KPeacock

Michael, thanks for the kind words. For a first attempt at a pattern welded knife (aside from cable) I'm pleased with the outcome. I think I'd prefer it to have fewer layers, but that's just personal preferance. If nothing ele, you can tel lthat it isn't a monosteel blade. I've got a week left to get it all finished up and get a sheath made for it. The sheath is definately my least favorite part of the whole process.

I finally got it sanded down and polished....I couldn't resist a quick etch to see the pattern.

working with steel is easy. you can always add more back onto it if you need to. Working with wood doesn't doesn;t allow for that "undo" feature. I enjoy making the blades, but I very much dislike the handle making and the sheath making. Also, you're quite right about Don's forum. This is a neat place full of incredible talent and ideas. I like to lurk here quite a bti and just absorb info. I'll bet I spent three months last year just reading through the archives. Granted, reading something isn;t the same as doing it, but I learned what should work, might work, and won't work.

Tate, I can't provide any information for you, but I have also been looking at ideas for making a fillet knife. I fish even more than I hunt and it's be nice to have a blade that holds a good edge during salmon season. I grow quite tired of sharpening knives after every couple of fish. If you happen along any good information, please share it with me. I'm fine with trial and error to get the thickness right, but I wasn't able to find anything even suggesting one steel over another for the blade. I figured I'd go with some leaf spring and see how it works. That should give me a blade with adequate flex.

I'm glad you're having good luck in getting materials and tools together. More than most other groups of people, it sure seems like the bladesmiths/blacksmiths are quite willing to assist others and help out whenever they can. It reminds me of the good life out in "dirt road country." It's just an entirely different experience than the city life that I've become used to.

I think Ariel has done a tutorial on this. If he has, it will certainly be on his webpage. I've made a few batches of it. It's cheap to make and quite resistant to damage when done. To make mine, i cut many strips of denim and canvas. I made them about 3"X12." I simply soaked them in fiberglass resin (Already mixed with the hardener) and then stacked the strips one on top of each other. did all of this on wax paper in an effort to contain some of the mess. When I had enough layers (simply a guess) I placed another piece of wax paper of the stack and then squished it. I used a piece of steel plate, but a 2"X6" piece of wood would do just fine. I used 3 C-clamps to squish it. The next day everything was hardened and I cut off the excess resin that was forced out of the material when I clamped it. After that I treated it just like stabilized wood. Most of the shaping was done with sand paper. I don;t care for the smell of the fiberglass so I woke a respirator.

Jim, I tried my hand at brain tanning over the winter and although it worked I'll likely never do that again. The finished product was not what I was looking for and the smell was.....well you know what it smells like. I can do without that in the garage :-) Chris, he fire brick is a good idea. I'll certainly give that a go on my next knife. As for the handle, My buddy claimed he wanted Ipe. I liked the look of bird's eye maple so I quickly snaded some stock down to approximate size and just rubbed some tung oil on it to give him an idea of what it would look like when finished. He decided on the maple. I will be setting the blade in a water bath and using oxy-acetylene on the tang to soften it before drilling for pins. I learned my lesson on the last knife. My drill bits are no match for hardened tangs. Below are some pics of the wood I'll be using for the handle material.

It did flare up. I expected it to flare up more, but it seems to burn a lot less than ATF does. All in all, I prefer the smell of burning canola over the transmission fluid. It did make me a bit hungry though. Immediately following the quench, I wiped the excess oil off of it and placed it in a toaster oven for tempering. I know they are somewhat less than reliable for holding a consitant temp, but the wife put her foot down after I tempered a blade in the house. Apparently the oven is not to be used for "stupid ass knives." I suppose I can;t blame her, the house did smell of ATF for a bit. To prevent any loss of hardness, I plan to do all of the finishing with sandpaper and stones. No power tools. I know it will take quite a bit longer this way, but I"m okay with that. As for the specs, The steel is 1095 and 15N20 at 400 layers. I's somewhat of a ladder pattern, but it's got plenty of "random" in it as well. Total length is 7.75" Blade is 3.75" It's 3/16" thick at the handle and tapers to 1/8" thick at the gut-hook. I ground the ladder pattern into the stock with a 4.5" angle grinder, but the rest of it was done with nothing more than hand tools. For handle material I'm debating between Ipe and birdseye maple. I've got quite a bit of both. I guess, that the decision is ultimately not mine to make. I'll have the future owner make that call after I get some scales close to shape.

Everything went pretty well for me last night. The canola oil worked out just fine. I was a bit worried during the quench as I could hear some popping noise that I thought might be cracking. it seems as though this was just some scale breaking free from the blade. I've got a good bit of grinding to do on it, but thats just fine and dandy with me. I was pleasantly suprised to see a lot of the pattern after sanding off a bit of the scale. I think it will look okay after I polish it up and etch it.

Well, canola oil it is then. Thanks for the heads up. A couple of knives I've done today that worked out really well were quenched in ATF. They were made of steel cable. your guess is as good as mine about carbon content, but by sparking them, I put it around 80 points of carbon give or take. They hardened enough to get through two deer without going dull and they don't chip when whacking on bones. That's good enough for my purposes.

