Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

[1066vik]

Thor's not a smith, and Eitri didn't name his tools.

 

[Tanker 1/66]

JB weld and a nut works well to Tailor the balance of your knife. Knocks right out if you want to change the weight. I've flattened lead and pushed it into the JB also. Worked really well on my 21. I don't mind weight as long as it's balanced.

 

[daizee]

Sweet mod, Tank!

 

[Tanker 1/66]

Sweet mod, Tank!

Thanks daizee. I have my moments

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Anybody remember my first one?

This is just roughed/sawed out.
Tons of work still.
I might not get much done till next week, but I wanna send out for hea-treating soon with some more stuff.

Not sure I agree with it.....but I'm flipping my handle configuration around, opposite of my first one. Seems like that was a concern of some.
I'll get to try out both versions for a good comparison.

I'm also toying around with the idea of holes instead of slots?
I think it might be stronger without the straining of the metal in the slots, idk?
Easier to make too, unless I get a bunch lasered.....
I'd want to talk upstairs before I sold any.
I wouldn't even know how to do that, Smoke signals? Lol.

This one is Thicker, and AEB-L. Should be a tank. Great to be left outside in the backyard by the grill or fire pit.

 

[daizee]

Anybody remember my first one?

This is just roughed/sawed out.
Tons of work still.
I might not get much done till next week, but I wanna send out for hea-treating soon with some more stuff.

Not sure I agree with it.....but I'm flipping my handle configuration around, opposite of my first one. Seems like that was a concern of some.
I'll get to try out both versions for a good comparison.

I'm also toying around with the idea of holes instead of slots?
I think it might be stronger without the straining of the metal in the slots, idk?
Easier to make too, unless I get a bunch lasered.....
I'd want to talk upstairs before I sold any.
This one is Thicker, and AEB-L. Should be a tank. Great to be left outside in the backyard by the grill or fire pit.

I wouldn't even know how to do that, Smoke signals? Lol.

Whee!!
How thick is the AEB-L?
Slots? In the handle? Those are for balance, presumably. With all that blade I think you'd want as much weight in the handle as possible. But in either case, drilling holes is easier unless you have a milling machine.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Whee!!
How thick is the AEB-L?
Slots? In the handle? Those are for balance, presumably. With all that blade I think you'd want as much weight in the handle as possible. But in either case, drilling holes is easier unless you have a milling machine.

I have access to a machine shop......
I meant holes so the friction from the flipped meat is less....lol
Not in the handle.

Some spatulas are with nothing, some have slots, some holes......
My first one was slotted.
I'm over 2.5 pounds as now..... It's too heavy.
So adding holes and slots will lighten it and Ballance it better.
I just don't want the heat treat getting it wavey

I don't have my first spatula in front of me, it's at work..... It's almost perfect.

This one is thicker. Idk if I went overboard......
I guess that's why we make prototypes.
I don't have my micrometer, but it's close to .150"

 

[daizee]

Oh, a SPATULA!!

Yeah, gonna have to put that bad boy on a diet and decide how hard you want it.
AEB-L doesn't have super high heat tolerance, but you're not making a knife blade, so I think you're going to end up with a SUPER tough tool at sub-knife-hardness. Sounds like a good plan to me!

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Oh, a SPATULA!!

Yeah, gonna have to put that bad boy on a diet and decide how hard you want it.
AEB-L doesn't have super high heat tolerance, but you're not making a knife blade, so I think you're going to end up with a SUPER tough tool at sub-knife-hardness. Sounds like a good plan to me!

Sub knife?

Honesty, I'm thinking 58-60R

I'm going to Beat the snot out of it......

In my ignorant opinion...... 3 seconds to flip a burger, or move some coals should be ok?

Or, maybe I'll get some soft spots? :0. Even so, at this thickness ( I'm giving it a chisel grind, like I did the first) it Should be fairly Stout

We shall see......

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Oh, a SPATULA!!

Yeah, gonna have to put that bad boy on a diet and decide how hard you want it.
AEB-L doesn't have super high heat tolerance, but you're not making a knife blade, so I think you're going to end up with a SUPER tough tool at sub-knife-hardness. Sounds like a good plan to me!

This was my first.... I Love it!

The next one I started is my second prototype.

Spatula, Spatula! wherefore art thou Spatula?

