Two For A Soldier's Sons

murphda2

murphda2

Super Moderator and KD Blade Show Boss
A couple of months ago I pulled out an old blade that has been laying around unfinished since some time in 2010 and finished it up. When I took it to the office, my boss asked me to make a couple of blades for his sons for Christmas. I agreed, if he would help so that he could tell his sons he made them for them. Over the next several weeks, we would work a few hours a night one or two nights a week. We had the blades all ready for handles when I decided on Last Sunday that I wasn't all that happy with their HT. So.........


I cut out, profiled, ground, HTd, and finish ground two new blades. On Monday evening I had to do a little more grinding on one blade while my boss begun hand sanding on the other (having a shop hand to do the hand sanding for you is AWESOME!). On Tuesday we got them glued up and Wednesday we began to grind handles. There was a little "hiccup", so we only finished one. I finished the other Thursday night along with the making the Kydex sheaths.


Blades: Full flat ground, differentially HT'd W2 w/convex edge and tapered tangs
Handles: Black canvas Micarta w/ss corbies.
Sheaths: 0.08 Kydex (I was out of 0.06) w/LRG TekLoks.

Their dad couldn't wait til Christmas to give the knives to the boys. I think he may have been more excited for them to open their presents than the boys were to receive them. I pray they get many years of hard use from these knives.

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Really like the looks of those "Babies". Do you mind sharing your differential HT method. Did you use clay or did you only partially quench the blade? Thanks,

Wallace
 
Wallace,

I used a thin coat of Satanite mixed with Rutlands furnace cement. The blades are ground from 5/32" stock and the blades are distally tapered.

I layed out the clay about 1/16" thick and allowed to dry.
I allowed my forge to come up to temp and then heated the tangs first.
Next, I turned the blades around and began heating the "blade".
As the blades were heating, I would only allow them to sit in the forge for about 30 seconds at a time before pulling out for about 2-3 seconds (I didn't want to heat the blades too quickly).
Once the blades were up to temp, I would pull them out for a 2-3 seconds about every 30 seconds or so to allow for a "soak time". I continued this for approximately eight minutes once the blades were up to temp.
I then went straight from the forge to my quench tank (which sits approximately two feet from my forge)
i quenched the blades tip down in Parks 50 and then agitated the blade (moving at a moderate pace in a slicing motion).
I then suspended the blades in my quench tank and allowed to cool to the touch.

Once cooled enough, I removed the blades and scraped the clay away with a piece of Micarta and test the edge with a new file. If the files skates across the edge, I then grind the blade clean before tempering.
 
Great, the happiness which we feel after giving happiness to others is something which we can only feel from inside.
 
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