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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 03-10-2015, 08:01 PM
AllanBeasley AllanBeasley is offline
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MUCH smaller trailing point hunter. (Done right)

I made this over the last couple of days trying to get my brain wrapped around working with smaller dimensions on a blade. This was the shape I intended to make when I set out, I spent two afternoons on the grind, and I brought the bevel almost all the way to the top of the knife. The pics don't show it but the breaks at the bevel are almost as clean as I want them, WAY better than previous attempts. I dod about half of the grind to get the bevel as far as I could before stopping to heat treat. I ran it through the forge until JUST at non-ferrous and quenched in the oil that was still warm from the beast I quenched yesterday. I baked it at 400 for an hour and a half and got a NICE golden color on it. Went and did the second half of the grind afterwards and worked the bevel farther up. I Sharpened it with my own preferred edge which is to try to mimic the profile of a traditional katana as much as possible on that small scale. It's scary sharp, I couldn't do too much to clean the tool marks off the steel within reason so I left it as is. The scales are stabilized dogwood with antique oil and a run through the buffing wheels. I also took a LOT more time than usual sanding these scales after the hours that went into the blade. I feel like it's a home run for where my skills are at right now and I'm actually quite proud of the end result. It was also an enjoyable exercise in patience doing this grind. Felt good.




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  #2  
Old 03-10-2015, 08:53 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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You should be proud of it, that does show good progress. You were right not to worry too much about getting any finer finish than that right now, making a good functional blade comes first.

That design is very close to a Sharpfinger, nothing wrong with that. I think you put your grind lines in the right place too. The next thing you want to work on is making the grind lines sharper. That takes practice but it is one of the marks of professional grade workmanship. I've attached an example from one of the KITHs we did last year. The purpose of that particular KITH was to get some practice doing sharp grind lines. The blade in the picture is small and flat ground just like yours and the grind lines are both straight and sharp. That's your next goal.

The edge you're using appears to be a convex edge. Those are sometimes used on large choppers or other blades that may have to survive some hard pounding on the edge. On your knife, the bevels should be ground down so that the unsharpened edge is about as thick as a dime. Then, the secondary bevel (the little grind you get by sharpening the knife the first time) should be V shaped and set at about 20 degrees. Do that and you'll start to adjust your concept of what sharp is.

The handle material is attractive and the handle looks well constructed. On the next one though I would like to see a little more shape. Nothing fancy but something other than a straight stick. Look at some similar sized commercial knives for some general ideas ....


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Last edited by Ray Rogers; 12-19-2015 at 12:50 PM.
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  #3  
Old 03-10-2015, 09:06 PM
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Hunter10139 Hunter10139 is offline
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Well man that is a good step up from what you have been doing. That is definitely an improvement bringing your bevels up like that. You'll notice this when cutting vs. those ax grinds you had before.

Now, when you talk about your heat treatment you keep saying in your posts you're bringing it to "non-ferrous". Just so you know, a non ferrous metal is a metal that doesn't contain iron such as aluminum, copper, etc. I believe you mean non-magnetic. If this is the case, you may not be heating it quite enough. A good way to tell is to break your knife and look at the grain. If your like me and that's too painful with one you're so proud of, heat treat a sample as closely as you can to how you heat treated your knife and break it.

Good step up man. Keep up the enthusiasm, keep practicing, keep trying to improve with every knife and you'll be surprised at how much improvement you'll see knife to knife.


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  #4  
Old 03-10-2015, 09:12 PM
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Hunter10139 Hunter10139 is offline
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Also, something that might help you with getting an idea of making an attractive design is to check out some of the designs dan comeau has posted on his blog. He's welcomed all newbs to use the designs and they're very helpful. They helped me to focus on improving my grinding and polishing without becoming frustrated with my design because I didn't like it. You can check out his blog at:

http://dcknives.blogspot.com/


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  #5  
Old 03-10-2015, 09:16 PM
AllanBeasley AllanBeasley is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hunter10139 View Post
Well man that is a good step up from what you have been doing. That is definitely an improvement bringing your bevels up like that. You'll notice this when cutting vs. those ax grinds you had before.

Now, when you talk about your heat treatment you keep saying in your posts you're bringing it to "non-ferrous". Just so you know, a non ferrous metal is a metal that doesn't contain iron such as aluminum, copper, etc. I believe you mean non-magnetic. If this is the case, you may not be heating it quite enough. A good way to tell is to break your knife and look at the grain. If your like me and that's too painful with one you're so proud of, heat treat a sample as closely as you can to how you heat treated your knife and break it.

