- Joined
- Jun 7, 2002
- Messages
- 3,408
hi guys! a filipino here! first of all, i'm not a knife smith, never even tried to operate a forge or a mill press. i'm an afficionado of fine knives, though.
last week, i visited my brother's sand casting business where he made engine blocks and some hand tools. i noticed that the handles for mechanical wrenches had deep hollows on either side and sooo....
i asked them if they could cast a long wrench handle for me minus the wrench head and the hole at the end of the handle. it was 14 inches long, 1 1/4 inches wide, 3/8 inches thick and the hollows bite less than 1/8 inches on either side. i left without explaining why.
back at home, i turned on the bench grinder and patiently ground both sides to make a full-height v-angle. i fashioned the point to look a little like a katana. i'm not a good grinder and the symmetry was kinda bad. with the depressions from the casting, i ended up with a deep hollow grind: it was a mean-looking 10-inche blade if only it was made of forged steel.
i went back to the shop and consulted my bro on how to heat-treat ti. no one in the shop knew. so i put it in the furnace and heated it cherry-red (i think i read that one from randall) i took it out and dunk it in cold water. it didn't crack or warp. i was afraid it would be brittle as hell. now the tempering process: i looked up mad dog knives and moran. i put it back into the fire at a lower temperature and notice the knife blacken. i waited nearly an hour for a blue or yellow or whatever color to sho but there wasn't. and it started to redden again. so i lit a blow torch, grasped the blade with tongs and put it edge-down on a shallow pan with a 1/4 inch film of water. the edge sizzled and i blow torched the spine and point while the edge was in water. i did this for nearly an hour. i noticed some slight bluing near the spine.
and so, i had a lop-sided deep hollow-ground blade 10 inches long with what appears to be a temper line along the edge. i filed and ground it up for finishing. now, it almost looks genuine but i'm afraid it'll snap on the first torture test i put it into.
ok, back to reality for you guys...
thanks for reading...
last week, i visited my brother's sand casting business where he made engine blocks and some hand tools. i noticed that the handles for mechanical wrenches had deep hollows on either side and sooo....
i asked them if they could cast a long wrench handle for me minus the wrench head and the hole at the end of the handle. it was 14 inches long, 1 1/4 inches wide, 3/8 inches thick and the hollows bite less than 1/8 inches on either side. i left without explaining why.
back at home, i turned on the bench grinder and patiently ground both sides to make a full-height v-angle. i fashioned the point to look a little like a katana. i'm not a good grinder and the symmetry was kinda bad. with the depressions from the casting, i ended up with a deep hollow grind: it was a mean-looking 10-inche blade if only it was made of forged steel.
i went back to the shop and consulted my bro on how to heat-treat ti. no one in the shop knew. so i put it in the furnace and heated it cherry-red (i think i read that one from randall) i took it out and dunk it in cold water. it didn't crack or warp. i was afraid it would be brittle as hell. now the tempering process: i looked up mad dog knives and moran. i put it back into the fire at a lower temperature and notice the knife blacken. i waited nearly an hour for a blue or yellow or whatever color to sho but there wasn't. and it started to redden again. so i lit a blow torch, grasped the blade with tongs and put it edge-down on a shallow pan with a 1/4 inch film of water. the edge sizzled and i blow torched the spine and point while the edge was in water. i did this for nearly an hour. i noticed some slight bluing near the spine.
and so, i had a lop-sided deep hollow-ground blade 10 inches long with what appears to be a temper line along the edge. i filed and ground it up for finishing. now, it almost looks genuine but i'm afraid it'll snap on the first torture test i put it into.
ok, back to reality for you guys...
thanks for reading...
