WIP of 240 in 26c3

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The Edge

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So, yesterday I was able to shape, mud, and heat treat a blank for a new knife. Here's a couple pics of the process. Now comes grinding (the slowest part of the process for me).

Profile ground out, and mud applied. Little glamor shot above the woods I'm thinking of using for the piece. Don't mind the mess.
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Heating up the quenching oil. I usually take it a little past where it needs to be, as it's going to cool slightly when I move it to the shop.
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Just getting everything ready. Don't need to be running around setting things up once the knife goes in the kiln. Preheating to 1475.
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The knife is going in the kiln now. Following Larrin's heat treating. 1475 for a 10 minute soak.
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The knife is out and quenched. No extra hands to take pictures of that part, but actions need to be smooth and controlled. The blank in the picture is ~68hrc and has been washed in soapy water, so my wife doesn't kill me when I temper in the oven at 300.
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After two tempers, here the knife sits at ~65hrc. Side note, this is my third hardness tester. the first was a chinese piece of crap that didn't work out of the box. I learned a valuable lesson with that. Don't buy chinese when looking for quality. Though it didn't work on arrival, they would not give me a refund, and since I can't get tracking in China, the company refused to accept the package, and Paypal/ebay could do nothing about it. $600 down the drain. The second one I bought was listed as antique but working. It was not working, but I was able to get a refund on that one, since the seller was in the USA, and admitted to me that he hadn't tested it. After all that, I ended up getting a brand new tester from Ames. It was not cheap, not even close. May not look fancy, but the readings have been super accurate, regardless of the analog scale.
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More to come later, though now is the time/labor intensive part.
 
Looks good, how thick is the stock you heat treated?

I looked up the Ames tester and watched their video, looks very easy to use. However, do you have to calibrate it before every use?
 
Looks good, how thick is the stock you heat treated?

I looked up the Ames tester and watched their video, looks very easy to use. However, do you have to calibrate it before every use?

I'm using .1" stock.

No, I would have to send it back to them to calibrate for a fee. They provide pre tested blanks that are at a known hardness, so you can make sure it's still reading correctly though. Very simple to use.
 
Here's a pic of me halfway through yesterday. Bevels are roughed in, and working on some concavity.

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I was able to finish yesterday getting everything ground to about where I want it thickness wise. Time to clean up grind lines, and start getting the knife ready for the handle.

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I don't have nearly as long to work on this today, so we'll see what I have to share tomorrow. We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast...
 
I'm in the middle of sanding to 400 grit in this picture. This process is tedious for me, and I'm always amazed when people tell me it only takes them less than an hour to go up in progression to 2k. The hamon is starting to appear, though the real magic won't come till later.

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Started to get the handle together. Everything is cut out, squared, and started working on getting the slots put in. I probably do this the slow way as well. I drill small holes in the top, then drill a bigger hole through the bottom that doesn't go all the way through. I then use a jewelers saw to connect the smaller holes, and a file to fit it to the tang. The smaller holes are wider than the bigger hole I drill, so that I can "key" the tang to the wood, hopefully preventing it from twisting anywhere down the line. Both the woods are dyed stabalized maple, with a copper spacer.

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Today comes with more sanding, and if I'm lucky etching. Also, hoping to get the handle completely fitted, so I can glue it up to dry overnight. That way, I can shape it tomorrow, and then work on all the final finishing touches, and putting both pieces together (I have a fake tang that I wrap with silicone tape to glue the handle together). Enjoy!
 
Got a lot done yesterday, but boy was it long. Was finally able to get the handle epoxied at around 8:30pm. First couple pics are of the knife finally being polished.

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And the other side :)

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Etched and polished. We'll see if I try to do more, or if I just leave it here.

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See you on the flip side ;)

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Fitting the knife to the ferrule.

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Getting the spacer fit next. The tang is wider than the hole, so I add a little groove on both sides to allow it to fit. I also hope this add structural integrity once the tang is in, since it's harder for things to twist around like this.

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I do the same thing with the handle, though it doesn't need to go all the way down.

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Yay! Everything fits now.

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All the pieces cleaned and drying. I'll add silicone wrap to the tang piece so it doesn't stick in, but keeps the void from being filled with epoxy.

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Now everything is together, just slowly curing.

