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This is what I am working on right now the top three have not been heat treated yet but are ready for heat treat the bottom four are waiting for the G10/FR4 I ordered to get in so I can complete the handles (wood with FR4 liner material for the most part) the blade at the top I forged out on Sunday in about an hour and a half, my first attempt at a clip-point hunter style
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Jun 24, 2019 22:42
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Trabant posted:
Yeah, all hand-forged by me. It gets way, way, way easier after you've made it through a few of them, because there are huge efficiency improvements you can make just by improving your hammer technique, and that just takes practice. Having a full size 2x72" belt grinder helps a hell of a lot with cleanup and profiling as well. I took two bladesmithing classes last year through a local bladesmith, https://www.firehorseforge.co and starting around January of this year one of my best friends and I built a forging shop in his garage. (I got that friend to take the first of the two classes later last year and he fell in love with smithing as well). Some of the first projects we worked on were making several pairs of tongs for us to use, and I think building non-knife things helped with my hammer skills quite a bit too. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jun 26, 2019 |
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Jun 26, 2019 17:25
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Those look fantastic! 
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Haven't gotten much done in the past month or so due to a vacation but I'm back to working on knives these past two weeks. This is not nearly all I've been working on but here's some shots from today: I'm making a paring knife for a chef friend to use and give me feedback on. This is the first blade I've forged out to a drawing and it came out awesome and fitting perfectly within those lines I drew. I did about 2/3 of the rough grinding (pre-heat treat) today which really cleaned it up beautifully, I'll finish the rough grind up next week and heat treat it, and I'll hopefully have gotten the stabilized wood scales in the mail that will make the handle.  These three knives are among those pictured above on this page, last week and today I got these handle scales cut out, drilled, and rough shaped to the tangs. Next step will be to finish the hand-sanding on the blades, epoxy the scales on (though a few of those will have G10/FR4 liners between the steel and wood), and then do final-forming and hand-sanding on the handles. From bottom to top those woods are padauk, zebrawood, and leopardwood. Padauk is a pain to work with, those were the third set of scales I had to make as I cracked/broke the other two before getting the hang of being extremely careful with it. I tried some decorative file-work on part of the spine of the knife with padauk and some of it looks good and other parts... not so much. I'll see if I can fix it next week.
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Aug 12, 2019 01:56
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Ghostnuke posted:Anyone want to talk different types of steel? I'm looking for some advice on what to pick for my first try. There are so many kinds, it's kinda overwhelming. 1075/1080/1084 One of those three. They're nearly the same. Very simple to heat treat, easy to forge, very forgiving. To heat treat one of these just get it nice and evenly hot so it's a nice yellow-orange color and it is no longer magnetic (I keep a magnet attached to the legs of my forge with a piece of mild steel stuck to it so the heat doesn't ruin the magnet when I touch hot steel to it), dunk it in oil (veggie oil works just fine for this), and as soon as you can just barely handle it by hand put it in a toaster oven heated to about 350F (300-400 really, the hotter you got the softer it will temper your steel to) and leave it in there for an hour, take it out for 30 minutes to an hour so you can hold it, and then back into the toaster oven for another hour. Bam, you've got a hardened blade. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Aug 23, 2019 |
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Aug 23, 2019 22:10
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Used chainsaw guide bars are also a good source for scrap, again it's mystery metal but my buddy and I are fairly sure they are 1084 or 1095 or something very very similar. Ask a chainsaw rental place if they will give or sell you old guide bars Cut or angle grind the edges off and forge from there.
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Aug 24, 2019 04:13
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What I do is have a big magnet and a sacrificial piece of mild steel stuck to it (like 1/4" thick or so). You can touch hot steel to the mild steel chunk briefly and that should shield the magnet from the heat enough.
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Sep 3, 2019 21:32
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1/8" is just fine for stock removal, you just won't be removing a ton.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:17
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I wanna repeat my advice that you find old chainsaw guide bars, just call up a rental place and ask if they'll give/sell them for cheap. They are right around 1/8" thick and would be great for stock removal projects.
