Adam Reggie

Thank you Jerrod, that is what I feared and you just saved me a considerable amount of money. I don't recall there being specific oil speeds listed in that book, though it is an excellent book overall.

I am looking for a good collection of data about heat treating, specifically toughness/hardness charts for various steels. I find it very valuable to know much steel X compares to steel Y at whatever hardness I am looking at. Does the heat treater's guide contain this kind of information? I can't seem to find examples of what content is exactly in the book.

An heirloom knife for your niece, that's actually one of the most appealing things about handmade knives in my opinion. Well done, I rather like the contouring of the handle, it looks good!

Thank you for the reminder Alan. One thing I would like to add about your point B: We have had people where I work with using a disc sander that had the work rest gap to large from the disc. The work piece got wedged into the gap, taking their finger and pinning it between the work piece and the disc. Both sanded to the bone and resulted in amputated digits from grit and metal contamination. While I am sure you already have, please make sure you clean that wound thoroughly.

That makes sense to me. That simple bit of advice actually makes me want to get out to the shop and make something, sadly I am stuck at work until 7.

What I meant by that is that I do not need more content on the basics. Not that I know all there is by any means, just that I believe I have moved past the basics and am looking for more detailed and specific information and have found that some of the books I have spend a lot of pages going over the basics. However I was also considering finding someone local to chat with as time permits. Family obligations limit my time away from home. Thank you, I will check that out I am not sure why I didn't consider this. Do you need to be a member to get them or are they available to anyone?

Good morning, I imagine this has been hashed out in detail across many posts, however. Can you guys recommend some good books specific to knife making that is more geared towards intermediate to advanced makers? I am mostly interested in technical information, design detail and specifics to building as opposed to historical information, how to set up a shop or how to swing a hammer properly. Though historical information can be pretty interesting. I really enjoyed Knife Engineering, and I am still working through The Complete Bladesmith. I stare at screens to much anymore and think a few good books may be the ticket.

HI GUYS, HOW'S THE MORNING GOING!!! alright, I am certain this is just a bad dad joke and I shouldn't post it, but against my better judgement I am going to.

Hopefully this hasn't been used yet:

Finished this one up yesterday. I still need to get the leather work done and sent off to the buyer. 80CRV2 ended up about .140" at the spine and 60 Rc. One of my thinner knives to date. I rather like the handling of a thinner blade comparatively.

Sweet anvil! Glad to see you putting it back to work.

Thank you for taking the time to document and post this!

Added a VFD to my grinder, which i am really looking forward to and organized my belt storage:

Thank you. The blade finish was hand sanded up to 800 grit and blended/polished with an ultra fine scotchbrite hand pad. Thank you as well. The guard is one piece. i milled a slot the width and rough height of the ricasso, filed the bottom square, pinned it and soldered it on. It was a serious pain locating the pins and I probably should have done that before I went to the final depth with the filing.

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the kind words. I am never quite sure what other bladesmith's may say when I post my work, but I figure it is a good way to get some constructive feedback and attempt to improve for the next time. Many more are hopefully in my future but I am not sure what the next blade is going to be. I have a few blacksmith projects that might come first though.

I know this isn't up to the quality of many of the blades I see here, but I am overall pleased with it. This was the first Bowie I made, first distal tapering tang and first clip point. Lots of learning on this one. It is made from 80CrV2 with a stabilized buckeye burl handle.

Thank you Jerrod, however as it turns out I was about to get a decent deal off ebay for Wilson 4JR on a local pickup. Even came with a stand. I look forward to getting that set up and pressed into service.

No worries Francis. My biggest hesitation on the portable rockwell testers (Ames, CPT etc) is the portable diamond penetrators seem to be double the price of the larger bench top tester diamonds, so if i get one and the diamond is damaged I'm out another 400 bucks. But if i get it I will let you know how they work out.

Thank you for the feedback. I figured information about this specific model was going to be a long shot. I also know I don't need a tester, but I do want one lol. I've been using our Wilson 4TT at work to develop my heat treating procedure for 80CRV2. Your experience with the Leeb hardness test enforces why I think rockwell is the way to go, even with needing a flat surface and leaving the small dimple. I looked at similar to what you have as well, due to the lower investment.

Does anyone by chance have experience or an opinion on the Clark portable hardness testers, CPT model specifically? These and other brands of that design seem to go for less than the Ames hardness testers and are certainly cheaper to ship than bench top testers.

Good deal! Since my goal is to do a bit of a spheroidizing anneal, I will just soak it at 1300F for 5-10 minutes and bury it in my bucket of wood ashes I already have. That seems like better time spent than wrapping it and waiting an hour. Thank you gentlemen!

Is it a good idea or necessary to protect the surface of your knife from decarb during a sub critical anneal? I am using 80CrV2 and it will be in the oven @ 1300F for an hour. I have been protecting the surface with tool wrap, but obviously it would be better to not bother with the extra expense. I don't care about minor decarb, but if it goes pretty deep I would prefer to protect the surface. I am not sure how much decarb will happen at such a relatively low temperature. This anneal is being done after forging, normalizing and 2 grain refining steps, but before any grinding is done.

Thank you for the tip! I was trying to figure out a method to do exactly this, as I am working on my first tapered tang and distal tapering blade on a bowie.

There are some things about the design I don't care for and would do over. I am not a fan of the handle shape or how the guard needed to be installed, however overall I satisfied with the results and what I learned from it.

True, if I can match the ID or get close that could work as well. Worth a shot if I strike out with the shrink tubing.