I've been dreaming of a good spatula for over 5 years. I feel that I've been needing a real good one for a long time now, without any end in sight..... So.... I decided to make one.... I'm probably 75% finished. I still need to clean up the grind lines, remove some milling marks, touch up the...

www.bladeforums.com

 

[Crag the Brewer]

JB weld and a nut works well to Tailor the balance of your knife. Knocks right out if you want to change the weight. I've flattened lead and pushed it into the JB also. Worked really well on my 21. I don't mind weight as long as it's balanced.

That's a good idea adding weight.
I made some brass liners for my 21, that helps alot.

 

[1066vik]

.150 is garden hatchet/weeding tool territory.
you'll need 1/8 or 3/16" slots 1/8" apart to drop the weight significantly.

 

[daizee]

375F temper puts AEB-L at ~61Rc.
Just speculating, but I'd expect your "edge" to get up to 500F on the surface, but only the VERY surface/edge. So it won't hold a KNIFE edge very well (where it gets hot), but should be fine for everything else. If you won't need an actual knife edge, I think anything from 45-58Rc would be great for a brutal spatula. More than 58 in AEB-L doesn't buy you anything except brittleness (in this application), IMO. Though AEB-L is ridiculously tough as hardened steels go anyway. There may be a toughness peak in AEB-L in the 60-61 range. Hotter/softer may be less tough (local minimum), but I'd have to go look at Larrin's charts.

Coals will be VERY hot, not the air temp or grill-grate temp. But with that mass it won't absorb heat TOO fast.

Another thing to note: The higher temps the steel reaches in temper or in use, the less stain-resistant it will be. So if you'll care about that real hard, keep the edge that gets hottest dry.

In any case, it's gonna be awesome.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

.150 is garden hatchet/weeding tool territory.
you'll need 1/8 or 3/16" slots 1/8" apart to drop the weight significantly

I agree, I'll need to take a fair amount out....
I still haven't done the math yet on its missing area, but
I've got five rows of 3/8" holes. With a slot in the middle for opening gas valves, and grill vents, whatever .....with a pot lifter notch on the end of the big curve. The big curve acts as a supportive hand hold.

All of these features were on my first, and they worked really well.

The main difference is the blade thickness, and I'm trying holes instead of slots?

 

[Crag the Brewer]

375F temper puts AEB-L at ~61Rc.
Just speculating, but I'd expect your "edge" to get up to 500F on the surface, but only the VERY surface/edge. So it won't hold a KNIFE edge very well (where it gets hot), but should be fine for everything else. If you won't need an actual knife edge, I think anything from 45-58Rc would be great for a brutal spatula. More than 58 in AEB-L doesn't buy you anything except brittleness (in this application), IMO. Though AEB-L is ridiculously tough as hardened steels go anyway. There may be a toughness peak in AEB-L in the 60-61 range. Hotter/softer may be less tough (local minimum), but I'd have to go look at Larrin's charts.

Coals will be VERY hot, not the air temp or grill-grate temp. But with that mass it won't absorb heat TOO fast.

Another thing to note: The higher temps the steel reaches in temper or in use, the less stain-resistant it will be. So if you'll care about that real hard, keep the edge that gets hottest dry.

In any case, it's gonna be awesome.

Thank..... All that sounds good.
I'll make a mental note pushing coals Opposite the edge.
I kept my first one pretty dull. Definitely not a knife edge.
I didn't measure, but around .015- .020" at the edge.
Scraping gunk off my grates was my "honing technique".

even still being dull, it chopped branches, battoned, and cleaves chickens.

The weight of the blade just zings through material.....haha

 

[daizee]

The slots are really cool. I don't know why.
Maybe because I don't have a way of doing that in my shop.

What's your thinking on the handle orientation? It looks upside-down at first glance, but clearly you made that decision on purpose.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

The slots are really cool. I don't know why.
Maybe because I don't have a way of doing that in my shop.

What's your thinking on the handle orientation? It looks upside-down at first glance, but clearly you made that decision on purpose.

Each prototype has a different handle orientation.

My first one I did it "upside down" on purpose. It seemed supportive to me.
I must have weird shaped hands? I struggle with handle comfort.

The second one I'm making more conventional.
Idk if it will feel as comfortable to Me? But it will be a nice comparison, and I'll definitely know which way going forward....

 

[daizee]

First one to go was the Kephart.

 

[daizee]

The first of these pix happened a week or two ago, but today I ground one of the 4.5" pieces clean and threw it in the forge. I also decided that the Kabar spork is sub-optimal as both a spoon and a fork, so I made it more fork-like (after flinging salad on myself with it at work last week):

 

[daizee]

So it's shorter and narrower now, whatchu wanna say about that, huh??

Stuff happened. Stuff was "corrected".