Tonight is the night for the quench. Like most here, I've always been interested in knives. The wedding of a good friend prompted me to start making knives. He cut down an oak tree and made me a nice gun cabinet. I decided to make some forges and tools and make him a hunting knife. I've cracked, broken, and otherwise ruined a good number of attempts so far. All of them have educated me in at elast some small way. Tonight I will be quenching and tempering the blade that started me on this journey and I sure as heck hope for no cracks. The steel is 1095 and 15N20 in a random-ish ladder pattern....maybe. I'm not too sure how it will turn out. :-). Yesterday I normalized three times. I will be making any final minor adjustments and sanding to around 400grit before I heat it up and dunk it in oil. I plan on using hydraulic oil as I have a large quantity of it on hand. I am far too nervous to try a water quench. I figured I'd risk it before and made an attempt that results in a few small bits of knife. If any of you folks have some last minute suggestions, I'm all for listening to them. Thanks, Kris

Though I"m no expert...I've reffered them as fifty-one sixty, ten ninety-five, fifty-two one hundred....etc.

I just posted a link in the tools, supplies, materials forum that might help you out. its a nify grinding type jig that uses a 4" angle grinder to grind the bevels in. I'm guessing it will work very well.

I stumbled along a website illustrating a neat way of grinding bevels. I haven't seen this mentioned here before, although I'm sure someone has heard of it. Anyways, here's the link. http://myhome.mweb.co.za/~20022586/jig.htm Hopefully this will help someone out that doesn't have access the the "fancier" methods.

I would happily buy a file guide when you get enough folks interested to make it worth your time.

Many folks have weighed in with tong preferences and techniques and their advice is sound. I personally don't do too much forging while holding tongs. I weld 1/2" rebar to the piece I'm working on and use that as a handle to insert and remove with piece from the forge. I'm sure some view it as "cheating" but it has certainly worked well for me

I wish you had this deal going when I ordered a box of W2 from Don. I is a bit tedious hammering out a blade, but I suppose it'll make the end result that much more meaningful.....or at least that is what i keep telling myself.

I electro-etch with some highschool chemistry. I plan to do them like Ariel does, but i have not gotten the stickers yet. Currently, I use some of the wifes nail polish to paint the blade i nthe area to be etched. After the paint is dry, i scratch off whatever design, lettering...etc i want to etch. I then use a 9 volt battery and some salt water to etch the blade. It's essentially electro-plating backwards. I'm sure there is some sort of info or video online about this.

Has anyone tried lettering made into the Micarta? It seems like one would be able to write, say a persons name, on the sheets and stack them on top of each other. If you were careful in lining up the sheets, when the handle is shaped the name would remain as it is on every sheet....in the same location. I might have to give this a try just to satisfy my curiousity. I believe it will work just fine, but I'm not sure about the aesthetics of it.

Nice work, Taylor. Thanks for posting the pics and videos. I contemplated converting to NG to eliminate freeze-up problems I was having and eventually ended up with a 100# propane tank to solve the problem. I assumed that the low pressures of NG along with the lower BTU content would result in a burner that would not suit my needs. After seeing yours in action, I think my next forge will be fueled with NG.

I'm no expert at this, but for cleaning teh blade prior to etching, I use Wax and grease remover. It can be found in the automotive paint section of most parts stores. It is used for cleaning and degreasing vehicles prior to painting them. It works very well to remove oils...etc from blades. It is quite inexpensive at about $5 per quart. A splash on a rag is al lit takes to clean a knife.

Bill, Adter this week, I'll be donw with working 80-100 hours a week. it should free up enough time to get the forge fired up again. I'll definately share pics of my success (or failure) as I snap them. I'm probably the last person you should ask about metal types. I've only been dabbling in smithing for 6 months or so. From what I've heard others say, I'd take a guess that its 52100. Keep in mind that everything I know about metal types you could stick in a thimble and still have room for your thumb.

Mike, Thanks for the input. You've got a much better handle on the chemistry than I do. I appreciate the input. It's been a couple of weeks since I fired up the forge (long work hours) and I find that my mind keeps wandering off to bladesmithing. I'm quite sure that my addiction is all your doing. For that, I thank you....I think. Kris

In the next week or two, I'm going to try to make a knife of scrap metals. Bits of bearing race (which I have a never ending supply from the Caterpillar dealership), roller bearings, bits of spring steel, bits of damascus that were cut off of tangs, perhaps a bit of W2...etc. I'm wondering if pieces of engine valves would work in the mix. I anticipate some sort of crazy marble looking pattern when it's all said and done, but I want to make sure I have steels that are compatible in the box when I weld it up. In my spare, spare time (of which there is precious little) i build engines. Small engines to big blocks, I enjoy it. I've got quite a collection of various valves that were damaged in race engines and the like. The though just struck me that these might make great steel for knives. There are obviously quite tough as they impact the valve seats at rates of around 60 times per SECOND. I have no idea what steel they are and have not spark tested them yet to even make a guestimate. Does anybody have any thoughts on the matter?

I always figured you were just using fancy materials and thats why your knives turn out so much better than mine. I have made knives using cable, and rest assured, they were nowhere near as pretty as yours. Sure, I have a long ways to go on the finishing side of the process, but seeing the way your steel looks compared to mine.....well it's a humbling experience and a motivator to get some more time in at the forge. Thanks for sharing.