A test knife to practice for a knife test....

[Doug Campbell]

Even though I’ve been into knife making for 20 years now I just became associated with the ABS, (American Bladesmith Society) not quite three years ago.  I went to a hammer-in up in Frenchtown, MT in “06” and was very impressed with the Organization and its members.  So I became a member and started investigating the processes and requirements for becoming an ABS Journeyman and Master Knifesmith.  I’m preparing for my Journeyman test and part of that test is to build, evaluate and test six knives. One of these knives has to be tested to destruction under the supervision of an ABS Mastersmith, (MS).  I met and have become friends with MS Jon Christensen who lives in Shepard, MT, he is overseeing my journey.  I will not officially be eligible till this July but decided to do a little practice in preparation of my actual test.

Here is the rough ground blade I forged from a 1” round bar which started life as a load shaft in a John Deere tractor.  I’d heard this is 52100 steel but Jon thought it was 5160, either way it’s good stuff.
 

Here is the finished blade, carbon steel guard and roughed out micarta handle. I differentially heat-treated the blade, just quenching the cutting edge. If you look close you can see the temper line running the length of the blade.
 

We’ve been pretty busy here at the Ranch so this took over a month to complete but here is the finished knife.
 

[Doug Campbell]

Next it was off to Jon’s shop for the actual testing… Now the pics are going to get pretty fuzzy, sorry I had the flash turned off and it never accured to me till too late.  

First was Jon’s evaluation and critiquing of the knife which turned out OK so it was on to the rope cutting.  You have to cut a hanging 1”dia. manila rope. Now I’d practiced at home with ¾” rope and it was a snap, not the case with the 1” rope.  One thing I learned in a hurry is there is a lot of technique involved; my hat is off to guys like Jon and Lin who make this look easy.  Jon has actually cut a bundle of nine, 1” ropes with one swipe. I’m sure Lin has probably done the same, incredible.  On the third attempt I was able to cleanly cut the rope; I’ve got lots of practicing to do before the real test….

The purpose of the test is to test the edge geometry and sharpness.
 

[Doug Campbell]

Next comes chopping a 2X4 in too a minimum of two times. This is pretty rough on a blade and really tests the edge, temper and toughness. After chopping thru the 2X4 twice the edge still has to shave hair without touch up of any kind.
 

My blade passed but there was one practically microscopic ding in the edge, you could only see it under magnification but you could feel it with your finger nail. This could potentially fail a blade; it’s up to the MS to decide.  Fortunately this wasn’t a “real” test and Jon didn’t have to make that decision.

[Doug Campbell]

Now it was on to the thing I was most worried about, the bend test.  The blade has to be clamped in a vise 1/3 of the way from the tip and bent over 90º.  As you can imagine this is the ultimate test of the differential heat treat.  The blade is allowed to crack at the edge but not more than 1/3 of the way thru to the spine.  Jon had told me that once I started the bend to just go for it and not hesitate part way thru.  Well I guess I must have had a bit of adrenalin running be cause I went to more like 120º instead of 90º.  Jon was hollering enough and grimacing when I looked over at him.  
   

Here is the aftermath…
   

[Leftieshot]

It looks great Doug!  What are the specs?  Good luck and report back to us on your progress.

[Doug Campbell]

Close inspection showed no cracking of any kind the only damage other was the arc of the bend.  I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and needless to say was very tickled with the results and hope I can duplicate it when I take the real test.
 

[Leftieshot]

Ooops, beat you to it. Looks like it performed pretty well, good job!  Too bad you have to destroy a well built knife.

[Doug Campbell]

Yep, but it's all in the name of progress Steve  

The blade was 9" long, kind of a camp knife style, flat ground, distal taper starting out at about .185" thick at the ricaso.

[tippit]

Great job..did you forge up it's brother at the same time for the real show  

[Lin Rhea]

Doug,
        You should be proud. It is a real accomplishment and a testimony to the confidence you place in your work. Great job.
    As for the ding in the blade. I'm sure Jon told you already what he thinks. If the heat treat is right, just roll the edge a couple thousanths thicker and retest it. The two major factors in making your knife a good cutter while being durable, are heat treat and edge geometry. If a knife fails in performance, you can bet it's because of one of these two factors. Cover them both well and you will have no trouble in the real test.
     Since you already told me by email your heat treat process and also judging by performance, I agree with Jon that this is 5160 or close to it.
      I'm rootin for ya, Lin

[sticshooter]

wow Doug that was awesome. Im love this stuff. <><

[skullworks]

That is incredible! Great work! I hope it is a success! I think it is great to have pros like you, Lin, KBA, and others on here for us newbies to be able to chat with! Kudos to all for taking the time!

