Look what was dropped off at my house...

[Justin0505]

Like a giant edge-pro! Cool!

 

[stereo.pete]

Wow that is an interesting setup.

 

[stereo.pete]

Well, today I had a few hours before I was due in at work. I decided to have a go at filing bevels after watching videos of people doing it two different ways. I ended up experimenting with both methods, filing from edge to spine and filing from tip to ricasso. The tip to ricasso method was painfully slow and the edge to spine method was very quick, a bit too quick and I ended up over-grinding one side of my knife. Hopefully I will be able to make the two sides meet in the center through sanding and then after heat treat when I finally create the primary edge and sharpen. Here are a few pics of the set-up and a couple pictures, where you can see the overgrind.

Setup:

Nasty Mess:

I guess my question is, what is the preferred method of cutting in bevels with a hand file? Also, should I have cut in the plunges before grinding the bevels, because I really didn't get much of a plunge at all.

Should I have taken a steeper angle when doing the initial beveling such as a 45 degree angle?

Thanks for looking and for your feedback.

_Pete

 

[stereo.pete]

I decided to begin sanding since I had filed my edge to nickel thickness. The geometry is downright bad since I clearly had no idea what I was doing when filing the edge down. You will see what I am talking about when you spot my terrible plunges. I decided to start sanding and this where I am at now.

Do I go back to filing or is it too late since I started filing the edge at too low of an angle? And once again should I have done the plunges first like Mr. Swanson does?

 

[stereo.pete]

Here's another update before I start working on the knife again.

I've continued to sand the edge and I am slowly straightening the edge out. I am about .50 to .54 along the edge and will continue to sand some more until I am happy with the straightness of the edge. I clearly need a lot of practice on plunge lines and draw filing but this is the my experience doing any sort of metal work.

A few questions I would appreciate answered...

1. I feel that my files only cut well when pushing the file from tip to ricasso, versus what I've seen from videos posted by Coop who files from ricasso to tip. Am I imagining this or does the file only cut one way when using the push file method similar to standard filing?

2. You'll notice that I am having trouble thinning the edge near the ricasso so I was thinking about using my chainsaw file to create a spanish notch, which would eliminate most of that. Would you recommend such practice or is this a bandage to a faulty technique that I should work on?

Thanks as always and I would love comments.

This is turning into a mini-cleaver with the thickness behind the edge :beatinghead:

 

[stereo.pete]

So I decided to cut in a spanish notch...

 

[Jmadams13]

Coming along nice. I like the Spanish notch. This thread is giving me ideas on how to waste my next weekend off, lol

 

[stereo.pete]

#KnifeUpdate: Well, I finished sanding the knife to the point of being ready to be heat-treated. Here's a few pics of my wonky edge :beatinghead:

I really am not concerned with aesthetics, I just hope it will cut...we shall see.

 

[Squilliam]

If your going to be using hand tools after HT, do yourself a favor and thin the edge down to 0.5mm or so before you harden it. I wouldn't worry about unfixable warping on such a stocky knife.

 

[NO ChoP!]

You'll be able to pare a coconut with this thing. lol and jk. Very fun wip, thanks.

 

[stereo.pete]

If your going to be using hand tools after HT, do yourself a favor and thin the edge down to 0.5mm or so before you harden it. I wouldn't worry about unfixable warping on such a stocky knife.

Thanks for the advice Squilliam I shall sand it some more.

 

[stereo.pete]

You'll be able to pare a coconut with this thing. lol and jk. Very fun wip, thanks.

Yep, I agree she has gone from a sheeps foot pairing knife to a wharncliffe mini-axe lol.

 

[stereo.pete]

Well folks, the mini-axe/wharncliffe/pairing knife is on hold as I don't want to send just one knife out for heat treatment. Here's a snapshot of one of the sides of the blade where you can see the terrible grind. Is this dishing in the center of the blade what you guys are talking about when it comes to Moritaka's issues?

And another picture just because... :groucho:

Here's a quick glimpse at project #2. I'm fortunate to have an amazing Dad and Father-in-Law so I wanted to make them some knives that they can beat the crap out of. Here's the profile, although I will be changing the design of the handle to thicken it on the bottom half.

