First knife-practice knife-opinions

[Antlerhog]

Hey guys been reading a lot of info on here and decided to finally get at it with an easy knife. I just started it tonight. It's a Kiridashi. Its kind of a first trial run at grinding a bevel. Anyway I am using a piece of 3/16" O-1 for the blade.

I started by scribing my shape out on the stock and cutting to with .050 of line. Then went to disc sander and took it to lines. I then scribed a line 1/2" up from the blade edge as my bevel to grind to. Might be a bit thick but then again it was supposed to originally be just a practice piece but decided to keep going on it. I did it all by hand on big 24" shop disc sander then just used a piece of sand paper stuck to the surface plate at work to smooth and flatten out bevel. Also hammered the handle to help give it the forged look which might look cool after heat treat. I'm planning on doing my own HT job as I've heat treated 0-1 here many times making pins and center punches and stuff. Gotta read up on tempering though.

One question I have so far is since its a single bevel blade how thick should I leave the cutting edge before heat treat? Right now it's approximately .030.

I added some pics where I'm at so far. Any comments pros or cons would be greatly appreciated. Any suggestions also Appreciated.   [/url] [/IMG]  
  [/url] [/IMG]

[Antlerhog]

Thank you guys for all the helpful info on here.

Jay

[tomsm44]

I'm no expert on that style blade but it looks good to me.  Another good blade to start with is a seax.  They are double beveled so you can work on getting your edge straight and centered, but the straight edge is a little easier than a curved one.  Here's a link to one I did last year.  Not a true traditional seax but the blade is pretty close.  These were anywhere from a few inches to a couple of feet long depending on intended use, so you can do any size you want and still be 'historically accurate'.  Keep at it.  Knife making is a blast.

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=110;t=004854;p=1

Matt Toms

[just_a_hunter]

Looks like a fine start!

Keep at it. Patience and thought go a long way and it looks like you are right on track.

Todd

[D.Ellis]

30 thou is a good place to be before heat treat......carry on. Looking good.  
Darcy  

[Roughcountry]

Looks good to me. Should be a handy blade.
   

[2Tim215]

Originally posted by Antlerhog:

One question I have so far is since its a single bevel blade how thick should I leave the cutting edge before heat treat? Right now it's approximately .030.

Do all your prep work in the annealed state then harden before you do the bevels (grind)and then temper the spine and then do final polish. This way you'll have almost no warping and the little that sometimes happens can be easily ground flat again. Also helps to keep your sanding belts last longer. If you are using a controlled HT oven then you harden and temper before you do the bevels.