Smaller drop point hunter WIP

If I may offer some advice on making a file guide. TEMPER IT TEMPER IT TEMPER IT. Did I say that out loud? All joking aside, please temper it!!! The other day I made myself a guide out of W2, thinking I would leave it as quenched. .25" thick x .5" x 3.75" Drilled the holes for boths halves. Tapped the threads on the bottom half. Brought it up to 1500 and quenched in water. Did a file skate test and the file ran away with it's tang tucked between it's legs. Chased the threads again to make sure. Assembled file guide on knife blade to be ground. You need to torque down on those screws so the guide doesn't walk on you during work. I tightened the first bolt down...tightened the second bolt.....and.....snap. It cracked right into one of the threaded holes. If I would have done a quick temper at just 300F or so, I doubt I would have to make another file guide! I hope this helps you and others down the road. The only way I see getting away with not tempering it is if the two holes are close together, so there is less chance of bending the bar and it snapping, but then you're limited to certain blade height.
 
samuraistuart said:
If I may offer some advice on making a file guide. TEMPER IT TEMPER IT TEMPER IT. Did I say that out loud? All joking aside, please temper it!!! The other day I made myself a guide out of W2, thinking I would leave it as quenched. .25" thick x .5" x 3.75" Drilled the holes for boths halves. Tapped the threads on the bottom half. Brought it up to 1500 and quenched in water. Did a file skate test and the file ran away with it's tang tucked between it's legs. Chased the threads again to make sure. Assembled file guide on knife blade to be ground. You need to torque down on those screws so the guide doesn't walk on you during work. I tightened the first bolt down...tightened the second bolt.....and.....snap. It cracked right into one of the threaded holes. If I would have done a quick temper at just 300F or so, I doubt I would have to make another file guide! I hope this helps you and others down the road. The only way I see getting away with not tempering it is if the two holes are close together, so there is less chance of bending the bar and it snapping, but then you're limited to certain blade height.
Click to expand...

This makes perfect sense. So for 1095, 300 degrees would be a good amount of tempering and still retain enough hardness to work for what I want it to do. Thank you for the tip. Hopefully I'll get my file guides finished up tomorrow.
 
Here I'll show. My process of building a file guide, I hope. Using 1" x 3/16" x 4" 1095.

Here I am squaring my 1-2-3 block to my flat platen to try to true everything up.



Here I'm starting to square the edges on both pieces. I had already worked over the flats with 80 grit paper on my granite slab.



Here I'm trying to clamp up my two pieces with one side even to each other so I can true up opposite side. Pics explain better than I can.



Two pieces as close to the same size as I can make them, with my tools and know how.




Marking for locations for 1/4-20 bolts


Drilling,



Tapping holes,


I didn't get a chance to harden them. Hopefully this week. Also worked on another knife,

Thanks for looking.
 
I have been held up on this project waiting to harden my file guide. I purchased this oven from a knifemaker who has become a friend and has helped me out quite a bit.



Here is the guides, just coming out of the oven and quench.


Here is a pic of my knife making area,



Now I just need to temper them and get my guard finished up. Look forward to playing and figuring out my oven.
 
I appreciate the effort you are going to with the pictures and explanation, I am learning and taking notes.
 
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