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Sep 5, 2019 21:20
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I'm about 95% done on these two knives. They both need some hand-sanding fixes and a better buffing job (we only just got the buffer set up today) and then once I get my logo template in the mail I'll electo-etch my logo in each of them. the top knife with leopardwood is something of a household utility knife, it has G10 liners between the steel and wood, and brass pins the knife with padauk is a cheese knife and is not sharp (but very nearly so) and also has brass pins   I hand-forged these back in February out of 1084 bar stock but have been busy working on a lot of other things so hadn't gotten around to actually finishing them. So these past few weeks I've been working on actually finishing knives. I really only get about 6 hours a week to work on these things, though.
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Sep 8, 2019 01:10
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That looks about right for your first stock removal knife. Grinding takes practice, and yeah, it's gonna be a bit more challenging with a cheap grinder and cheap belts, but you can still do it. Nice job so far!
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Sep 17, 2019 17:09
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Rotten Cookies posted:Also, I may have made a mistake. I sharpened these fully before heat treating. Hoping that heating these bad boys up won't gently caress em up too bad. It's mystery steel, but I'm hoping that these old saw blades harden. a good edge win, must forge thick and grind thin" You really should not even come close to a sharp edge before heat treating. The danger is that those edges will get burned/brittle and you're going to have to grind new edges entirely, losing a mm or more. I honestly wouldn't even grind bevels before heat treating. Hammered bevels sure, but the only grinding I think you should be doing pre heat-treat is rough shaping and flattening/planing Kenshin fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Oct 4, 2019 |
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Oct 4, 2019 17:24
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Gifted this cheese/spreading knife this evening to some good friends of mine (and we used it!) and I have my artistic logo (that I use for my photography as well) electro-etched into it   hand-forged 1080 steel with padauk scales and brass pins carbon steel is a ridiculous choice for a cheese knife but I forged the blade itself back in February and I am not equipped for heat treating stainless steel
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Oct 12, 2019 06:26
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Forged out the first two of the five chef knives I'm planning on making for my family for Christmas. 80crv2. The bigger one is about 8.5", the smaller one around 7.25", at least currently. I will probably re-profile the tip shapes on the belt grinder a fair bit and may lose some length on both blades, but that's ok since I'd intended to forge them at 7.5" and 6.5".  I like the bigger one slightly more, I forged it out first today and I think my hand/arm was getting a bit tired midway through the second blade (and blisters started forming, but I need to get those callouses back!)
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Nov 11, 2019 02:10
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Dog Case posted:Wait, so you're going to make an axe handle with a slab of metal sandwiched between wood? I supposed you could do that if it's just going to be a display piece, but I don't think it would hold up to any actual use. An axe handle serves a completely different function than a knife handle, and has to withstand a lot of vibration and flexing. Agreed, I don't think that will work very well unless this is a display piece only.
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Nov 11, 2019 07:06
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I am nearly done with the knives for Christmas, down to the final finishing work and epoxying and forming the handle scales. It's been a hell of a learning experience and I probably bit off more than I should have but they are starting to come out really well. The longest chef knife is 8.25", the shortest is 7", and the steak knife is 4.5" All the chef knives are 80crv2, the steak knife is 1080
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Dec 18, 2019 18:21
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McSpergin posted:Nice! What's the material on the handles? All the chef knives are various stabilized (some dyed) woods. The steak knife is acrylic. I'll post the full stats (including specifics about the handle materials and where I got them) when I post the full finished knives.
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Dec 18, 2019 23:44
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I finished the knives and gave them to my family for Christmas. They were totally floored. I was up until 3am the night before Christmas Eve finishing them, but got 'em done. Hand-forged from 80crv2 and tempered at 375F (twice for 2 hours each time).  Left to right: 8 1/4" blade, stabilized redwood lace burl, 126g 8" blade, stabilized pink & blue dyed maple burl, 135g 7.5" blade, stabilized purple dyed maple fiddleback, 137g 7" blade, stabilized redwood lace burl, 93g 7" blade, stabilized green dyed curly mango, 107g 
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Dec 27, 2019 07:59
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McSpergin posted:So I'm about to take a foray into making my first knives. A fellow Aus goon works at a blacksmith near Canberra, and has kindly sorted me out with 4x 1075 offcuts. All around 300mm long, in varying thicknesses and widths. It should be enough to make a couple steak knives and a few kitchen knives. Thanks to my woodworking and axe restoration project, I have a ton of timber offcuts I can use to make handles. Awesome! I have found it to be a very addictive hobby that I'm constantly trying to learn more about. This upcoming weekend I'll be taking a 3-day class making a raindrop-pattern damascus chef knife, and will also have enough of a billet left over afterwards to make a second one at my home shop! I'm really excited for all the things I'l be working on this year in knifemaking. A friend into jewelry-making is interesting in making mosaic pins to collaborate with me on knives, too!
