Progress: My first blade

JC in SC

JC in SC

Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
1,050
Recently, I've had a few ideas for knives that I'd like to make. You might have seen some of the sketches or pictures floating around on the various forums here (primarily on the W&SS).

My first concept was a fairly large chopper, which I showed to Andy. Being the cool guy that he is, Andy recommended that I start out with a smaller, straight blade (a sketch of which is also shown in the link above). We conversed quite a bit between emails and PMs. In all, Andy has been an invaluable resource. He has coached me on technique, the shape of the blade (note the gentle curves reminiscent of Andy's style) and sources for handle materials, etc. He even hooked me up with a piece of O1 and a small section of his trademark bullseye lanyard tube:thumbup: He also offered his forum as a place to show my progress. Thanks for all your help Andy. Here is what I have so far. I started with a 5/32" piece of O1.

Raw steel marked with the outline of the blade. The blade is 3.5" and the handle is 4". Max blade height is 1.25"

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The basic shape ground out. Note that I left a little more material at the butt than the original sketch/layout called for, but it feels great in the hand.

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Here is a shot with the blade in my hand for some size reference.

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Altogether, I'm pleased with my progress so far, though limited. Right now, I'm trying to decide what type of edge to put on it. Any suggestions for the beginner here? I'm thinking a flat or scandi grind would be the easiest, since the grind is a constant angle. Convex seems more difficult; however, I could also see how it could be more forgiving as well. Any thoughts or suggestions for how I should proceed from here? Whatever I decide, I'm planning to rough the grind in before heat treat and finish from there. As of right now, the handle is planned to be green micarta with a red liner.
 
Andy is indeed the man. He has helped me out a TON.

In my personal experience, I found flat grinds were the easiest to start with. Convex grinds are awesome, but I was having a hard time keeping the grind perfectly even on both sides of the blade. I'm sure that for each individual they have their own strong points and talents that make certain grinds easier to start out with. For me, that convex grind just wasn't it. I've gotten better at it, but I got good at doing flat grinds REALLY fast.It was just much easier for me to keep up with what I was doing and keep them even and clean.

Edit: I will suggest NOT doing a scandi grind. Something with a small secondary bevel is easy. A real deal scandi grind is hard to pull off without burning the edge of the steel when you're doing your final grinding. Just my opinion.
 
Another vote for Andy as Man of the Year......he has inspired me to get over the hump of making kit knives to grinding my own....and that be a big fat WIP.

Myself, I favor the looks of a full convex grind so I'm determined to learn to do that one....but I've figured out that there is still some flat grinding to do along that route.
I have a couple blades off being HT'd so I'm very anxious to get them back and continue this journey.
 
Looks good so far.

What you did with the layout fluid is interesting, but it robbed you of having a scribed line which is very valuable when following a pattern. As you grind to shape, the scribed line disappears, letting you know you are exactly where you need to be. Thats how I can repeat my designs so easily.
 
Looks good so far.

What you did with the layout fluid is interesting, but it robbed you of having a scribed line which is very valuable when following a pattern. As you grind to shape, the scribed line disappears, letting you know you are exactly where you need to be. Thats how I can repeat my designs so easily.
 
Fiddleback said:
Looks good so far.

What you did with the layout fluid is interesting, but it robbed you of having a scribed line which is very valuable when following a pattern. As you grind to shape, the scribed line disappears, letting you know you are exactly where you need to be. Thats how I can repeat my designs so easily.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I sprayed the outline of the pattern rather than tracing the pattern at the suggestion of a colleague at work. It didn't work out as well as I had planned. If you look closely, you can see the edge is very crisp at the middle of the blade (where the pattern was held down), but somewhat fuzzy at the ends (where it wasn't held down). I'm only planning to make one of these, so repeatability isn't really an issue for me at this point, but in the future, I think I'll use the method you've suggested.
 
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