couple knives i made

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Wulfshead
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Re: couple knives i made

Post by Wulfshead »

MJ,
I use a warco table grinder with a 180 grit belt to do the distal taper on my swords & knives.
I use a 6 inch fine Norton grinding wheel to cut the deep hollow grind to my blade bevels on knives, I usually either do flat diamond cross section or lozenge cross section to my Saxon/Nordic swords with full fullers where applicable.
I made both my vertical sword gas forge, knife forge and the burners I run with 1 mm jets, gets to critical soon enough :lol:
All my finishing is to bright done with finer and finer wet & dry until I use the polishing wheel to finish the blades with cannings compound.
Anyhow, here's the Anglo-Saxon Englisc society knife I forge for said society. I was asked to design and forge a knife which belongs to the society alone. After much thought I decided to work out how I saw the traditional Northern Germanic seax may have developed should it have mutated into a utility/tactical knife of today.
I use a full tang with the last 3/4 inch threaded with a M6 x 1 thread and a shaped pommel fitted so the burned on handle can be remade if it gets trashed at any time.
The wood is English grown Ash (I cut it myself and season it over time) and stained with Jacobian Oak before the numerous varnish coats.
Hope you approve and accept my apology for the less than perfect picture (I don't do photography :oops: )

Image

Wulfshead
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jonb
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Re: couple knives i made

Post by jonb »

MJ

Those are very impressive looking knives , excellent work !

If you produce more I'm sure they would sell like hot cakes , I would definitely be interested in purchasing one

regards

Jon
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Ginger Ranger
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Location: South Wales

Re: couple knives i made

Post by Ginger Ranger »

They look amazing better than most you see available online. Great job there ☺
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MJ.
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Location: Cornwall

Re: couple knives i made

Post by MJ. »

thanks guys, a few earlier ones that i made these have been sold though...

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Wulfshead
Posts: 354
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Re: couple knives i made

Post by Wulfshead »

MJ,
After following the trail to the company you pointed me in the direction of I can clearly state my wife will kill you should we ever meet :lol: :lol:
Very impressive bit of kit is that vertical belt grinder and I think I have a space where one would fit quite nicely.
I was looking to buy the all singing & dancing belt grinder that was made by a smith for smiths from America. That one was circa £3000 but had the ability to run quite fine belts. What's the fine belt size for the mini-grinder that you use ?
Love tool porn, love blade-smith tool porn the most.

Cheers,
Wulfshead
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For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack
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MJ.
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:37 am
Location: Cornwall

Re: couple knives i made

Post by MJ. »

Wulfshead wrote:MJ,
After following the trail to the company you pointed me in the direction of I can clearly state my wife will kill you should we ever meet :lol: :lol:
Very impressive bit of kit is that vertical belt grinder and I think I have a space where one would fit quite nicely.
I was looking to buy the all singing & dancing belt grinder that was made by a smith for smiths from America. That one was circa £3000 but had the ability to run quite fine belts. What's the fine belt size for the mini-grinder that you use ?
Love tool porn, love blade-smith tool porn the most.

Cheers,
Wulfshead
i would have loved to have bought the larger with variable speed (about £1200) but my situation demanded something more portable, at the moment its stored behind the sofa and taken out under the porch when needed. it seems to do the job ok, runs at 1400 rpm with a 1.5 hp motor.
the finest belts i've run on it so far are 120 grit, i have some 240 grit for the little clarke 1x30 which takes most of the slog out of the sanding
ForgeCorvus
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Re: couple knives i made

Post by ForgeCorvus »

MJ. wrote: Image
How the hell did you do that backstrap??

She is one of the prettiest modern style knives I've seen in a while
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Quercus-robur
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Re: couple knives i made

Post by Quercus-robur »

MJ. wrote:
Quercus-robur wrote:Very impressive. How and where did you learn to make them? Was it easy?

Qr
it started out of curiosity back in April this year, picked up bits of information on how to do it on line and soon discovered theres much more to it. i found out that its relatively easy to make "a knife" but very very hard to make a "good" knife... frustratingly hard if im honest with a chance of ruining it at prettu much every stage. its the hidden work that makes the blade... preparation of the steel, heat treat, the tempering... in short its very hard.
have only made around 30 knives so far and hoping to get better.
How long before you were making usable knives? Did you find the first few were for just learning techniques?

Could you please recommend a basic kit for someone wanting to do the same? How much coin will be needed for a budget set up?

Cheers

Qr
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MJ.
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:37 am
Location: Cornwall

Re: couple knives i made

Post by MJ. »

ForgeCorvus wrote:
MJ. wrote: Image
How the hell did you do that backstrap??

She is one of the prettiest modern style knives I've seen in a while
thank you, its done with a set of small files, you file it in at a 45 degree angle and add pigment to the epoxy when fitting the scales to fill the gaps. regretfully i dont own this one any more... its now residing in the highlands of Scotland with a deer stalker.
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MJ.
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:37 am
Location: Cornwall

Re: couple knives i made

Post by MJ. »

Quercus-robur wrote:
MJ. wrote:
Quercus-robur wrote:Very impressive. How and where did you learn to make them? Was it easy?

Qr
it started out of curiosity back in April this year, picked up bits of information on how to do it on line and soon discovered theres much more to it. i found out that its relatively easy to make "a knife" but very very hard to make a "good" knife... frustratingly hard if im honest with a chance of ruining it at prettu much every stage. its the hidden work that makes the blade... preparation of the steel, heat treat, the tempering... in short its very hard.
have only made around 30 knives so far and hoping to get better.
How long before you were making usable knives? Did you find the first few were for just learning techniques?

Could you please recommend a basic kit for someone wanting to do the same? How much coin will be needed for a budget set up?

Cheers

Qr
the first one i made turned out ok, didnt give it enough time tempering so ended up having remove the scales... lesson learned dont spend hours polishing or fit the scales till you know the heat treat and tempering are correct! with practice my bevel grinding got better and my blade/handle geometry has improve.
steel wise its best stick with simple known carbon steels which can be heat treated at home. tool wise, you need a forge, this can be as simple as a barbecue and a hair dryer using lump wood charcoal and a quenching solution.
an angle grinder is a big help for roughing out profiles, if you keep an eye on lidl and aldi specials they have a 1200w angle grinder for £19.99 sometimes and its excellent... have been using the same. for bevel grinding its possible to build a jig for a file or you could start with a cheap (£80) 1x30 belt grinder using 40 grit and 120 grit ceramic belts (around £2 each)... theres lots to learn so time researching is necessary
you can sometimes buy peices of o1 tool steel online or you can experiment with unknown carbon steel old/vintage (non case hardened) files... tempering is guess work so start low ie 175c for a couple hours test and go again if still too hard upping the temperature maybe 20c at a time
would take me all day to explain everything but hope this helps