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Jan 7, 2020 00:24
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I just had day 1 of my damascus chef knife class at Fire Horse Forge. We created our raindrop damascus billets today, each enough for two knives, though we'll only be forging one in the class. Tomorrow we'll forge out the knives and get them heat treated, Sunday we'll finish them.
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Jan 11, 2020 09:32
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Finished knife after a coffee etch (in addition to the initial acid etch)  52 layers of 1080 & 15n20 steel with a raindrop pattern natural Ho wood (magnolia) & buffalo horn ferrule Wa-style handle (I didn't make the handle) I did make the damascus billet (with a hydraulic press) and hand-forge and finish the knife 83g total weight Done at class at Fire Horse Forge, Ballard, Seattle run by owner David Tuthill. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jan 14, 2020 |
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Jan 14, 2020 02:43
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I made another chef knife using the other half of that damascus billet, and I'm quite happy with it. This one I did the handle on--this is the second hidden tang handle I've made. The first one was last week when I finished a filet knife for myself (maybe I'll show off pictures of it later, it's fine but I was mainly using it as a practice piece). Second damascus knife.     1080/15n20, 52 layer raindrop pattern damascus blade, brass bolster + g10 spacer + stabilized multi-dyed black ash burl handle 6.5"/16.5cm blade, 4.7oz/134g total weight Kenshin fucked around with this message at 04:46 on May 18, 2020 |
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May 7, 2020 06:02
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McSpergin posted:I think I follow you on insta because that maker's mark looks familiar It's possible. @wing.on.wing
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May 8, 2020 02:42
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r00tn00b posted:Made a few more knives recently this is the one im most proud of. Nice job! Where'd you get the billet from? Looks like Damasteel or XHP?
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Jun 16, 2020 18:48
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r00tn00b posted:I made it myself... Whoa, drat, it looked so tight and consistent I thought it looked like one of the Damasteel patterns I'd seen! Nice job on the Damascus then! Which two steels? Kenshin fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 20:26
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BLARGHLE posted:That is quite the pattern!
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Jul 16, 2020 08:59
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TheNothingNew posted:Man, that is cool as hell! Thank you for sharing. Looks sort of like a karambit. They are Filipino fighting knives but were originally farmer's knives, agricultural tools. You can hold it either with your index finger through the ring or your pinky--the normal grip is with the index finger through it. Holding it like that you can see how useful it is to cut plants (as well as what a deadly fighting knife it is)
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Jul 20, 2020 01:52
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I've finally gone ahead and rented my own workshop space, which I'll get on September 7th. I went ahead and ordered a grinder for the space (since I don't want to remove my current grinder from my best friends' house where our forge is) and since we already have the Origin Blade Maker 2hp grinder with the VFD, I went ahead and ordered Origin Blade Maker's new rotating grinder with the same full kit. I also just epoxied up a 9" chef knife to its bolster and handle today, I should be able to grind the handle to shape tomorrow at my friends' place and then finish hand sanding the handle this weekend. I'm gonna give it as a gift to the guy who runs the Mexican food truck a few blocks from my apartment because having delicious Mexican food whenever I need it during this whole pandemic poo poo has been a life saver. 80crv2 + aluminum bronze bolster, FR4 spacer, stabilized black ash burl handle (hidden tang). I'll post pictures in a few days when I'm done with it. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Aug 15, 2020 |
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Aug 15, 2020 01:03
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I finished this chef knife today, and I'll be giving it to the person I made it for tomorrow. Hand-forged 80crv2 with a hidden tang. Handle is made from an aluminum-bronze bolster, g10 spacer, and stabilized black ash burl. 8.5" blade length, 155g final weight.      It really glows in the sunshine:  I like giving care instructions and an info sheet with my knives:  I'm really happy with how it turned out. I was using this knife as a practice bed for techniques I learned from my mentor, but needed to modify for the more limited equipment I have at my shared shop with my friend. I'll be using those techniques for the next several knives I'm working on, including two San Mai chef knives (440C/1084) I wish I could take better pictures of it but I need to buy a lightbox and all that. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 17, 2020 |
