My attempt at a small bushcraft blade

[marthinus]

Well. Here is my attempt. I picked up some 12c27 a while back, been fiddling with it for some time. I dont have the right tools so I used a steel file on a black cut out. I later used a drill press with a round polishing attachment (a very old and mucky one) that I glued on some cardboard and on that some 80 grit paper. I then just went ahead and made some attempts at a scandi grind. Here are some pics.

In short having no means of proper heat treat the steel was to soft. It kept on folding.

Well....

Still no proper means of heat treat I decided to give it a shot. 3 HT processes. 1 was heat treat (dont know to what degrees) quench in oil. Second HT (dont know degrees) quench in oil. The last HT and cool down. Well. Here is that result.

My work is bad I know but it has been fun! Here are some thoughts.

The edge is not as soft. Previously as I hit knots in the wood like shown above the blade started folding BADLY!!!!! Now it is not an issue. The knife will not hold an edge as well as 1095 or pretty much anything with higher carbon, but it is ok for playing around with and that is why I made it. All and all it cost me about $20 to get it to the point it is now. I dont know what I will do with the handle yet but that is not an issue now.

I really like this size of this knife. I can use it as a backup knife to a decent fixed blade where I dont want to screw up the edge or something while practicing fire starting or batoning. I think this will be ideal to fit in my small ammo bag I use to carry my fire starting kit, flashlight and what else in. The edge is still not where I want it and whitling is still a problem for me using this knife. Of course something like an ESEE RC3 will outperform this by far.

Well. Let me know what you think.

 

[J. Doyle]

The knife still won't hold an edge at all. It is not even close to properly hardened. Actually, it's not even close to hardened, properly aside.

12c27 is an air hardening steel, meaning it won't harden by heating it and quenching it in oil. It needs to be heated to somewhere around 1950-2150 degrees F. Then held for about 30 minutes and quenched in still air or between two steel plates.

Even if it was an oil hardening steel that did harden with your process, by heating it up a third time then just letting it cool down, you would have undone any hardening that you achieved in the first place. That is why it won't hold an edge.

But good for you for not being afraid to try it yourself. The profile of the knife looks like a good usable design. Maybe you could make the same thing with an oil hardening steel and have better results. Try again and let us know how you do.

 

[marthinus]

Thanks for the advice j. Doyle. Will keep that in mind and when I have some finances to spend will look into a steel that can be used with oil. If I have the funds I would rather send it to someone that knows HT well. That should be the best option.

 

[marthinus]

Thanks for all the advice! I got some nice resin and am going to start making a micarta handle for the knife. Nothing fancy, simple construction just bolted on that I can remove or store matches in. I have been beating the crap out of the knife and I dont know what, but the steel is harder, not as hard but it does not disform at all as in the past when I hit knots in the wood. Still know there is major room for improvement!