A ROUND KNIFE WIP - UPDATED INFO

Again, I'm grateful for all the info. shared. The last few posts have really clarified things for me. I'll be ordering a sheet of .040" AEB-L from Chuck tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
 
coldsteelburns said:
This is such a timely thread, as this was going to be my next project. I searched quite a bit but couldn't really get a good idea of the dimensions, thickness, bevel height, and so on as you mentioned, TK.

Providing those tracings is so incredibly helpful, and I'm sure watching this build progress will be as well.

For mine, I'll simply be using 15n20 from a band saw blade since I only work with carbon steels and it's the only steel I have that's wide enough. It's at about .0625" thickness I believe, but I'll probably end up hogging off some of its thickness prior to beveling. Since I'm still a novice with leather, I'm sure it'll work out fine for now 'til I develop any type of discernment in working with leather.

Thanks to TK, Paul, and Dave for already making this an excellent thread.

I'll definitely be following along!

~Paul
My YT Channel
Lsubslimed
Click to expand...


Paul the tracing above labeled "Danny Marlin" was my first custom knife about 20+ years old, and it was my go to knife for most of that time. it's made of L6 from a recycled circle saw blade ( I don't think M4, AEB-L and some of the other super steels were around then) and it's just as sharp and works as well as when it was new. It is slightly thicker, but still within the .040/.046 range. it still qualifies as one of my favorites among the ten In have.

Paul
 
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Greetings to all and Merry Christmas - Susan and I went over to her brother's house for Christmas dinner today....we left the house in the middle of a blizzard to get there. Tomorrow it's back to the shop after I dig us out of the snow - should be some photos of the work starting tomorrow. This will be a very straightforward build as this is not a Bruce Bump Cut & Shoot. :D
 
coldsteelburns said:
This is such a timely thread, as this was going to be my next project. I searched quite a bit but couldn't really get a good idea of the dimensions, thickness, bevel height, and so on as you mentioned, TK.

Providing those tracings is so incredibly helpful, and I'm sure watching this build progress will be as well.

For mine, I'll simply be using 15n20 from a band saw blade since I only work with carbon steels and it's the only steel I have that's wide enough. It's at about .0625" thickness I believe, but I'll probably end up hogging off some of its thickness prior to beveling. Since I'm still a novice with leather, I'm sure it'll work out fine for now 'til I develop any type of discernment in working with leather.

Thanks to TK, Paul, and Dave for already making this an excellent thread.

I'll definitely be following along!

~Paul
My YT Channel
Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
Click to expand...

Paul: I wouldn't fret too much on the use of 15n20 - it's a fine steel in it's own right. Blade geometry, heat treat, and finally type of steel (in order of importance) determine how a knife performs. I chose AEB-L simply because it's easily obtained in the .040" thickness, it's cheap, and I don't have to burn $9.00 ceramic belts up to thin out thicker stock. :)
 
For those going to use AEB-L I've gone to doing all my grinding post heat treat. I have done some out of thicker stock just grind more till you're at your target thickness. Running the bevel up higher does work but doesn't last, another reason I've gone to beveling the whole blade starting in front of the handle.

This one was ground out of .070 stock, sometimes hard to find the 0.40.

VkyrTH2.jpg


Its not that thick anymore. Back of the blade in front of the handle:

97ds155.jpg


UJr4ngI.jpg


Behind the edge:

lSjSHAN.jpg


Handle material doesn't seem to matter much and I've made em with or without bolsters. Doesn't seem to make much diff. I leave the corners of the handle a little more square then most ya see out there. Helps me index and keeps the knife in place while using. I do use them for hours at a time sometimes, the squareishness doesn't seem to bother my hand.
 
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TK Steingass said:
Paul: I wouldn't fret too much on the use of 15n20 - it's a fine steel in it's own right. Blade geometry, heat treat, and finally type of steel (in order of importance) determine how a knife performs. I chose AEB-L simply because it's easily obtained in the .040" thickness, it's cheap, and I don't have to burn $9.00 ceramic belts up to thin out thicker stock. :)
Click to expand...

I’ve made two in 15n20 so far, and they work quite well tempered to Rc62/63. The people who have them really like them. I did one in 52100 as well at Rc62. I’m copying these drawings above as I need a couple new round knives myself.
 
Here's the pair, cutout and ready for heat treatment. I am going to put a lanyard tube in these so you can hang it on a nail - there will be stainless bolsters/corby rivets. Not enough material to taper the tang on these guys! One is for Paul, one is for me. I'll austenitize for 15 minutes at 1940, plate quench and temper twice at 150 F. I should get around Rc 60-62 out of this heat treatment without cryo according to the heat treatment instructions provided by Alpha Knife Supply.

AEB-L.jpg Long-Pair.jpg
 
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Horsewright said:
For those going to use AEB-L I've gone to doing all my grinding post heat treat. I have done some out of thicker stock just grind more till you're at your target thickness. Running the bevel up higher does work but doesn't last, another reason I've gone to beveling the whole blade starting in front of the handle.

This one was ground out of .070 stock, sometimes hard to find the 0.40.

VkyrTH2.jpg


Its not that thick anymore. Back of the blade in front of the handle:

97ds155.jpg


UJr4ngI.jpg


Behind the edge:

lSjSHAN.jpg


Handle material doesn't seem to matter much and I've made em with or without bolsters. Doesn't seem to make much diff. I leave the corners of the handle a little more square then most ya see out there. Helps me index and keeps the knife in place while using. I do use them for hours at a time sometimes, the squareishness doesn't seem to bother my hand.
Click to expand...