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Now I just need to remove the tang, and make sure I can fit the knife back into the handle. Then I can properly shape the handle, and pretty everything up before attaching the two. Cheers!
 
Well, I usually take the tang out before the epoxy has completely set, but didn't this time; as I got it done so late in the evening. Long story short, I had to break the handle apart to get the fake tang out. Had to cut out and fit a new ferrule. Forgot to grab some pictures, as I was a bit frustrated at this point, but remembered to grab one with the tang out. So, finally had some success in pushing this WIP forward.

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I'll be dealing mainly with the handle today. Making sure the knife fits back in the slot perfectly, and then shaping the handle. I see a lot of sawdust in my future :)
 
So I was able to finish this yesterday. I have not attached the handle to the knife yet, but there's a pretty good friction for now. The handle wanted to be problematic the entire process (weird, since I don't normally run in to problems there), but it's finished even if there are some minor character flaws.

I won't even talk about how this got here, but the void that I'm filling is entirely my fault (grrr, grrrr, stomp feet, throw tantrum, deep breath, and where were we?). Filling it with CA glue before sanding down. I thought the glue was dry when I started sanding, but behold, it was not. I'm leaving everything as is for now, but you might be able to see the end result in the next two pics

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Here's the knife's balance point, and the first time we've seen everything together! I did a little more polishing after this.

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Not the greatest picture quality, but we'll get nicer photos later.

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Yep, you guessed it, it's the other side. If you weren't able to tell before, this is an S-Grind for a righty.

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Here's the handle's good side. I'm ready for my closeup Mr. Devill.

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I suppose I should do some videos of how the knife performs. I've got some potatoes, butternut squash, cauliflower, celery, and our large carrots here seem to fail in comparison to what I've seen other people chop over the last few months :D.

Stay tuned to the next episode, "When the shadow strikes again" (Don't mind me, I just have an announcer in my head recreating radio ads).

Thanks for giving me some of your precious time!
 
Looking good, totally dig it! :goodjob:

How do you sand the concave hollow? Radiused wood/hard backer? It looks nice, a lot nicer than some of the knives I've been seeing with the hollow ground fuller left at rough grit.
 
Looking good, totally dig it! :goodjob:

How do you sand the concave hollow? Radiused wood/hard backer? It looks nice, a lot nicer than some of the knives I've been seeing with the hollow ground fuller left at rough grit.

Thanks!

After grinding out the hollow with the belt sander (I try to clean up the line by going finer and finer with the belts), I just use sandpaper and a wine cork. I've got some rhynowet coming in the mail, which should make sanding come out nicer with less time. To be honest, there are still a couple deeper scratch marks that are bothering me. Seeing that I could do a better job before the etch, as the cleaner parts are really popping after polishing with mud later.
 
Did some testing by making a couple salads the other day. I love how carbon knives show you exactly where food has touched :)

As you can see, the back side shows contact 3/4's of the way up the blade. This is by design, as it's ground for a righty.

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On the right side, you'll notice that food only touched the bevel before releasing. Definitely like how it cut overall. Need to work on my finishing skills, so I'll refinish this one after a couple other projects, and put her up for sale.

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This makes me very happy. That’s how I was polishing an S-grind I was working on recently, and it’s affirming to hear of someone who actually knows what they’re doing using the same low tech method. :)

I tend to make a lot of extra work for myself. I can do decent machine finishes, but the problem is, I don't like them. I see some makers banging out super thick scratched hollows, and though I don't mind the look on their stuff, I just can't bring myself to do it.

I'm just glad I can grind a knife straight (ok, there may be some other things I'm glad for, but good bones for a knife is the least I can do).

And wine corks are in abundance at my house.
 
Fantastic WIP, thank you for sharing!

The blade is so my cup of tea, totally love it! If it was available, I’d jump on that knife immediately.

The handle (choice of woods) isn’t really my cup of tea, but hey, that may be just me... Keep up that work and we may have to talk one day about such a Fine blade!!! Feel free to PM me!
 
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So, slight change in direction from what I had planned, but so is the life of a knife maker. This blade is now off on its journey to a new home. Handle is not made by me, but provided by the new owner. It is burnt oak.

Here are pics of the final product! Pic heavy for sure...

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Great looking knife. Grind also looks really great. I bet it's quite a performer.
 
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