Little walk thru making a knife - CHARITY KNIFE - FOR SALE ebay lin inside!

[cbr900son]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250871577431

So i've been posting a few knives ive made here and there and got alot of emails and pms just asking about the whole process so this time around thought Id take a few pics as i go. Now Ive never done a traditional tanto before and the shape of this one will be completely a traditional tanto shape tho I have something special in mind for the handle material . If you have any questions feel free to ask. Ill attempt to answer or point you in the direction to get the answer.

OK first of all I do whats called stock removel. The other type is forging like a blacksmith would. Im no professional or expert and mess up alot (lots of shop knives around lol). Im just a hobbyist who enjoys it. On this knife im attempting a tanto style with 1095 high carbon steel (very easy to self heat treat). The knife will be almost 13" with a 7 1/2" blade This will be a learning experience for me with this type of blade so here we go!

This is a cutout of the template I want to use. It is on a 1 1/2" x 18" x 3/16" piece of 1095 steel.

Next I take it over to my porta-band saw setup. This setup is ghetto but works very well and cheap considering its a decent little harbor freight model with a foot pedal switch. I cut off some of the bigger peices of metal from around the template.

After that I take it over to my grinder to grind closer to the outline. Now this grinder is a industrial version. Its a 2"x72" grinder with 2hp variable speed setup. People do this different ways who don't have the grinder. Hacksaws, drill tons of holes along the outline, etc etc.. Ive read that angle grinders are actually really good to use and fast.

When grinding metal or anything with knives really tou NEED a mask! Dont want to breath this crap in!!!!

 

[cnodie1]

Looking forward to seeing this play out!

 

[SirIsaacNewton]

This looks awesome! I am subscribing.

 

[cbr900son]

Due to the slight curve in the blade I cant cut a lot out with the saw so I got to slowly grind the profile out which ill do tonight and some tommorow.

 

[bearfutedninja]

cool

 

[bravo3]

subscribed

 

[artabr]

I love the bandsaw rig up.



Art

 

[cbr900son]

Well this is where Im at this morning and Thru out the day ill be grinding and playing with the granddaughter so probably 15 mins here and there thru the day. Now normally you would just trace the pattern on the metal and grind till it gets hot then dip in water and keep going. Well I glued the pattern on for two reasons. One i want this shape to be exact as this drawing came from a knife collector with real antique katanas and tantos. I did scale it down like 10% tho but the dimensions are proportionate. The second is because I stepped up to this heavy duty grinder and its litterally like 20x faster at grinding then my old home depot 4x36" grinder. A maker friend said keep the paper on there so you have to slow down since you cant cool it in water and have more time to think more about it. This grinder grinds big time so no little mistakes just big ones.

Back to the knife sorry lol. When grinding heat is your enemy. One it can get hot to handle and 2 if you heat steel up you can harden or even its been heat treated actually soften the blade if it gets to the 400 degree range! This is what I have left to grind off today.

 

[cbr900son]

UPDATE

So today I finished profiling the blade. Here is a few shots of me working and the final profile. I will draw file the edges to make sure they are good. I know i wasnt wearing my respirator which is bad practice but I was just grindign for a second. Loots of sparks and metal shaving to inhale... This is a 36 grit belt which is great for eating metal.

PS that table with all the little colorful things in the first pic is my sharpening "station" with my wicked edge sharpener and all knid of stones and stops with different paste etc

 

[cbr900son]

Hope yall are enjoying this thread so far. Got alittle done today. Sundays i spend most of my day at church working with the youth there and try to spend some time with the family. Also I never just work on one knife. I usually go back and forth between a few and sometimes help some of the teens at my church make a knife of their own. So today I did a few quick things and worked on some file knives Im making for some marines in the middle east as a gift.

So I took off the template that was glued on and drew some lines with sharpie marking where the grind will start and how high i want the grind line to be and compared to the template.

Next I turn it to the blade edge and cover it in permanent marker. This is used alot in knife making all over a blade. It helps when your grinding to see low and high spots that u might not feel or see without. Also for the edge it helps me use the little tool to mark a center line and see the line really easy. When your grinding you never grind to the very center. You want the center to be about as thick as a dime. There is a chance when heat treating that the thin edge if ground to the center will warp. Leaving some meat there greatly reduces this chance.

Knife and the center line tool

There are different centerline marking tools but this one is pretty simple. Hold it at a angle to where both post are on a different side of the blade gliding along the edge and the carbide tip in the middle should be centered. Then just drag along the edge.

The marker makes it super easy to see the line.

Tommorow Im going tubing with the youth group but i plan to start grinding this blade probably tomorrow night or more likely tuesday since i'm off work till wed. Ill update as I get stuff done. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I enjoy talking knives and i might skip something that your curious about as this is a walk thru and not so much of a tutorial. Also if your ever in lafayette and wanna stop by and check out my little shop area, get some food and talk knives, or even make a knife give me a hollar.

 

[SirIsaacNewton]

Looking good so far. Have fun tubing!

 

[TomTerrific]

This is fascinating. I appreciate your taking the time to walk us thru.

 

[cbr900son]

Its no biggie just a few pics here and there. Maybe down the road Ill do a tutorial tho there have been some awesome ones done already if anyone wants a link to one or something.

 

[cnodie1]

Its no biggie just a few pics here and there. Maybe down the road Ill do a tutorial tho there have been some awesome ones done already if anyone wants a link to one or something.

Links please

I would like to see a few different builds before I tackle my own

 

[slinkyonrampage]

Very awesome thread, cant wait to see more.

 

[cbr900son]

Ive seen a few different tutorials and with knives there is no ONE way to do it but this is prob one of the better ones out there. If anyone takes on the project of making one let me know or even plan a day to come by and your more then welcome to use anything I have or ask questions etc. Im no super professional just a decent knife maker. Some of these guys I learn from have been doing it for 10-20 years!

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264909

 

[Pale Horse]

Do you temper with a torch and oil or do you use one of the electric kilns?

 

[cbr900son]

Depends on the knife and metal. Some metals can be done easily with a big propnae torch and oil quench like 1095. others are more difficult to treat. Also if the knife turns out really nice Ill have it professionally heat treated and rc tested for hardness. Also if its one of the youth at my church I work with Chances are ill treat myself with a easy metal to treat.

Here are a few of them working today. Did a good bit since it wasn't 10490804589 degrees outside today in my shop area.

 

[cbr900son]

UPDATE 7-15-11

Well today got to rough grinding the bevels in. Did some testing on what degree to put it at and ended up at 7 degrees tho I do also plan on trying a 10 degree one down the road to see the difference in looks.

This is the first side with its rough grind. The line will get crisp and cleanup when I hand sand. If it was 10 degrees vs 7 it would be about a 1/8" less up the blade.

This is halfway thru the other side. Notice the grind line getting closer to the top.

This is with the tip grounded too. The rest will probably be hand ground to smooth out the transition from the tip to the main part of the blade.

Other side. Notice the hot marks on the tip and blade. This thing gets so hot grinding that sometimes when I dip it in the water it smokes and bubbles for a second. Got to be real careful.

Next will be to clean up the ricasso (area where the cutting edge starts from the handle area) then ill start cleanup sanding to about 22-400 grit before heat treating. Also during this time Ill be thinking about handle material and if Im gonna do stainless steel bolsters or not.

 

[cbr900son]

Let me know what yall think so far. Love to hear comments good or bad.