Showtime for newbie!

[Pat B]

I'm new to the site and to knife making.
A few weeks ago my friend Jonathan Creason gave me an annealed lawn edger blade and a few tips to get me started. I drew out 2 rough shapes and cut them out with a cold chisel. I then shaped and dressed the blanks with files. After shaping and finishing the blades I tempered them in our oven ar 425deg for 2 hours. I already had the oven heated to cook pizza for supper. :3:
Here are a few pics of the 2 knives I made...

...knife #1...

 

[Pat B]

..and here is knife #2 before handle scales...

...finished...

...and with her twin...

 

[Jeff Conti]

I remember making my first knife. It took me a year... I was 16 when I started and 17 when I finished. Looks like you did it alot faster. Hope it was FUN!. Time and tenacity is all that's required. Hope the pizza was good too. As a warning, I baked my first kydex in the oven and my wife (always patient and kind LOL) said no more. She bought me a toaster oven yesterday. Just a thought.

 

[Bill T]

I hear how you tempered them , but how did you harden them ? Annealed - Shaped - Hardened - Tempered . Did I miss something ?

 

[J S Machine]

great start man

 

[Pat B]

Bill T this is what I'm trying to learn. I want to build a small forge so I can anneal, harden and temper steel. This will help me understand how all of this works. I've been building wood bows for 25 years and can tell you all about them but I have just started with steel and my learning curve is wide!
Jeff, my wife is an artist and all our household appliances are just tools to both of us!
Thanks JS. we all have to start somewhere. I feel good about both of these knives. I have learned from both and by the time I hit #100 I should about have it figured out! d;^)

 

[cappaletti]

excellent beginning !

 

[zbq]

Great start Pat!

I think what Bill is asking is....did you harden them?....meaning heating them up in a forge or with a torch till they are non-magnetic (somewhere close to a dull orange color) and then quenching them in some sort of fluid.....that part was missing from the description of your process in your original post..

 

[BruceM]

Hey great job on the first two knives there. You'll find a ton of good info here to help hone your knife making skills and plenty of help if you need it. The new makers forum here is a great resource. Glad to have you here.
Bruce

 

[Pat B]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the welcome and looking forward to picking your brains for info.
zbq, All I did after working the blade was to heat it in our over at 450deg(F) for 2 hours. I'm wanting to build a small forge so I can anneal and temper but as of now all the knife making tools I have are shown in the pics. I do have a 6"x48" bench top belt sander with a 10" disk and a good grinder motor but only with a wire brush. I need to get a good stone for it.

 

[Bill T]

Well then Pat, you really don't have a knife there. Steel MUST be hardened before tempering in an oven. That 2 hours in the oven did nothing. New makers subforum has plenty of info.

 

[maxcutter03]

Looks like my first efforts. I didn't stop and now I do pretty good.