First steps - forging knives

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Texas

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • jrbfishn

    TGT Addict
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Aug 9, 2013
    28,316
    96
    south of killeen
    Where do you get the brass rod for your pins? I'm having trouble tracking any down - everyone sells tubing, but not solid brass rods.
    Texas Knife Supply mostly but some from Amazon. Some of my knife blanks come with metric holes.
    Look at the micarta rod stock too. Cuts easily with Dykes but is very strong and easy to work with. Offers a nice coontrast and the red blends well with Mahoganny. The blade on the left. The pic I posted before has some black with maple scales.

    c43abc8f643762e466de122639760b27.jpg


    Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk
    Guns International
     

    jrbfishn

    TGT Addict
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Aug 9, 2013
    28,316
    96
    south of killeen
    Once you get to making sheaths, Knife Kits generally has the best prices on Kydex materials and Tandy on leather supplies. You have to look at just what you want to do, but sometimes you can get rivets, cicago screws and other small stuff for Kydex cheaper on Amazon. Texas Knife also has the drill bits for Corber Bolts and Loveless fasteners. They can give you a different look too. Good site for knife stuff.

    Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk
     

    oldag

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 100%
    7   0   0
    Feb 19, 2015
    17,430
    96
    It. Is. HOT today. Well, humid as all hell anyway. Weather app claims it's only 91°...

    Anyway, it's heat treating time. I fixed my bevels, then fucked them up, then mostly un-fucked them (lessons were learned) and got everything to about a 120 grit polish. Drilled holes for handle pins in the optimistic hope one of these might survive torture testing to become a finished knife.

    View attachment 344956

    Then I fired up the forge and heated the blades until they were non-magnetic...then heated them for a few more minutes before quenching them in canola oil. The quench seemed to go well - a file skates right across the steel instead of biting in.

    View attachment 344959

    You can see the oxidized finish the oil left on the blades. That needed to (mostly) go, because in the next step I'll need to be able to see if a tempering color appears on the steel. So, a bit of light sanding happened to get back to bare metal.

    View attachment 344960

    As you can see, not exactly the prettiest finish, but at this point it doesn't need to be. Right now I'm preheating the oven to 400° to temper the blades. That should be about a 5 hour process. So...hopefully tomorrow I can finish them up and get the edges sharpened to start some torture testing.
    Canola oil??? You were supposed to use bacon grease.
     

    General Zod

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2012
    26,742
    96
    Kaufman County
    Once you get to making sheaths, Knife Kits generally has the best prices on Kydex materials and Tandy on leather supplies. You have to look at just what you want to do, but sometimes you can get rivets, cicago screws and other small stuff for Kydex cheaper on Amazon. Texas Knife also has the drill bits for Corber Bolts and Loveless fasteners. They can give you a different look too. Good site for knife stuff.

    Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

    Right my my intent is for the sheaths to be leather. That much I've done before - I just need to find all my tools.
     

    General Zod

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 29, 2012
    26,742
    96
    Kaufman County
    More progress. I'm working on getting a feel for the bevels - my belt grinder doesn't really have a way to set up a platform to work from or use a jig on, so I'm learning to grind the bevels by hand. Right now they're cleaner than before, and at a better angle, but mistakes are still clearly visible. But...this is why I made test pieces.

    As you can also see, one logo is gone and the other has a good bite out of it. That's a lesson: get the bevel started before stamping the touchmark, and put the touchmark behind the plunge line, not above the bevel.

    Still, though, both knives are "slicing paper" sharp. I believe torture testing will begin tomorrow. Wish me luck.

    Ans yes, there will be video. Unless I manage to hurt myself.

    20220922_221740.jpg
     
    Top Bottom