knifemaking for dummies
Last Saturday was my 3rd session of Art 175, the Pima Community College class on knife making and blacksmithing.
Please, spare the jokes about how much of a weakling I was 10 years ago when you all last saw me... I've got some upper body strength now and can swing a sledgehammer pretty damn good.
Some of you have expressed interest in just what exactly I am able to make so far, and I'm actually kinda proud of it.
Class #1 was typical introduction stuff, we got to make some pitiful bent rods on the forges, it was a good introduction on how NOT to use a 2000 degree forge and associated anvil.
Class #2 was half lecture on metallurgy, and half spent at the junkyard scrounging for good steel to use for knife making. I remembered from previous readings that railroad spikes have high enough carbon to make decent knives, and are reasonably cheap and almost in knife-shape already. Clearly, they are also in penis shape. I found a dozen of these plus a few ball berings, and bought the lot for $0.26 a pound.
It's a bit tough holding onto a piece of metal that's close to 2000 degrees F, so I had the instructor help me weld a piece of rebar onto it about 4' long. Makes for a good handle, and in a pinch the knife becomes a spear!
So I took one of the spikes and heated it up, pounded on it for a few hours to get it into basically the right shape, then laid into it with the belt grinder to take all the black oxidization off it...
Needness to say I still need to heat it up some more and bend it to true, it's actually twisted a bit at the "sharp" edge (which will be sharp some day). Nothing a few minutes at 1700 degrees and a pair of pliers won't fix...
Next week, I plan to fix the basic shape, true it up, and remove a good bit of the blade front because it's too thin.
Then I will heat it up again to the right temperature to form a good carbon/steel shell, quench it in transmission fluid, then put it in my home oven for a few hours at 400F to temper the steel. At this point I should be able to put an edge on it, and hopefully I won't shatter it in the process.
Then, I need to decide what the hell to do for a handle. I will probably wrap it in 550 cord or something equally Rambo.
Please, spare the jokes about how much of a weakling I was 10 years ago when you all last saw me... I've got some upper body strength now and can swing a sledgehammer pretty damn good.
Some of you have expressed interest in just what exactly I am able to make so far, and I'm actually kinda proud of it.
Class #1 was typical introduction stuff, we got to make some pitiful bent rods on the forges, it was a good introduction on how NOT to use a 2000 degree forge and associated anvil.
Class #2 was half lecture on metallurgy, and half spent at the junkyard scrounging for good steel to use for knife making. I remembered from previous readings that railroad spikes have high enough carbon to make decent knives, and are reasonably cheap and almost in knife-shape already. Clearly, they are also in penis shape. I found a dozen of these plus a few ball berings, and bought the lot for $0.26 a pound.
It's a bit tough holding onto a piece of metal that's close to 2000 degrees F, so I had the instructor help me weld a piece of rebar onto it about 4' long. Makes for a good handle, and in a pinch the knife becomes a spear!
So I took one of the spikes and heated it up, pounded on it for a few hours to get it into basically the right shape, then laid into it with the belt grinder to take all the black oxidization off it...
Needness to say I still need to heat it up some more and bend it to true, it's actually twisted a bit at the "sharp" edge (which will be sharp some day). Nothing a few minutes at 1700 degrees and a pair of pliers won't fix...
Next week, I plan to fix the basic shape, true it up, and remove a good bit of the blade front because it's too thin.
Then I will heat it up again to the right temperature to form a good carbon/steel shell, quench it in transmission fluid, then put it in my home oven for a few hours at 400F to temper the steel. At this point I should be able to put an edge on it, and hopefully I won't shatter it in the process.
Then, I need to decide what the hell to do for a handle. I will probably wrap it in 550 cord or something equally Rambo.