Details:
Steel = O1 1"x1/4"x9" (Real thick, it's going to be able to take an absolute beating.

 

[stereo.pete]

Here's a quick update: I started working on another blade, because this is not a kitchen knife I will post a new WIP in the appropriate thread. I just wanted to show you a quick snap shot of my plunge line improvement!

 

[JMJones]

Out of curiosity, How many hours do you estimate that you have invested in the first knife?

 

[stereo.pete]

Out of curiosity, How many hours do you estimate that you have invested in the first knife?

The first knife I probably spent close to 6 hours total. I rushed the bevel process because I became impatient.

My second knife, I spent 4 hours straight just filing away the bevels on one side of the knife. :bigeek:

 

[stereo.pete]

Here's a few pics of what I have been doing with that giant 1/4" bar of O1. I decided to make my Dad a Father's Day knife, which I imagine he will be pretty pumped about. Granted the design is somewhat limited due to the bar stock only being 1/4" x 1" x 18," But I did the best that I could. The more and more that I work on this beast, the more I want to sell some stock to buy a belt grinder. Hand filing 1/4" bar stock is the devil!!!

The good news is that this knife will be pretty much indestructible

 

[GlassEye]

That thing is crazy. How long is it?

 

[stereo.pete]

That thing is crazy. How long is it?

Edge is 3 3/4" long and OAL is just shy of 9"

 

[stereo.pete]

Rumor has it that there might be a batch of homemade micarta curing in my garage...

 

[stereo.pete]

Ok, after almost 18 hours of rest, the epoxy has not hardened. Clearly I did not put enough hardner in the mix so I have two questions.

1. Will it eventually harden if given enough time?

2. Should I just toss it and start over?

 

[stereo.pete]

Also, what brands of epoxy do you recommend for handles and making your own micarta?

 

[stereo.pete]

Ok, so I finally pulled the plug on this project, here are the results of the first failed "mycarta" batch.

Here's the sheet right out of the press...

.
The sheet was tacky on the exterior and very flexible bending to 45 degrees.

I cut off a small chunk to try sanding on with my Dremel and layers would peel away from time to time, so clearly it would not make a good medium for sculpting a handle.

Granted I failed but I will say that I learned a lot and will change quite a few aspects of the process in the future.

 

[Dave Martell]

You're making micarta too? I've got to give you some applause here Pete! :happy3:

 

[stereo.pete]

Blades were shipped off to Peter's Heat Treat, will update when I get them back.

 

[stereo.pete]

My Father-In-Law dropped off some steel a few weeks back that he found at a work site. It came in a clear plastic package with a label from Pacific Steel and the steel is designated as precision ground O1. Now this isn't my idea of precision ground but I feel obligated to use the steel for something, since it was a gift and the fact that it is identifiable makes it worthy of heat treat. The problem is that it's only 1/16th thick which limits the possibilities between pairing knives and steak knives.

I decided why not use it to make a chisel ground pairing knife but before I went through all of the work of manually sawing the steel, profiling the blank with files and yadda yadda yadda, I would test it out. There was a small piece of the steel that had been lopped off the bar already so I did a quick profile with a shoddy bench grinder, and then cleaned it up with some 80 grit sandpaper to rid the blank of the burrs from grinding. Now in my haste I ended up creating a single bevel for a left hander instead of a right hander :beatinghead: ,but the concept is the same.

I was forced to use a dremel tool to create a terrible hollow grinder on the reverse side, although with my pairing knife I may not bother and see how she performs.

My freehand filing is definitely getting better with each blade so I am at least happy with that.

 

[stereo.pete]

Blades just arrived back from Peter's Heat Treat, O1 finished at R/C 59.

 

[stereo.pete]

I had some free time before I had to head into work today so I figured I would jump in and start working on a handle for my wharncliffe.

 

[stereo.pete]

So I have my Dad's knife that I am making waiting for the epoxy to cure on their handles. I decided to work a bit on my wharncliffe since I had some downtime today, here's a 600 grit finish.

 

[Mucho Bocho]

You're almost there Pete. thanks for the update!