Midwest knife supply hollow handle WIP

B

Brad Lilly

Moderator and Awards Boss
I thought I should do a WIP on the blade for my new handle that I won. Most guys would be using a high grade stainless steel but I can’t forge stainless :). I was thinking I should make something along the lines of a Randall look alike (Not sure about the saw back yet) Lacking any stainless that would do the job I grabbed some 5160. The slot in the handle tube is 3/16” x 5/8” which allows for some serious meat in the blade.
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Guys who can forge the profile of a blade from square stock are good, for the rest of us I like a nice round tip so I don’t have to deal with fish lips.
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I forge the profile first trying to get the right shape for the tip
Just a cool forge shot
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My camera crapped out and I lost a bunch of forging shots. The only one I have is the perform of the tip. After forging the tip to shape I draw the blade out for my distal taper. Then curve my perform and work in my bevels.
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This is a good point to talk about grain size, smaller grain the better. I forge on the cold side trying to keep grain growth to a minimum. I try never to have my steel “bright orange” only red. The hotter the steel the easyer it moves but you need to deal with a large grain size later. Large grain can be fixed by quenching and annealing the blade later. I think it is better to keep the grain small and not worry about it.
This picture is of the same piece of steel the large grain came from being too hot. After quenching and annealing three times you can clearly see the difference.
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Once I have the blade forged where I like I normalize three times then anneal the blade in vermiculite. The next day I knock all the forge scale off with a mini grinder. I like to rough in my tapers and distal taper with the mini grinder (Cheep son of a gun). Here is the blade cleaned up with a 60 grit belt. Ready to clean up the flats and grind the edge
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More coming later
 
I’m slow, working for a living gets in the way of knife making. I cleaned up the bevels and got the blade a little closer. I did not leave enough tang to hold on to properly so my bevels suffered for it. I plan on cleaning things up once I get the blade heat treated.
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A grinding shot just for fun.
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I can’t remember where I saw someone do this but it was a great idea for making a round post from square stock. So thanks to who ever posted it. First get your post square, in my case ¼” x ¼”.
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Then start filing 45 degree angles on the corners. Once you have a good looking octagon with all the flats even start rounding the corners and presto you have a nice round post.
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I chose to thread my post ¼” national fine.
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I plan on using a nut and washer to draw the tang into the handle. There is a hole where a pin could be run through the handle to lock the blade in place but you would need to have a perfect fit to insure the blade did not develop any play. Since I’m far from perfect I will go with the over build. I lost some thread on the sides of the tang to fit the handle slot (I’m not worried)
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I have lots of extra tang for a guard.
Here is where the knife is at tonight.
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I hope to have enough time to heat treat the blade Saturday
 
Excellent fastening set up. That will be insanely strong...
 
I did get a chance to get out to the shop today for a while. My way of heat treating 5160 is a triple edge quench in 120 degree veterinarian grade mineral oil. First I use the torch to normalize my blade three times while my oil is coming up to temperature. I like to keep the shop dark when doing heat treating I can see the colors better.
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My super high tech quench tank it looks like an old roast pan but trust me it is a quench tank:). I set the limiter plate to give me between a third to half the blade in the oil. Once the oil is warm I start heating the knife at the racasso and working the heat towards the tip. Just as soon as I’m satisfied I have the right temperature I quench the blade tip first then rock the rest of the blade into the oil. I just rock the blade back and fourth until it stops smoking. Then I look at the blade for warp and quickly submerge the whole blade in the oil. I wait about 5 minutes then repeat the whole procedure again two more times. I always keep an eye on the oil temperature to make sure it is not getting too hot. Here is my knife out of the oil for the last time. The scale blown off is a good sign.
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After the blade is hardened I temper it back at 350 degrees for two hour cycles three times. I like to clean the knife up to 400 grit after tempering and give it a quick etch in ferric chloride so I can get a good idea how much of my knife is hard. I have found etching will magnify my mistakes.
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I think the heat treat went well; the hardened portion of the blade is just under half the cross section. Now I need to make a guard and finish sanding.



Strange but I feel like watching Rambo tonight.
 
I got it finished up this afternoon. I should have bought the guard that goes with the handle but I did not think about it. I made the guard out of brass, milling the slot
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Checking the fit
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I did put two holes in the guard so I can tie a lanyard to it.
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This was a lot of fun to build. No need to worry about ruining a nice block of hardwood. I think this one is going to be my new work knife. I have a feeling this will not be the last handle I get from Midwest knife supply.
Thanks for looking
Brad
 
Excellent Brad!

Thanks for posting that.
I need to make one of those myself. I can't wait to make it and beat the bejeebers out of it.
I haven't sourced the little compasses that go on the inside back cap but will soon...
 
Wow! Nice work. I just got a handle ordered. I was very happy to see they started selling them. My old source dried up and I was making them myself. That took way too much time. I use the same threaded tang system you do. Once it is complete I pour in about a 1/2" of slow cure epoxy to make the whole thing tie in bullet proof. Nice to see you went with a brass guard. Classy.
 
so glad I saw this, I ordered a Handel the other day and was just gonna figure out how to attach it when it got here, now I don't have yo use my brain! Thanks! Knife looks awesome!
 
Great job Brad.
That is a great all around work knife plus you can keep snacks in the handle:happy:

Thanks for the WIP.
 
I,ve always worried about the strength of the hollow handled construction but not with this set up. It looks to be clamped and really solid. Thanks for the tutorial Brad.
 
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