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Aug 17, 2020 20:15
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DogoDogo posted:That is absolutely stunning, Kenshin. How much would you charge for one like that normally? But based on my understanding of what knives of this kind tend to go for and the level of quality I am making them at (and the amount of time, equipment, and techniques it takes) this is probably something that most knifemakers would price at around $400-600 EDIT: I took it into a knife sharpening shop to buy a case for it and the guy there (who I know and have taken a sharpening class from) said that from what he could tell ~$500 is just about right for this knife. He was also blown away that this was only my 8th chef knife, said he can't wait to see what my 15th one looks like. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Aug 18, 2020 |
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Aug 17, 2020 21:15
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BLARGHLE posted:Are you going to be heat treating them yourself, or sending them somewhere? TBH it looks completely salvageable. It's so thick! Put it through a few normalizing cycles, then forge it out to a bit better of a shape, normalize it again, heat treat and temper, grind it up, and you've got a sword blade!
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Sep 5, 2020 06:26
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50 grit is a bit high for your lowest. If you can get 36 or 40 grit that is a lot better for removing lots of material. 400 and 500 grits are very, very high for machine belts. You can do good stuff with those and cut down on the amount of hand sanding you'll need to do, but I don't know how much you'll actually go through those belts. I rarely go above 220 on the belts on my 2x72 grinder--I have a few Trizact finishing belts I just got recently to try out but have hardly used them at all yet. For reference, the belts I try and keep around are 36, 60, 80, 120, and 220. I almost entirely use ceramic but have some AO belts as well if I need to do a lot of work on wood. Content: I made a magnetic knife display holder yesterday. Just a prototype that I learned a bunch from making, but I think it came out really well: 
Kenshin fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Sep 22, 2020 |
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Sep 22, 2020 00:28
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Ghostnuke posted:did you make that damascus, cause drat
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Sep 22, 2020 00:46
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I just recently started renting my own workspace, and I got things set up. WEN desktop variable speed drill press and the new OBM Dominator tilting 2x72' grinder 
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Sep 22, 2020 03:13
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Here's what's on my work table as of this afternoon: L-R: steak knife for myself (didn't put tons of effort into refinement, there's a few rough spots) hunting knife for a friend chief knives the two on the left just need sharpening, the two on the right are sitting in a coffee etch overnight
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Oct 18, 2020 05:52
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McSpergin posted:Also I am extremely about those hamons on the chef knives Trabant posted:Digging it all, esp that brass bolster. Is it a solid piece you drilled through for the tang or did you fold it over, glorious Nippon katana-style?
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Oct 18, 2020 22:45
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Nice! I just finished up the first of the two San Mai chef knives and gave it to the friend it was going to last night. Another friend did product photography on it and I should get those pictures back today and I'll post 'em. I'm also working up on finishing up the second one of the two san mai chef knives, as well as a chef knife and a santoku in 80crv2.
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Nov 3, 2020 18:07
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Here we go:   
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Nov 8, 2020 00:01
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McSpergin posted:Whoa! What's the wooden looking thing on the left? They're both gorgeous Ceramic honing rod, just a reddish natural ceramic clay
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Nov 8, 2020 03:09
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Ok, here's my latest. Billet-twin of the previous one. 7.5" san mai gyuto     
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Dec 17, 2020 00:44
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I completed another knife recently, a 6" santoku. 80crv2 with dyed/stabilized amboyna burl scales and G10 liners with stainless pins.   
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Jan 3, 2021 09:24
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