot cut and cut a 45 degree angle from the beginning of the stock. I then procede to forge the bevels in. Then forge my hilt or handle. Fix up a few things here and there, cut it off from the parent stock. Now I fine tune my forging even more, anneal it, and stick it my coal container to cool down. That took place from about 7-8 pm to about 1 in the morning last night. Today, we get out there today at about 8am. He starts on his bowie, a smaller one. I polish my bevels with sand paper, and started the edge for the bowie with a file. Heated it to about 1450F. Guessing, I have an approx color chart. It was non-magnetic how's that??? Quench in motor oil. Polish the bevels again, and finish my edge to about 2/3 of the way, not sharp yet. Temper in an oven at 300F for 30minutes. Polished the bevels for the last time, sharpened it and beeswaxed the part of the blade that isn't the bevel,edge,shiny part, and the handle. Let it cool down completely. Do a few tests with it. Was able to "chop" logs for our fireplace. Cut straight through a water-bottle. Ended up putting a rope handle on it. Took it out to our land today, while we worked on a bridge over a creek, my dad, me, and quentin. We put our bowies through a lot of abuse, mine is still sharp, very sharp. lol. He cut himself pretty bad while de-barking a piece of wood, while we were waiting for my dad to come by with more concrete so that we could finish setting some posts. Took me about 9 hours from start to finish for my bowie. Will get pictures tomorrow. 7" Blade 5" Handle Overall: 12" long Blade's widest point, about 2" I'm gonna say it weighs about a pound. Bevels start at the middle of the blade go from 1/4" down to edge. Rest of it is 1/4" thick. It's a worker. Edited October 26, 2008 by m_brothers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt993fod Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 300 degrees farenheit isnt hot enough to temper to a sensible level. Neither is 30 minutes long enough to temper for. Leaf spring (if you can't be sure what exact steel it is) in a "chopping" blade format is best tempered to a brown oxide film, which requires about 450 degrees (off the top of my head) farenheit. A whole pound sounds very heavy for a 7" bowie. I am looking forward to the pictures, nontheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted October 27, 2008 Author Share Posted October 27, 2008 (edited) It's a 12" bowie. I re-did it at about 370F today for an hour. It's not going to break if you're worried about that Matt. It's been through a lot of stress in the first two days of it's creation. It's a primitive bowie that was made for abuse. That's why the whole thing is so darn thick. I made two more yesterday as well. ' Edited October 27, 2008 by m_brothers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coltpax Posted October 27, 2008 Share Posted October 27, 2008 Sounds like some good fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted October 28, 2008 Author Share Posted October 28, 2008 What everyone's been waiting for, the pictures. I had to re-size them as they were 1600x1200px. And 1.9mb a pop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donnie Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Rambo would be proud. May I suggest a wooden scabbard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted October 28, 2008 Author Share Posted October 28, 2008 That's what I'm planning on, wrapped in cord. Just parts of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 make some micarta for the handle. Use some of your little brothers old prower ranger PJ's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted October 28, 2008 Author Share Posted October 28, 2008 What's micarta??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethersin Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Look's very nice :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Tai Goo would be pleased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 looks good john. i started my knife later that night and i finished it early the next morning. my knife started out shorter than his, but ended up being a little less than an inch longer than his. the weird thing is that they are almost identical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 the machete ended up being about 24 inches long, but there was a crack in the handle and when i was swinging it at a vine it snapped in two. now im just going to draw what is left of the handle into a tine and make a nice handle for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompdw Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 I like it. Primitive is a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Yeah, quentin handle got burned in the fire while we were talking. lol, i gave it six months, he took one swing. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 these are the two knives that i made so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Are you gonna do anything for a handle on those quentin??? BTW, we tempered both of those at 370 for 40 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Posted November 4, 2008 Share Posted November 4, 2008 i will do something with the handle eventually, i just dont know what or when i will yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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