[kbaknife]

Yep, that load shaft is 5160. Good thing about John Deere is that they hold they materials to such tight tolerances. That 5160 is not "run-of-the-mill" 5160. It's a very closely controlled alloy recipe. In other words, it's not potentially different every time. To the contrary, a load shaft from 10 years ago will be the same alloy as one made this year. Once you figure out your heat treat, you can do the same thing and expect the same result.
I got lucky with a "find" of steel and have all I'll ever need for the rest of my career and it's all the same.
Great job on those tests!
here is the result of my test I took with MS Don Hanson III in Missouri:
 
I spent about three years figuring out the heat treat on this which included a motorcycle ride to Wyoming to Master Smith Ed Fowler's ranch for a course in 5160, and two trips to upstate NY to study with another MS Kevin Cashen! (I've got a LOT of miles/time/money etc in trying to figure this stuff out)
I certainly don't want to detract from the purpose of this thread, which is to enjoy in YOUR successes, I guess I'm just saying that you can push this stuff as far as you are willing to learn.
I wanted to make a knife that you could NOT bend, yet, when forced to, still would not break! I was scared ----less! Breexed through the cutting and chopping portions. Then, when I went to bend the knife, I couldn't even insult it. I only made it about 15-20 degrees of bend and that's all I could do. Period. I pulled my body weight up off the floor hanging onto the handle! It wasn't going any further!
So, I had to slide a four foot cheater bar over the handle and STILL had to lay across the cheater bar to get to 90 degrees. I thought sure it was going to bust. And then it returned to within 20 degrees of straight. No cracks.
You can see that it took a really gradual slight bend over the length of the blade, and not just a set at the vise jaws.
At the beginning, some years ago, I decided I didn't want to make a knife that would "pass" the performance test, I wanted to make a knife that DEFIED the performance test.
So as not to drag this out any longer, I guess all I really did was apply the BASICS. I didn't do any thing secret or strange. I just did what the guys who are a lot smarter than me told me to do.
I just love the enthusiasm on this forum.
Pardon me for going on too long here.

[Leftieshot]

Doug, how wide was the test blade.  Is there a spec for this for the test?  And typically, how wide are bowies?
This one is kinda off subject.  But what the hell is a John Deere load shaft?

[kbaknife]

Originally posted by Leftieshot:
Doug, how wide was the test blade.  Is there a spec for this for the test?  And typically, how wide are bowies?
This one is kinda off subject.  But what the hell is a John Deere load shaft?

It runs laterally through the bottom of the trans-axle. Those areas that show wear on the shaft are where the seals are. The ends stick out adn tooling pivots on the ends. As the sealed areas wear, they start to leak hydraulic fluid and were traditionally replced. They are getting difficult to find now with the rise in cost of steel. They have made over-sized replacement seals and now just replace those instead of a new shaft.
However, you can still go to your JD dealer and order a brand new one and get MANY knves out of one and you would KNOW what grade of steel you had and that it is held to very tight tolerances.

[Leftieshot]

Hahaha, order steel from JD.  So how would that shaft be?  Thanks Karl.

[Doug Campbell]

Thanks guys, it was a blast building this knife and preparing to test it. You can go to the ABS website and check out the JS and MS requirements, plus everything else about it.

Great job Karl, the learning curve can be a dandy when you get into playing with hot steel. There are a lot of great guys out there willing to help out. You guys starting out listen to guys like Karl, Lin and heck Doc's forging skills are incredible no longer than he's been at it.

Yep, Karl has probably seen a few JD parts in IL    I'm fortunate to know the shop manager at our local Dealership. He's given me half a dozen shafts in the past few years. Find the John Deere dealer in your area, go talk to the mechanics a maybe you'll get lucky, I'd be willing to bet somebody has beat you there though.    

Leftie, the blade can be no longer than 10" and no more than 15" OAL on the knife. My blade is 9" long and just under 1 1/2" wide.

[JC]

Dang....awesome thread. Doug, looking forward to seeing what comes out of your forge in the future...and I'm sure you'll have that MS title before long.

[Ray Hammond]

I like your neckerchief, AND YOUR KNIFE, Doug!!!

[Lewis Brookshire III]