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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 04-22-2014, 02:18 PM
Tricky-Ricky Tricky-Ricky is offline
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Newbie From UK.

Hi guys, never knew this forum existed until today when I was searching for some info, anyway glad I found it, There looks like there will be a lot of reading and info.

Anyway I made a few knives when I was younger, and now I have retired I thought I would get into making a few more, I have always loved the aesthetic mix of steel and wood in a tool so making a knife was a logical step for me to satisfy that part of my creativity.

I am afraid that they are not hardened as I have never had the means to do so, but they are all hard stainless steel, and they are dam hard, and all made using just a hack saw, angle grinder, drill and files, so they take a little while.
Despite not being hardened they do keep an edge fairly well but they are not really made as working knives anyway.

Recent knives, not a great pic, I will dig out some more pics of the older ones later.

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Old 04-22-2014, 02:50 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Welcome to the forum, Ricky! Those are some nice looking KLO's (knife like objects). It would be a shame to do work that nice and not have the blades heat treated. I know there are knife forums in the UK and would imagine that someone on there could point you to a commercial heat treater for stainless steels. I know we have them here and many of us will send our stainless blades to them because its more cost effective than buying an electric furnace.

If sending your blade out is not possible for some reason then consider buying kit blades that are already hardened. There is so much variety in kit blades these days you can find almost any type of design and style. Or, if its possible where you live you could consider building a simple forge and heat treating carbon steel blades. As you surely know, a blade's performance comes from its heat treatment and without that it really doesn't live up to its potential. We would be glad to help you build a forge if you decide to go that way ....


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Old 04-23-2014, 06:40 AM
Tricky-Ricky Tricky-Ricky is offline
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Newbie from UK.

Hi guys, not sure if my first post has not been approved yet by a mod?
Anyway found this site during a search for some info, and glad I did.

I made a few knives when I was younger, and now I am retired I thought I would have another go, always liked the way wood and metal works together, and the art of knives has always attracted me, going by some of the great examples I have seen here, mine are not that good but I like them, they are all made from non heat treated stainless ( I don't have the facilities) but they are pretty hard and keep an edge, not that they are really designed as working knives,
They are all made using nothing but a hack saw, angle grinder, files, a pillar drill and a 1 HP motor with a buffing attachment so they take a while, anyway her are the ones I made last year, and I will dig out the pics of the ones I made previously, and also the ones I am currently making.

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Old 04-25-2014, 01:13 PM
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Hunter10139 Hunter10139 is offline
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Well if you just can't get access to hardening equipment, can't make it, buy it, etc., why not try making knives from files? It's not stainless, but it is hardened and should just need a little tempering, which you can do in your oven.


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Old 04-25-2014, 07:58 PM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Welcome Ricky
Ray's right, shame to waste the work on a "maybe" knife. Your fit/finish looks pretty good. Do some cheap research (here and elsewhere) and get a handle on the heattreatment end of the game. Remove the doubts and unknowns.


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Old 06-11-2014, 08:04 AM
Tricky-Ricky Tricky-Ricky is offline
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Thanks for the welcome guys, to be honest i am not that bothered about heat treating at present, the knives where made mostly for the satisfaction and to display, they will cut fine but i doubt they will ever need to be used as if they where on a commercial basis, sure if they where used to chop wood they would need to be a bit tougher,
It seems a little strange that people collect knives to be only ever displayed in a case and never used, yet they still want to have heat treated blades, i am happy to just display mine.
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Old 06-11-2014, 10:49 AM
damon damon is offline
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welcome to the forum!

I 2nd the file suggestion. a good file isn't all that hard to work with. if you got a place for a camp fire, get up a good coal bed and plant a few of them in there. come back in the morning when they are cold enough to reach in and grab with hands. annealing will take most of the fight out of shaping the blades.

hardening.... just need another fire, tongs to pull the blades out, a magnet to check you've reached critical temp, and a quench tank. auto transmission fluid is working well for me, but there might be other suggestions.

tempering can be done in a toaster oven.

those are too good looking of knives not to have a good heat treat to go with them.
keep it up, and post pics of progress.
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Old 06-11-2014, 01:13 PM
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Hunter10139 Hunter10139 is offline
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Well Ricky some people do make "knives" from softer metals or unhardened steels simply to display them. To most knifemakers, however, a shaped and sharpened piece of steel that isn't hardened, isn't truly a knife. It just won't display the edge retention qualities that a knife should have. And, to me, that's what really separates a knife from a "KLO". True it doesn't seem necessary when dealing with display knives because right now no one is using them. But what if someone down the line does decide to use them? It doesn't take chopping wood to dull an unhardened edge. Then, when the knife doesn't perform as expected the knifemaker's reputation could be damaged.

Good job on the design and build of those knives though. If properly heat treated they would probably make great blades.


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