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Author Topic: First Knife (old file)  (Read 1183 times)

Offline canders

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First Knife (old file)
« on: January 11, 2010, 09:26:00 PM »
After being inspired by the fantastic craftsmen on this website and others i decided to try my hand at both bow making (boardbow) and knife making.  Im sure neither will be of any quality but atleast i can say i made them and hopefully they will lead to better work on later projects.
      I found this rusty old file in a barn where we hunt and decided to give it a new life. This file is heavily rusted and pitted but i was going to try and go for a rustic an maybe forged look by leaving some of the pits in it. Ive anealed it per the other file topics ive found on here and hopefully will cut it out tomorrow once i get off shift. Let me know if you see any problems or errors so far on my part with my current plan ( i know there are a few.. im sure of it). Ill keep posting pics of my progress and please throw in your .02 if you dont mind.
Thanks
Chad
 
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Offline LC

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2010, 09:37:00 PM »
Looks good so far. By annealing it, heating to nonmagnetic and slowly cooling back to ambient temp, it should be soft now. Soft as in being able to cut it with normal tooling not soft like playdo! One thing to check now has it warped? If you layed it on it's side while heating to nonmetalic it can twist or warp. Now you should be able to cut it with a hacksaw, metal bandsaw etc or a dremel tool with a metal cutting wheel. Good luck keep us posted.
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2010, 10:07:00 PM »
It has warped...Does that mean its useless because i figured id just drop it in the vise and straighten her up? Also since it warped during anealing will it do it again during heat treat and temper? So do i continue or find new materials? Sorry for the questions but thanks ahead of time for the answers.
Chad
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Offline LC

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2010, 10:51:00 PM »
No it's not worthless now! It just means you learn from your mistakes. Heck I ought to be a genious by now by that thought process though. How did you anneal, by putting in a fire pit, wood stove etc? How I do it is by a one brick gas forge, actually a two brick forge, and stand it on it's edge. Anyhow yes you can put it in a vise and twist pound etc to get flat because it is "soft" or pliable now. It's just alot easier to keep it flat from the begining. All is not lost you've just got another bridge to hurdle. No problem. Keep us posted.
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2010, 11:25:00 PM »
Thanks LC for the knowledge and i guess that was my first of thousands of mistakes while making knives...  :D  Im going to grind on her some tomorrow and will update with pics and im sure ill need a ton more help so thanks in advance.
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Offline gables

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2010, 01:37:00 PM »
My only advice is to leave your narrowest section a little fat. As you sand your handle down to meet your profile you can bring it to final shape. I am very new to this and one of the biggest lessons I am learning is to plan the sand/grind. Leave areas a little fat so that as you fit and finish you are slowly bringing the knife to dimension.
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2010, 01:44:00 PM »
Ok here are some more pics of the rough out with a a grinder.  I like the shape so far and i think this little file with end up making a good knife as long as i dont mess her up too bad in the process.  The shape feels good in hand and i think the rust and pitted petina will look good and i plan on leaving some if it for the rugged look. The red oak its sitting on is what ill be using for scales. Ill be using hand files and a dremel from here on in, I dont want to get to happy with the dewalt grinder because im fairly sure i could mess up the shape in a hurry if i got careless. Once again let me know if you see any problems and have any suggestions.
Thanks
Chad
 
 
 
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Offline LC

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #7 on: January 12, 2010, 07:40:00 PM »
Starting to look like a knife! Going good.
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Offline prarieboy

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2010, 08:52:00 PM »
From where I,m sittin knife and bow startin to look good!
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2010, 09:31:00 PM »
Thanks, prarieboy for the compliments and yup thats my meager attempt at a bow on the floor as well. Im waiting to borrow my neighbors table saw to cut it to the right width. Ill post some pics of it when i get further along with it.
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Offline tippit

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2010, 11:10:00 PM »
canders, You are doing fine...BUT you need to reduce your picture size to 640 pix...tippit
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Offline Steve Nuckels

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2010, 07:55:00 PM »
Yep!  looks good to me! waiting to see more!

Steve
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IN GOD WE TRUST
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Offline Rick Enos

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2010, 08:12:00 AM »
Canders,How did you heat the blade to get it ready for grinding.I want to do this but dont have the knowlege or tools.Keeping close tabs on this thread.
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Offline prarieboy

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #13 on: January 16, 2010, 09:02:00 AM »
Rick I use my charcol barbecue put enuff bricks under the file and over the file so it gets cherry red and cools slow. Works for me and I get to cook somthing good while I'm playin around!next morning I have an annealed file.
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2010, 12:31:00 PM »
Rick i also used a  BBQ pit and charcoal as well but take LC's advice earlier in this thread and heat it on its side (the thin part) and let it cool on its side as well so it wont warp like mine did but you can flatten her back out.
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2010, 01:03:00 PM »
Here are some more pics....I used a bench grinder to get both the distal taper and the edge close to where i wanted.  But if you use a bench grinder take it slow, very slow and easy because mine will remove a lot of material off a file quickly and I almost lost enough to be worried during the quench about it shattering.Once i had the shape close i used hand files and dremel to get it to the sanding point. If you are following this to learn about making knives out of files please beware this is my first attempt and i am a complete rookie but im sure you could atleast learn from my mistakes    :D    As always any advice or criticism is welcome..ps im working on resizing the older pics (sorry Tippit)..update pics now reduced. Sorry for any inconvienence.
 
 
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #16 on: January 17, 2010, 07:59:00 PM »
Here are a few sanding pics along with what seems to work as a sanding board/knife clamp.  Its about a 18" long piece of left over red oak with a c-clamp.  I can get get a nice flat sand with my block and it is very stable in my lap.  I also found a red sharpie comes in handy when you use it to find low spots which there is a large one you can see in one of the pics. It now finally looks like a knife (made by a very unskilled but eager craftsman...lol)
 
 
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Offline Rick Enos

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2010, 08:32:00 AM »
Well Canders, I went to the antique shop & found a file.I felt like a kid in a candy store.Went home & started a fire in my fire pit.Annealed it & am filing on it know.I will post a picture...Wondering how to get my 22 degrees angle when filing the blade.That will be my next step.Any help will be appreciated.My picture sequence got messed up.

 
 
 
 
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Offline canders

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2010, 09:46:00 AM »
Rick, i used my bench grinder to get to what feels like a good angle, to be honest I have no idea if it's the proper 22deg or not. I used the grinder to get close and then I did the best I could to keep the angle constant with hand files. I've seen a few posts around where guys built jigs for their files to make sure their angles were right. I'm sorry I don't have any real answers because like you I got inspired from the guys on this website and others so I'm totally new to knife making. I hope this helps atleast somewhatI
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Offline Rick Enos

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Re: First Knife (old file)
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2010, 05:30:00 PM »
OK Thanks,This is gona be a tough one for me.I'll post a picture later & see what you think....

[IMG]http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv166/renos53
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