Some new knives

D

Doug Lester

Well-Known Member
IMG_0107.jpg
The top two knives are basically the same, both sort of pattern after Nesmuc knives from 9260, differentially hardened with a clay coat and tempered at 400* for 3 two hour cycles. The OAL's are approx 10" with 6" blades 1 1/2" wide and 3/16" thick at the handle with a distal taper. The handles are both of real lignum vitae. The top knive have scales that are pretty flat and held on with large nickel silver cutler's rivets. The middle knife's scales have a nice palm swell and they're held one with brass rivets.

The bottom knife was forged from 3/4" round 52100 rod and was soaked at just above non-magnetic for 5 minutes and then austempered at 430* for 4 hours. The OAL is about 7' with a 3" blade 15/16" wide and 1/8" thick without a taper. The scales are black linen micarta with small nickel silver cutler's rivets.

The top an bottom knifes are going into the knife block in my kitchen and I'll be taking the middle one with me to a knife show in November. Comments and suggestions are weldome.

Doug
 
They look a bit rough, but I suspect they will work quite well...

If it was me, I'd hand-rub the blades to give them a nicer finish, focus on keeping the points pointy, and maybe add some contour to the handle profiles... not much, just enough to get away from the 'straight handle rounded butt' look. I know you have studied heat-treatment and steel in depth, now you need to focus on perfection of shape and finish with the same intensity.
 
Thanks for the reply. One of the problem is, I think, is using cutler's rivets. Once they are in place they limit the shaping of the handle for fear of grinding the heads off. Some of the problem is with the photography. The middle on actually has quite a palm swell but it hardly shows. However, I do think the more coffin shaped handles that I have made in the past looked a little better. I might also want to look at hand tools to shape the handle with and see if they work for me better. I also might try something other than cutler's rivets if I want a tighter attachment of the scales

I may have to give the hand rubbing a try. Even with the fine Scotch-Brite belt the scratch pattern does look a bit course. I think that on the knife that I'm rough grinding now that I might take it out to 400 grit on the grinder and then go to hand sanding and then to a hand pad to give a satin finish, though come to think of it if I protect the handle I could go back and try that with the middle knife. I also wonder if the belt has worn. I just looked at a knife that I made last year that I finished with that belt and the satin finish looks finer.

Doug
 
IMG_0109.jpgIMG_0112.jpg

Here are a couple of new shots of the middle knife. I think the the shape and texture of the handle came out a little better on these.

Doug
 
I hear you Doug. Photography is a HUGE part of knifemaking. :) Nice wood on those. You might wat to try corby bolts for the handles. It's possible to grind away too much of those as well, but they have way more wiggle room than cutlers rivets. As for the blade finish, someone told me that for a satin finish, you should go 400 grit past where you want to end up - and then finish. ie; for a 600g satin finish, go to at least 1000g and then do the 600g final.

Rob!
 
I was lucky on finding a stick of lignum vitae at a wood seller that had a bad check down the middle. Not good for wood turning but easy to cut around for knife handles. It was also fully dry. I've pretty much decided to go with corbys where I want a little more mechanical attachment than a straight pin provides and save the cutler's rivets for when I want a plain slab handle and then work the profiling with either hand tools or my Dremmel. Thanks for the hind on doing a satin finish. I think that I'm going to take the blades down to about 400 grit and then go to hand sanding. I'll see what finishing up with a hand pad will do. I don't know what happened with the Scotch-Brite belt but knives that I did last year with it had a much finer scratch pattern.

Doug
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top