Dave: The vernier caliper - is it Pre-Revolutionary War? :D
 
sheathmaker said:
Paul the tracing above labeled "Danny Marlin" was my first custom knife about 20+ years old, and it was my go to knife for most of that time. it's made of L6 from a recycled circle saw blade ( I don't think M4, AEB-L and some of the other super steels were around then) and it's just as sharp and works as well as when it was new. It is slightly thicker, but still within the .040/.046 range. it still qualifies as one of my favorites among the ten In have.

Paul
Click to expand...

TK Steingass said:
Paul: I wouldn't fret too much on the use of 15n20 - it's a fine steel in it's own right. Blade geometry, heat treat, and finally type of steel (in order of importance) determine how a knife performs. I chose AEB-L simply because it's easily obtained in the .040" thickness, it's cheap, and I don't have to burn $9.00 ceramic belts up to thin out thicker stock. :)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reassurance!

It wasn't so much the 15n20 that I was a bit worried about but more so the stock thickness I have it in, at least after hearing Paul's standard of .04/.046" in thickness. Since I have yet to use any type of round knife and don't know the difference between a good cutting and great cutting one, I'm hoping the .06" stock won't bug me too much. ;)

I might try to hog off some of the thickness prior to beveling, but we'll see how confident I am in doing do once I get it going.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

~Paul
My YT Channel
Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
 
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Yes sir! It was Ben's. Ya know Ben Franklin. He used it a lot in his work. He got it from Paul, not Paul Long the leathersmith, Paul Revere, the silversmith. Seriously, try finding someone that can read it! Paul Mason is gonna help me learn to make folders. He said I had to get some digital ones.... geez.
 
coldsteelburns said:
Thanks for the reassurance!

It wasn't so much the 15n20 that I was a bit worried about but more so the stock thickness I have it in, at least after hearing Paul's standard of .04/.046" in thickness. Since I have yet to use any type of round knife and don't know the difference between a good cutting and great cutting one, I'm hoping the .06" stock won't bug me too much. ;)

I might try to hog off some of the thickness prior to beveling, but we'll see how confident I am in doing do once I get it going.

Thanks again for all the great advice!

~Paul
My YT Channel
Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
Click to expand...


Less than 10 minutes to thin it down. Not a problem.
 
Horsewright said:
Yes sir! It was Ben's. Ya know Ben Franklin. He used it a lot in his work. He got it from Paul, not Paul Long the leathersmith, Paul Revere, the silversmith. Seriously, try finding someone that can read it! Paul Mason is gonna help me learn to make folders. He said I had to get some digital ones.... geez.
Click to expand...


I had to count the slots on the caliper. :thumbsup:
 
Great thread, everyone. Just for comparison's sake, here are a couple of small rounded leather-cutting knives I made recently. They're simple but work pretty well. The middle one is used by Ms. Oye to cut leather for sheaths.

MYY4WHB.jpg


ytDlFc8.jpg
 
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Willie71 said:
Less than 10 minutes to thin it down. Not a problem.
Click to expand...


Yea, I kinda suck at getting things FLAT and parallel after hogging off a lot of material, at least on a surface area as large as a rounding knife plus tang. In order to do it "right" it tends to become quite a chore for me, but maybe I'm just being nit picky lol.

Mech, those are too cool. Very neat idea for a rounding knife! :thumbsup:

~Paul
My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
 
I want to say I’m not trying to be belligerent or arrogant. I took some measurements on one of my round knives I’ve been working on. If you look at the picture, the knife is 0.040” much higher than a flat 0.040” knife with a 1/2” bevel. I’m trying to understand why this would drag more than a 0.040” knife which is thicker closer to the edge? I believe the experts here. I’m trying to make sense of this. The leather never touches a part of my knife that is thicker than 0.030”. Everything past the black line is thinner than 0.040”.


AB0F1D86-E733-4AF2-BBDF-F23F2AF3DA9D by Wjkrywko, on Flickr

Paul, maybe I can send you this knife and you can tell me where or why it drags?
 
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100_4170.jpg Warren, based on your photo it probably won't drag.....if it is truly .040 all the way to the heavy black line, and then taken to zero at the edge with about a 1/4" bevel to add the convex strength to the edge. From this point it's going to be heat treat and bevel geometry to prove whether it performs or not. Keep in mind, I'm not a knife maker, just a user so I may be way off, but I do know what has worked well for me.

The photo above is about the best I could get of the Knip Knife showing edge and bevel.

Paul
 
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sheathmaker said:
View attachment 819493 Warren, based on your photo it probably won't drag.....if it is truly .040 all the way to the heavy black line, and then taken to zero at the edge with about a 1/4" bevel to add the convex strength to the edge. From this point it's going to be heat treat and bevel geometry to prove whether it performs or not. Keep in mind, I'm not a knife maker, just a user so I may be way off, but I do know what has worked well for me.

The photo above is about the best I could get of the Knip Knife showing edge and bevel.

Paul
Click to expand...

The edge is at 0.002” right now. I’ll convex it to zero. I used my caliper set at 0.040” and the black line is where the steel dragged the caliper. This one is 15n20 heat treated to Rc62. I was aiming for Rc63, but over tempered a bit.

Paul, I appreciate your comments and feedback. I’ll grind another one to 0.040” right to the handle and see if it feels different in use.
 
What a spectacular idea for a WIP thread. Great thinking TK.

I'll be very interested in how this ends up

Happy New Years all

Corey " synthesist " Gimbel
 
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