Sort of, kind of, turning related... sharing some pictures

The bead-blasted stainless that is curving around and looks a little like antlers is the stand, as well as the turned walnut base. The knife itself is the shinier steel in the center, and under the Amboina burl. The knife rests in the gap between the "antlers" and is suspended there, with a very shallow depression for the point to make sure it doesn't wiggle around too much if bumped.

Probably should have had one taken of the blade alone, but I wasn't the photographer.

That's not a terrible idea, particularly for the folders. There have been many monents when I wish I just had a CNC mill in my basement for some of this stuff, but you make do with what you've got!

I started with an annealed bar of 1095, forged it thin where the blade and the scales were going to be, normalized it a few times and then allowed to air cool without quenching, then put it on a knee mill and cleaned up the forged areas a bit and milled the slot. The trick was just to leave enough of the blank unmolested so that it could be clamped properly. After that, most of the rest was done with angle grinders- a 7" grinder with 40 grit fiber discs for the real hogging, and a 4.5" grinder with 80 and 120 grit flap wheels for finer shaping. Final touches, before hand sanding, were done with a die grinder and

The heat treating was done after the blade was almost entirely complete- after the blade had been sanded to about 320 grit, and right before adding the scales. There were two reasons for that- the first was that it's a lot easier to wipe off the black crud from the forge when tempering to see the colors on the blade, and the second was so that there was little material removal left to do after the quench and temper, and therefore less chance of me overheating the edge and drawing too much of the hardness when shining it up. Getting the edges close to final thickness also allows for differential heat treatment, as the edge will get up to temperature much more quickly than the thicker spine.

Hi Jesse, Fine piece of work. Who says, "Machinists can't be artists?"

Your knife is very nostalgic for me. In the hippy days of the early sixties my daughter upset and embarrassed me by what I considered at the time, a waste of a good education by doing skimshaw on the streets of Providence and San Francisco. I'm very proud of her now and the knives and belt buckles she made then. "Time Marches on" ...and attitudes change. That's a very good thing. :)

Congratulations on your innovative work and thanks for sharing it with us.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I'm having trouble visualizing what is knife and what is stand. Is the curving pieces part of the stand?

Nice work Fireman!

For a third effort, that looks absolutely great. Probably better than a lot knifemakers no matter how many tries.

Years ago, I made several knives, and by comparison to yours, they were.... let's just say "utility" knives. They were knives I patiently ground from treated/hardened blanks since I had no way to heat treat them reliably if I annealed the metal first. I made three, and quit. Two survive today, a kitchen knife, and a heavy bladed carbon steel camp knife.

Since I ground my blades for hours and hours, it became apparent to me that I could invest in a good quality knife and come out waaayy ahead for me. But I really like to the whole knife making tradition and the craftsmanship involved. (By the way, I really like the file work on the tang - it looks great!)

I am thinking of making another knife, this time a folder from one of the really nice kits that are out on the market today. The quality of the the steels, the milled pieces, the predrilling of the liners etc., make it hard to go wrong. After contacting the manufacturers of the one I am looking at towards purchase, they told me that MANY knife makers use their kits to make their custom knifes. They regrind the blades a bit, detail and reshape the scales on the handles and call it their own - they are that good.

So on your knife, did you grind out the billet and drill/file/grind the void in the blade, or did you heat treat and start from there?

Inquiring minds, you know.

Robert

Forgot to say--it's gorgeous. My only foray into knife making started with a HSS planer blade. Put a wraparound handle on it. Comes in handy at hog butchering time.

Well, that's all just a matter of practice, of course- ten years ago or more, I would have been in much the same situation, but time and elbow grease have a way of making things quicker and easier.

I will agree that blacksmithing is a whole lot more complicated than it first seemed to me as well- I figured it was just hitting hot metal with a hammer, but I discovered pretty quickly that there's a whole lot more to it.

When hardening, I use the forge, which in my case is a big steel tube with fire swirling around the interior instead of the more traditional pile of coal, and the edges get to quenching temperature more quickly than the thicker spine- then, when it gets quenched, only the edge is actually hardened. The handle is left unhardened, of course.

But you've got it dead to rights when it comes to the tempering- the center heats first, and you watch the colors run out to the edges. When the edge reaches a "dull straw" color (just the color, not glowing at all), it goes back in the quench tank. Some other guys do this in an oven, but the first one I tried that on cracked on me because it wasn't enough to temper it properly, so I just use the torch now.

No problem- since metal working is what I do for a living, it's kind of like you and wood. And, I like to share some of this stuff- it seems like a real shame to me that so much of our culture is moving away from things like this, and towards a "throw it out and just buy a new one" mentality.

Of course, the blacksmithing is just a hobby- my real day-to-day work is all done by computer controled machines, and I'm basically just a glorified draftsman and parts loader.

SNIP

Just about any project made of wood I can blast through since that is what I do for a living.

But reading the details of the knife project, I honestly think it would have taken me six months of steady project time to do. I am not discounting the fact either that mine would not have looked anywhere nearly as nice as yours.

So are you treating with a torch from the center of the blade watching the colors move, or are you using another heat source?

Thanks for taking the time to type out the details. Metal working is fascinating stuff.

Robert