from file to knife in 6 easy steps (build along)

[ironrhino]

Ok... so theres actually like 1000 steps but for those of us who are not detail oriented here are the bare bones:

1: find an old file that has the right carbon content (or get a piece of 0-1 or comperable  steel)

2: take five seconds and trace the file on to a piece of paper (so you have something to do while your wating for the file to cool over night)

3: find yourself some hot coals (I used my fireplace) and get that file red hot (technically only heat it until it reaches "nonmagnetic" but this is the 6 step method) and then bury that sucker in a big ol pile of hardwood ash (which was conveniently located all over the fireplace for me, but seriously this is the most important part so have a pile of good ashes ready...)

[ironrhino]

4: Grind, sand, and file that bad boy into whatever shape you drew while you wated the 12-24 hours for the thing to cool and re-granulate (made up word)
-you did wait 24hours didnt you? (those blisters on your fingertips will be gone in a day or two... i guess the ash is a good insulator huh? uh... not that i know...)

5: once you've gotten it shaped sanded and polished down to like 300grit and cut your blade bevle (i'm not sure if this is what you're supposed to do, but i figured it would be a HECK of a lot easier to get rid of the metal while it was soft.)

toss it back in the fire heat it up to red hot again (read non-magnetic) and then quench it in oil (no mom, i have no idea where ALL the vegitable oil went) also you may want to place the oil off to one side of your fireplace to avoid burning your whole house down. (just my .02)

6: Polish her up, put on a handle, procede to gut the next cute furry thing that you rain silent death down on.

[ironrhino]

so now your saying to yourself, "RHiNo... thats great but directions are so hard to follow without a couple pictures to clear things up..."


...what's that you say citizen... you'd like some pictures....?

ok, I can handle that!

 

(this has nothing to do with the knife but check out the "a mouse ate my shooting glove" post you'll understand)

[ironrhino]

ok now you're gonna have to figure out steps 1-3 on your own b/c i didnt take any pictures of that since i didnt have my digital camera way back then... (the middle of febuary when i was home for my birthday)

but here we have the annealed knife blade with the rough cut blade and the mahogony handle blank

 

[ironrhino]

**annealed and rough cut**

as a side note, i ebayed a SWEET piece of ambonia burl for the handle of this knife... but i left it in ohio... so this baby got a piece of mahogony

The next step was to cut the groove for the knife tang to rest in, i did this by setting the rip fence on our table saw to cut the blank down the middle and then moved the fence a tiny bit at a time until the groove was groovy!! (but i didnt move it a tiny bit at a time until the groove on my first handle blank was SLIGHTLY oversized... oops!!!)

 
 

then you drill the holes for your pins through the handle, then mark the steel through those holes drill your blade and then you're ready to harden and temper that puppy!

[ironrhino]

IMPORTANT AMENDMENT TO #5 after you get it out of the oil... IMMIDATELY chuck it into the oven for an hour or two @400 degrees, allow it to air cool back down to room temperature, then season to taste.

 

when it comes out of the oven there should be some funy scales and junk from the fireplace some people recommend letting it soak in vinnegar overnight to soften this junk up so i did. (mostly because it wasnt comming off and it was 4am so i REALLY wanted to go to bed)

I'll let somone who actually knows something about doing this fill in the gaps and tell us all the stuff that i did wrong.

[ironrhino]

yes those holes are oversized, thanks for asking...

i broke the bit that was the correct size in a freak drill press accident while i was drilling the handle. and the epoxy will fill in the gaps between the pins making it one solid piece.

"but Ryan, won't some of the epoxy come out when you tap the pins through?"

that's an excellent question, which i didnt consider until my 4 minute epoxy was starting to harden and i was 3/4 done tapping in the pins. so my suggestion would be to use regular 2 ton epoxy so you have all the time in the world to make it right.

[ironrhino]

Well, if you are anything like me right about now you're saying come on MAN!!!! lets see this baby all done up!!!!

well I'm here to say, "hold your horses there buckaroo, We're almost to the end of our little knife making journey so be patient"

HERE SHE IS:
 
 
i left some of the teeth on the side of the blade just because i thought it looked cool i did my best to get a decent picture of it so let me know what you think.

[ironrhino]

lets try this again

 

[ironrhino]

I can honestly say that this has been one of the most fun and rewarding projects i've ever done, and it makes me even more excited to kill a deer with a bow and arrow that i've made with my own two hands...

some things that i would have done differently,

-i prefer to have a full length tang but since i was working with a broken piece of file, i made due.

-I would have cut the blade bevel like 17-20 degrees with a file before i hardened it because it took me HOURS with my lansky before i hardened it and then HOURS afterwards!!!

-i would have bookmatched the mahogony scales and glued them to a maple or osage core and put a wavy accent strip in there... etc, made the handle more exciting... but i'll probably send this one in for the knife swap anyway or maybe i'll keep it forever

Things i really enjoyed:

-like i mentioned above, this was just a really rewarding project personally so i think that this could be a really great father son mentor mentoree project...

file it away... tehehe (i couldnt resist)

Now, go grab some old file and turn it into a sweet knife...

because theres only six steps, and i managed to do it without any fancy furnaces or kilns so you have no excuse not to!

**DISCLAMER**

knives are sharp things they should not be placed in the eyes or mouth and should be kept out of reach of small children, pets, and any relatives that REALLY "love" you.

If you choose to make a knife and in the process cut, burn or in some other way injure yourself i am in no way responsible, you are an adult and need to take responsibility for yourself
***

SORRY... i couldnt resist... I HATE thos stupid warning lables "caution, coffee is hot, it could burn you" "dont drink bleach" "dont smoke while pouring gas" "dont stick your hand into... fill in the ultra dangerous implement"

Cheers and God Bless you all!

[OzarkRamblr]

Nice knife. You gonna make a mouse hide sheath??  

[TimZeigler]

Cool, thanks for sharing Rhino.  I'm a 6 step kind of guy, so this would work for me.

[Tbilisi]

Where do you get the brass pins?

[Glenn Carl]

Great project Ironrhino. The knife turned out looking good. I like how serious you take it. Howed you cook the mouse?

[madness522]

Nice build a long and good looking knife.  I like your writing style.  There is one part you left out...how many shots it took to get the glove eater...or did ya cheat and use a trap....

[the Ferret]

Pretty cool Ryan. I'll bet you're a Neandrathal among your fellow students ha ha

[4runr]

That knife looks good Ryan. Thanks for doing this.

[Cody Cantrell]

Ryan how did you get the hollow grind on the blade?  By the way the knife looks great.

Cody

[Izzy]

What broadhead for the mouse?Cool knife too.

[vermonster13]

Do a European mount as warning to the other mice! Great knife and build-along!