Good step up man. Keep up the enthusiasm, keep practicing, keep trying to improve with every knife and you'll be surprised at how much improvement you'll see knife to knife.
I guess it could be regional(?) but non-ferrous has meant the same as non-magnetic for everyone I've ever known. But yes, non-magnetic. I have some broken material from the last run that went south, I'm getting a really light gray that's a really even color. no distinct dark blotches or anything. I'm getting the heat treatment dialed in to as repeatable as possible. It's getting easier and easier to get it, I will need to break some steel soon and see if anything has changed. I will say this process resulted in a blade tip that could gouge out concrete without being hurt from a HARD throw point first when I got mad at a blade. I DO know that heating it any more than I do now results in blisters starting to show on the metal which I assume is a bad thing. They grind off but still, seems like a bad thing.


PS. Added D. Comeau's site to my bookmarks.
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  #6  
Old 03-10-2015, 09:23 PM
AllanBeasley AllanBeasley is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Rogers View Post
You should be proud of it, that does show good progress. You were right not to worry too much about getting any finer finish than that right now, making a good functional blade comes first.

That design is very close to a Sharpfinger, nothing wrong with that. I think you put your grind lines in the right place too. The next thing you want to work on is making the grind lines sharper. That takes practice but it is one of the marks of professional grade workmanship. I've attached an example from one of the KITHs we did last year. The purpose of that particular KITH was to get some practice doing sharp grind lines. The blade in the picture is small and flat ground just like yours and the grind lines are both straight and sharp. That's your next goal.

The edge you're using appears to be a convex edge. Those are sometimes used on large choppers or other blades that may have to survive some hard pounding on the edge. On your knife, the bevels should be ground down so that the unsharpened edge is about as thick as a dime. Then, the secondary bevel (the little grind you get by sharpening the knife the first time) should be V shaped and set at about 20 degrees. Do that and you'll start to adjust your concept of what sharp is.

The handle material is attractive and the handle looks well constructed. On the next one though I would like to see a little more shape. Nothing fancy but something other than a straight stick. Look at some similar sized commercial knives for some general ideas ....
This handle was originally meant to have a swell at the end for both added grip and comfort but I tried to hot-punch a crossguard. Fitting it meant taking the swell out. As you may have noticed, there's no crossguard on this knife. That piece of steel is in the woods behind the house. I AM working for that sharp CLEAN grind line, and I was ON IT up until the last few minutes of grinding. They DO look a bit cleaner than the pictures can really show but they aren't what they could have been. I have a weak side where the grind just isn't as good yet but it was a lot better on this run.

On the sharpening, are you saying I need a steeper angle? I assume that's the case, and I can do that easily, I just fell back on what I know. That shape is used to both cut and push material out of its way in the process, it's a little bit rounded out from sharpening on the slack part of the Work Sharp, and I can make adjustments, that was going to be a question for people who know more than I do. I actually asked myself that right before sharpening, and I got the other part right. The unsharpened edge was about the thickness of a dime when I figured it was time to add the edge. I was afraid I was doing it wrong for this application. I think it's obvious that most of my experience with blades had been making/repairing big choppers and they all needed that hatchet edge.
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  #7  
Old 03-10-2015, 09:39 PM
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Hunter10139 Hunter10139 is offline
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Well, no it's not a regional thing, the term "ferrous" implies that there is iron in the metal. For it to be non-ferrous it would not have iron in it. If people you know use the term non-ferrous to mean non-magnetic they must have misheard someone or their just mistaken.

Is your grain closer to the top or bottom sample? PS not my samples just googled to get a reference sample. The top is about what you want.
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File Type: jpg Grain comparison.jpg (106.3 KB, 22 views)


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  #8  
Old 03-10-2015, 10:01 PM
AllanBeasley AllanBeasley is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hunter10139 View Post
Well, no it's not a regional thing, the term "ferrous" implies that there is iron in the metal. For it to be non-ferrous it would not have iron in it. If people you know use the term non-ferrous to mean non-magnetic they must have misheard someone or their just mistaken.

Is your grain closer to the top or bottom sample? PS not my samples just googled to get a reference sample. The top is about what you want.
Top sample. The gray is lighter and there aren't any dark spots to be found.
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