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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 09-12-2012, 02:09 PM
Pfyxoeous Pfyxoeous is offline
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Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Oh, Hello. I'm from the Internet.

I recently created a profile over at bladeforums, but quickly realized that its not what I wanted. I don't really have any interest in collecting knives; I just want to make them.

I just moved (New Year's Eve) to New Mexico, following my special lady friend of a dozen years. We lived in Santa Fe for about four months, and recently bought a house in Nambe. I work at Los Alamos National Lab during the day, and am pretty bored otherwise. I did go snowboarding a couple times during the winter, but other than that I've not really capitalized on living in a vacation destination.

As a result of being bored nearly to death by the lack of (friends) activity, I figured I'd do something productive. I made a whittling knife from a sawzall blade and a piece of African mahogany that I have had for a few years from which I intended to make a piccolo snare. It turned out okay, and has spurred an interest in knife making for me. I've got an idea for a hunting knife and have since ordered a couple pieces of ATS-34 and some D2. I got rid of a lot of my tools when I moved, so I need to acrue some again. I also want to build a workshop so I'm not uglying up the workout studio or having to haul equipment in and outside when I want to use it.

I'm an Air Force vet, and worked as a machinist while I went to school (Michigan) for mechanical engineering. I'm a (terrible) golfer, and an avid outdoorsman, although I didn't recognize the big game licensing process until it was too late this year. I wouldn't have known where to ask for a ####### anyway.

Anyway, I have a tendency to be long-winded in my posts, so I'll cut this short. Greetings; are there any other northern New Mexicans?

Sam Harwood
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  #2  
Old 09-12-2012, 02:44 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Sam,

Welcome aboard! Check the Visit a Knifemaker Near You sticky thread at the top of this forum to see if somebody is close by. Otherwise, someone may come along here after a while but they are pretty much everywhere.

The steels you have chosen are not the best choices for a first knife or even a 100th knife. Your machinists skills will help a lot with them but a lot depends on whether or not you want to do your own heat treating. For those steels, you would need a significant investment in equipment to do it. Aside from that, there are many much better knife steels available today.

If you want to do your own heat treating, look for some 1080 or 1084...


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Old 09-12-2012, 03:00 PM
Pfyxoeous Pfyxoeous is offline
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Perhaps I'll look in to a different medium for my first few knives. I plan on building a 2" belt grinder when I buy another welder. I really need to prioritize since I have the green light to build a workshop. How many guys get the go-ahead from their lady for that?

I was excited to see the Knifemaker Near You thread, but dissappointed to see none in New Mexico. I think the nearest one is in Fort Worth (10 hours). I am hoping someone in Santa Fe will be willing to show me some stuff. I doubt Jerry Duran wants a novice in his shop, plus, he's all the way to Albuquerque, which is where Bugs made the wrong turn.

Thanks for the welcome.
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Old 09-12-2012, 04:35 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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If you can find a copy of Blade's Knifemakers Annual it lists every known maker in the country with contact info. Bound to be some in your area ...


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Old 09-12-2012, 05:01 PM
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rockhound rockhound is offline
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Sam,
Welcome! I think you'll like this site a lot. I'm a noober and have learned very much here in the last couple of months. Skilled folk like Ray and others have been giving me honest feedback and experienced answers to my questions. I can't thank them enough and continue to learn.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Rogers View Post
[referring to ATS-34 and D-2]
Sam,
The steels you have chosen are not the best choices for a first knife or even a 100th knife. For those steels, you would need a significant investment in equipment to do it. Aside from that, there are many much better knife steels available today.
Ray,
This quote confuses me a little.
I'm nearing completion of my first stock-removal build. I'm using ATS-34 and have experienced no difficulties as a novice and have made no "significant investment". I found profiling and bevel creation (flat-grind) to be fairly simple without machinery, although I used a small angle grinder for the profile. I have read here and elsewhere that ATS-34 is a very good steel for knifemaking and edge retention... that's why I chose it. Perhaps it is difficult to HT? I sent mine to Texas Knife for HT so I didn't have to deal with any of the technicalities or nuances associated with ATS-34 HT. Is the HT process why you don't recommend ATS-34 or D-2 "for a first or even 100th knife"? What do you recommend in the way of "many much better knife steels available today".... for say, a stock-removal type of maker?
Very curious and sorry if I sidetracked the thread a little.
Thanks.


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Old 09-12-2012, 05:15 PM
Pfyxoeous Pfyxoeous is offline
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I chose the ATS-34 because of its stain resistance. I plan on making a hunting knife with the material, and I have a less than stellar record of promptly cleaning my blade (or truck for that matter) after the process. I have a good set of files, an angle grinder, a die grinder, and a 1" belt sander. I do however intend to make my first knife completely with hand tools and refrain from plugging anything in for the novelty of it. Perhaps I will plan on using some high carbon 1000 series for that one. It will also potentially make the heat treating process less complicated.

I've got a good idea (theoretically) about composition of steels. Most of my machining experience however is with aluminum, titanium, and high temp stainless steel alloys. I haven't done much with steel, and what I have done has been almost exclusively 1018.

Thanks for the comments.
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Old 09-12-2012, 05:40 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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The high investment reference was to doing the HT yourself - having to buy an oven and possibly cryo. You're right, ATS-34 is not particularly hard to work unless you get the hot rolled stuff with the skin still on it. The reason I said ATS-34 was a bad idea is because a few years back I and several others had some real bad luck with that steel and I never regained my trust for it. It does produce good blades (when the steel itself is good) but there are many other steels that are similar in properties but produce even better blades such as CPM-154 and 154CM. These steels are even more stain resistant than ATS-34 and don't have that hard skin that some of the ATS-34 has and, so far at least, hasn't gotten on my bad side ....


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Old 09-12-2012, 06:19 PM
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rockhound rockhound is offline
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Thanks Ray,
I still have another billet of ATS-34 to work with. Texas Knife seems to have done a great job with the HT & Cryo on my current build from the first billet. Both billets came from Texas Knife and I don't think either came with a noticeable "skin". They have a very very mild orange-peel texture but were easily smoothed with hand files and sandpaper after profiling. I think that's probably normal and not a problem.
I will purchase CPM-154 or 154CM billets for my next builds after I use up this ATS-34.
Thanks!


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Old 09-12-2012, 07:15 PM
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Welcome Sam , I'm over in Bloomfield , not oo far away. If I can ever be of any help , let me know.


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Old 09-13-2012, 07:05 AM
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Welcome aboard Sam. If you are looking to start with a good blade steel that is simple to work and HT with minimal equipment, I'd suggest 1084. Do a little "search" work on the HT, very simple to get right with good results and will produce a good hardworking blade. Not stainless by any means, but a good way to get started. It grinds or forges quite well plus gives the beginner a lot of room for error correction during the learning process. Lots of good blade steels out there to work with. Pick a simple one and learn how to make a knife correctly from it, then move on to the advanced stuff.

As you can see from Dwane's post, it's just a matter of kicking the bushes a bit to find a knifemaker near you. There should be plenty hiding out in and around Santa Fe being the artsy craft center that it is. If you get a chance and you are up near the 4 Corners area, check in with Chuck Burroughs (he hangs out more in the "Sheath Making" forums here). He is an extremely talented individual and can probably direct you to several other SW knifemakers.


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