1080 ht

[jdm61]

ok......just did my first quench ever......had the scale blow off ALMOST all of the edge area....lol. Should I be able to see the transition after roughing off the crud before tempering or do you have to etch 1080 to get a good line? I certainly hope so cuz I aint seein it..lol
Joe
P.S. I now know why some folks have been submiting guardless knives for JS judging....that fit and finish is a bit of frustrating work for the beginner..lol

[B.Finnigan]

You need to etch the steel to show the quench lines. Distilled vinegar works good if you don't have ferric chloride. It takes just under 24hrs for vinegar to etch it enough. If you allow the vinegar to evaporate it will get stonger or you can boil/reduce it to strengthen it.
Just don't use it for human consumption after etching with it.

I hear you on the guard fitting, very tedious even with a milling machine. You still can't avoid alot of file work even after milling though. Each one I do does get a little easier and it goes a bit faster. Thats why we get the big bucks when we sell them.

There is a good collection of knifemaking tutorials that I have found very helpful. I use them as a reference every week and the info is excellent. Most of them show how to do it with the fancy equipment and with the most basic hand tools.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/index.shtml

[jdm61]

I actually bought some ferric chlorida at Radio Shack. How long do you etvh with that stuff? Also, I bought a little mill but don't have a spot to set it up yet. How do you set up to mill the shoulders?
Joe

[Mitchell H.]

Originally Posted by jdm61

P.S. I now know why some folks have been submiting guardless knives for JS judging....that fit and finish is a bit of frustrating work for the beginner..lol

I know what you mean...I almost tossed my first mortised tang, guarded blade, it still woun up really sloppt ot me, but I filled the gaps with epoxy mixed with sawdust....it looks pretty cheesy, but all in all it still is pretty nice. I will use it for a user knife aas I have tested the edge and it is fairly indestructable. Chopped 8 2"X4"'s, a 4"X4", a penny in half, and it finally got to where it would barely shave....back to the point...it is a LOT harder to fit a guard than it is a bolster or just a regular full tang knife....my two peso's.

[Ed Caffrey]

To use the Ferric Chloride, first dilute it 3 to 1 with distilled water. I built a tank from a piece of 4" PVC pipe, 18" long with a cap glued on one end and a screw on cap fitting glued to the other end. This way you can just sit the tank up and have it when you need it.
I mix the ferric in a old plastic milk jug. Just dump the bottle of etchant into the mild jug, then add three ferric bottles full of distilled water. Keep the mixture from getting contaminated with anything. BEFORE you try to etch anything, make sure the item is 100% clean. Use windex, or acetone (I wear latex gloves when I'm cleaning blades for etching to prevent any finger prints) to clen the item being etched. Let the blade etch for 2-3 mins and check it. The blade will have a black "sludge" all over it, that you will have to scrub off with fine steel wool (#000 or #0000 steel wool). If the etch isn't to your liking, clean the blade and etch it again until you get the results you want. A word of caution....if you let it go too long the blade will get a bunch of tiny pits in it, that you may not have enough blade left to remove the pits.

Concerning the guard.... I NEVER try to mill shoulders on the blade. If you feel that you must have shoulders, use a filing jig and do it by hand. An easier way to get a great fitting guard is to ensure that the blade is fully distal tapered (for hidden or full tangs). The blade should be tapered from the blade tip to the ricasso (or where the tang joins the blade), and tapered again from the end of the tang to just in front of the ricasso. When you cut the hole in the guard (for hidden tangs) cut it under sized, and then using a file make the hole tapered towards the front of the guard until you can get it to fit within 1/2"-3/4" of it's final position. Then lock the blade up in a vise (use a good leather pad) and drive the guard the rest of the way on. If your using anything other than Titanium for a guard, it will mold to the tang and will have a gap free fit. You may have to remove the guard and clean up the face, but it will still fit just fine afterwards.
You hear a lot of makers talking about soldering a guard in place. I view solder not as an attachment method (if your guard is fitted correctly you should not need anything to hold the blade/guard together) but rather as a moisture seal. If your using a QUALITY "epoxy" it will seal just as well as any solder, or you can always use JB Weld. Again, if the guard is fitted correctly you won't see either, and both are much easier to clean up than solder.
I rarely solder anymore, but when I do, it's alway done from the tang side of the guard, with a bead of super glue gel around the front side to prevent any flux from getting there and causing solder to flow to that location.
There's all kinds of ways to make things easier on yourself, without sacraficing any quality in your work....it just takes some time and thought to figure some of them out.

[B.Finnigan]

I use a rotary table attachment for milling the shoulders. Without it I would either have to free hand mill or have a total rectangular guard. Even with the rotary table I still have to do alot of cleanup with the files. I don't mind the tedious filing because if I did the whole guard/pommel on the mill then it would not be much different then all the cheap asian garbage the sporting goods store try to pawn off.

[jdm61]

ok.....used the wrong term. a shoulder is when you notch the top and bottom of the ricasso, right?. What I am wondering about is how to mill the back end of the ricasso so that it is even and straight above and bellow the tang where the guard will sit.

[Ed Caffrey]

Quickest and simplest way is to use a filing jig. For years I did by eye, and it would sometimes take me days to get a guard fitted correctly...with the filing jig it's about a 5-10 min. job.