new member, first post, first knife

N

nmbarta

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
May 18, 2018
Messages
211
This is the first knife that I'm calling finished.
I ruined a few before this one.
I ground 6 blades before this one, some were decent, some were really bad.

It's 52100 that I forged and heat treated myself so it's probably not a very good blade unless I got lucky.
1. I brought it a couple shades past non-magnetic for 10 mins then air cooled. ( not welding temps by any means, but pretty bright)
2. I brought it just past magnetic for 10 mins then air cooled.
3. I brought to just under magnetic for 10 mins then air cooled.
4. I brought just past magnetic, and quenched in 130 degree canola oil.
It was very hard at this point, a file won't cut it at all.
Then I finish ground the blade and tempered it twice for two hours at 400.
It gets extremely sharp, but I don't know how tough it is.
I'm pretty happy with the design.
I just wanted a good all around hunting/skinning knife.

I ordered some 1084 so I can ht myself and at least know that I have a working knife.

Hopefully the pictures show up.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks.first knife 2 jpeg.jpg
 
I'm not sure how this site works, but I didn't mean for the yellow block under my name to say that I'm a knife maker/craftsman/service provider.
I bought a membership to this site after looking at quite a few. I decided that I liked this one the best, I wanted to support the site by buying a membership. I don't provide any services at all, I'll look into changing that.
Thanks for looking!
 
Thanks for the kind words.
I'm hoping to spend more time with this.
I've been interested in knives and knife making for most of my life and was fortunate enough to get to work with a very well known knife maker in high school and retained some of that knowledge from nearly two decades ago!
I never got to making the knives, but learned a lot about making damascus and mosaic damascus.
I've still got two billets that I made with him, I've been hanging onto them for almost twenty years. I'm a bit nervous to start grinding on them!!
I'll post a pic when I decide to.
 
Keep up the good work! Very clean, especially for a first knife! Stock removal? What are you using to grind?

About the membership, if you make knives, it is perfectly fine.
 
The piece of 52100 I had was 1/4" so I forged it down to a strong 1/8 then stock removal from there.
I'm just using a grizzly grinder. It works pretty good I guess, but hate how close the motor is for the left grind.

I cut a bunch of left over vinyl flooring with it and it's still shaving sharp, I going to assume that it is probably still too hard to keep and edge the way it does, it might break if drop it. I'll just keep it in the shop and use it for skinning, it'll be fine for that, but I wouldn't trust it in the field.

I just got my 1084 yesterday, so I'm going to build a knife out of that and do my testing with this steel.
I don't feel like I can consistently repeat what I did to the 52100 and from what I understand 50-100 degrees can make a huge difference on the quality of the blade with 52100. Seems like a waste of time without the right tools. I think I can get the HT pretty good using a forge and my kitchen oven with 1084.

I'd like to get the HT good enough to make some knives that are at least worth giving as gifts.
 
Perhaps more importantly, because you probably did achieve acceptable results with your 52100 HT (not ideal, but likely still good), the 1084 actually FORGES. 52100 is miserable stuff to work with. It has a narrow range of forging temperatures and barely moves under the hammer. Without a press or power hammer, 52100 is really just a pain to work with. I think you will find that the 1084 moves quite nicely under the hammer.

I often use a spring fullering tool to establish the shoulder between the tang and blade. I once did this on a simple steel (1084 or similar) and 52100 blade at the same time (I try to forge 2+ knives at a time so as not to waste time and propane). It took one heat to fuller and finish the tang preform. It took multiple heats to fuller the 52100, to say nothing of establishing the tang. As I remember the 52100 blank was a touch larger, but nowhere near enough to account for the difference.

52100 at 2100F moves like simple steels do at 1600F.
 
That makes sense. I'm liking the 1084 much better, it's way easier to forge. Seems like it grinds easier as well.
I've done quite a bit of testing with my HT process and I'm really happy with how tough these blades are using such a simple HT. Edge retention is also really good.
 
Top right and the bottom one are 52100, the skinner at top has little cracks in the spine, the quench didn't go too well I guess. I couldn't see them until I polished it up a bit. The rest are 1084. The big one at the top left is just about ruined now, I've been doing quite a bit of testing with it. I need some better tools for shaping the smaller areas that my grinder won't get into. I also regret the lanyard holes, they don't look right. Belt progression seems to be an issue for me as well, but it's getting better. Other than those problems, they seem to be turning out okay. Criticism is always welcome. knife handle 2.jpg
 
I am guessing that the cracks in te spine of the 52100 knife are not from the quench (though I wouldn't use warm canola for 52100, probably a bit too fast cooling speed, 52100 will harden just fine in a medium speed oil). I ma guessing you let it drop below 1700 while forging. 52100 will get microfractures from forging cold. Obviously, it is never great to forge in the low temps, but something like 1084 will tolerate straightening in the red heats where 52100 will fracture if you try to really do anything, forging or straightening below 1700 (you can get away with a bit of final straightening in the lower heats in thin sections).

Cracking in the spine is often due to bending/forging in the lower heats as the spine, being comparatively thick, is more sensitive to bending. It is kind of funny, but the quench is much more likely to damage the edge than the spine because of the much more rapid cooling rate in the thinner cross sections. Forging cold is harder on areas with thick cross sections because the larger mass of steel magnifies the effects of deformation.

Sometimes those racks are quite shallow and grind out easily (because the exterior of the steel is colder than the interior, but also put under a higher degree of strain, it is more prone to these microfractures). No guarantees, but you may be able to grind them out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top