A hunter for the Little Rock Show

[kbaknife]

Thought I might should a few in-progress photos for a knife I'm making for the Little Rock Show.
A San Mai hunter with a 3/8" thick 1095 core with a 1/4" thick 420 Stainless Steel laminated jacket.

I turned this:
 


 


Into this:

 

And I'm going to use a combination of materials I have not used since the last century!

[D.Ellis]

Since the last century........the suspense!
Can't wait to see where you go with this.
Darcy  

[Lin Rhea]

I bet it will look better than it did last century.  

[gables]

Thanks for sharing Karl. What thickness do you forge the 1" billet to? What is the final thickness going to be? Thanks

[kbaknife]

I forge the stack down to about .290", forge in the ricasso, guard shoulders and draw out the tang.
The it goes to the surface grinder to get really true and flat and to keep the middle - in the middle.
Right now it's at about .240".
The undulations along the lower edege of the 420 SS are the result of the drawing dies.

 

Originally posted by gables:
Thanks for sharing Karl. What thickness do you forge the 1" billet to? What is the final thickness going to be? Thanks

Here's one from a while back:

 

[Doug Campbell]

[gudspelr]

I always like seeing your stuff, Karl. Is that folder in the pic the one you showed a little while back in progress?  Also, I've heard the horror stories of doing the stainless San Mai where it falls apart into three pieces while trying to forge more to shape. I watched a demo where the sides were welded onto the core all the way around, soaked at temp, then welded in a press. It was basically left in that form to be used later to cut out and stock remove. It's obviously possible (as you have shown) to do more forging on the billet without the layers separating. Is that due to careful attention to temperature?  Again, thanks for sharing the knife, looking forward to seeing it finished.

Jeremy

[Lamey]

sweet!

[akaboomer]

Looks great Karl. I hope I get to see it before it flies off your table.

Chris

[kbaknife]

I have made a few improvements.    :D  

 

Originally posted by Lin Rhea:
I bet it will look better than it did last century.      

[kbaknife]

I would say that if any of the pieces come apart, then whoever welded the billet - failed.
I intentionally forge my ricasso and shoulders and tang to make sure there is a good weld.
I also think that the amount of time spent at forging temps and time under the hammer/press also allow for carbon migration and weld continuity.
That's what I start with thick pieces.
I want to stay in the welding process for as long as possible.
I would not trust a stainless San Mai blade that began its life close to the final thickness!
And I think that's what some guys do.

 

Originally posted by gudspelr:
I always like seeing your stuff, Karl. Is that folder in the pic the one you showed a little while back in progress?  Also, I've heard the horror stories of doing the stainless San Mai where it falls apart into three pieces while trying to forge more to shape. I watched a demo where the sides were welded onto the core all the way around, soaked at temp, then welded in a press. It was basically left in that form to be used later to cut out and stock remove. It's obviously possible (as you have shown) to do more forging on the billet without the layers separating. Is that due to careful attention to temperature?  Again, thanks for sharing the knife, looking forward to seeing it finished.

Jeremy

[kbaknife]

I was able to get a little basic grinding done on this today and get it ready for heat treating in the morning.
You can see the San Mai layer even now.
The second picture is right off the grinder and coated with anti-scale for the oven.

 


 

[tomsm44]

Very nice.  I can't tell for sure, but it looks like you left the blade the same thickness on the edge as the spine after forging and made your bevels by stock removal only.  Is that typically how you do all of your blades or is that just on the San Mai in order to keep the 1095 core a realitively uniform thickness from edge to spine?  Charles Stout told me once that certain Damascus patterns he does are forged into a billet to get the desired pattern and then strictly stock removal to shape the blade in order to retain the pattern.  Just curious if San Mai requires more stock removal as well.  

Matt Toms

[kbaknife]

Yes - San Mai does require a bit of stock removal.
If I were to forge the bevels in down to the cutting edge, the core material would be so thin it would literally disappear.
Nearly every knife I make is forge to shape in all directions - 2 dimensionally, distal taper and forged bevels to the cutting edge. Including forged in choil, guard shoulders and tang.
Whatever the blade needs - I do.

[gudspelr]

Thanks for your thoughts, Karl. The ground blade looks great. I'm particularly impressed with the shot of the edge and plunge lines. I still have some difficulties keeping the edge thickness consistent all the way down and yours looks amazingly good.

Matt-I don't want to put words in Karl's mouth and I'm sure he'll correct things if I'm wrong: I believe most of the grinding is to reveal the core and grind away the outer layer, that way the etch shows that cool transition of materials. If you forged the bevels very close to final shape, you may well not grind through the outer layer to the high carbon core that you want.


Jeremy

[kbaknife]

Correct!


 

Originally posted by gudspelr:
 If you forged the bevels very close to final shape, you may well not grind through the outer layer to the high carbon core that you want.
Jeremy

[Alexander13]

That's awesome, thank you for sharing. I really enjoy your San Mai knives and all the information helps in the learning curve.
Joel

[Kevin Evans]

Very nice Karl  

[tomsm44]

I expected that was the reason but I've seen some guys that forge the profile but don't forge any bevel or distal taper.  I really like San Mai blades and would like to eventually have a chance to give it a try.  Thanks for sharing.

Matt

[kbaknife]

I made a little progress on this yesterday. Got it hardened and double tempered.
I have one more customer knife to get out before Little Rock that needs some hot-bluing, which I do in the open forge area, but it was -30 yesterday morning.
I put it off until today.
So, this is the San Mai hunter right after a post-heat treating clean-up:

 

Some materials used for guard work:

 

And this is rough fit-up right off the mill. I did a quick radius of the guard slot top and bottom to match the milled radius of the guard shoulders and tapped it into place:

 

 

Now I'm just hoping some handle material gets here in the mail today!

If not, I've got this to work on:
(That'll warm the shop up!)