DK Firearms

First steps - forging knives

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  • glenbo

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    OK, no photo today (sorry) but the surface grinding on the little knife is almost done. One side is smooth, and the second side has only a few stubborn hammer marks left. The touchmark and initial bevels will come next, along with drilling holes for the pins and the lanyard tube.
    Leave the hammer marks if you can. A little personality is a good thing. I'm not looking for factory perfect, I want something to show a craftsman has made. That might be a weird of saying whatever I was trying to say. Distressed is what I was looking for. Not new from a factory, but a real knife made by a real person.
     

    General Zod

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    Leave the hammer marks if you can. A little personality is a good thing. I'm not looking for factory perfect, I want something to show a craftsman has made. That might be a weird of saying whatever I was trying to say. Distressed is what I was looking for. Not new from a factory, but a real knife made by a real person.

    Well, I've already got one side smooth, so having the uneven surface on the other side will stick out like a sore thumb. A lot of the marks will also be taken out by the bevel for the edge - with this design and the small size, it would be very difficult to keep them. I can keep the bit of texture it'll pick up when I heat it before stamping the touchmark in it, and also when I heat it to normalize before the heat treat. Polishing the bevel after those steps should really draw attention to the textured steel around it. Fitting the handle scales will also involve sanding on the spine and around the grip, and I think that'll look really sharp with the less polished surfaces. This does take some of the pressure off as far as finish and opens up some cool possibilities.

    Don't worry, you'll be able to tell it's handmade. It's not going to be mirror-polished, and there are likely to be other little signs all over it that it was not factory made.

    If you go through with the larger knives you mentioned when we were discussing this one, it'll be easier and will look really cool to keep a lot of hammermarks in those. Planning it with hammermarks from the start will make it easier to keep that texture in play.
     

    General Zod

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    Surface grinding and sanding are done on side 2 now. I'm thinking I'll sand up to a 400 grit finish on both sides while I get the hang of my new bevel grinder...and then it'll be time for the next step. 20240121_170153.jpg
     

    glenbo

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    I had been wondering what you had been up to, or if you had forgotten me. The shape looks good. Imperfections be damned, it's a knife and made to use.
     

    General Zod

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    I had been wondering what you had been up to, or if you had forgotten me. The shape looks good. Imperfections be damned, it's a knife and made to use.

    Yeah, the cold snap kind of derailed things - it got nippy out there, and hand sanding sucks when you can't feel your fingers! But that side of the knife was finished Sunday. And this weekend I'll look at putting a slightly smoother finish on the steel while I figure out how not to ruin the blade in the new grinder. I'm close to having the hang of it.
     

    General Zod

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    OK, so I'm getting more comfortable with the new grinder, I've done a test bevel on a crap of low carbon steel, and I've worked on some bevels on a pair of half-done blades I can work with and modify if I need to fix any disasters...

    I'm about ready to start the bevel on the little dude.

    And then it started raining, and I had to pack up the extension cord and come inside. Dammit. Next weekend I'll be out of town Saturday, but Sunday I should be able to get those bevels started and move things along.
     

    General Zod

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    Work has been crazy so I've missed several weekends of the best weather for working in the shop...but I was out there today. This little blade will have filework all down the spine from pommel to tip.

    One issue I've run into is how to hold such a small blade steady for that kind of work. My vise is too big- if the knife is in it, I can't work on the spine without the files hitting the vise. Plus, as I discovered on the test piece I worked on last time I was out there, working on a vertical spine is a hassle. So...I forged myself a horizontal clamp. It's not elegant, but it gets the job done.


    20240309_154230.jpg

    20240309_154226.jpg

    20240309_155039.jpg

    20240309_154707.jpg
    As you can see it's sized for Glen's blade, but it should work for larger blades within reason. Next step: I try my hand at jimping on a blade I can't afford to screw up on...wheee!
     

    General Zod

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    I bought a whetstone to sharp my pocket knife and tips or videos you can recommend?

    I'm pretty damn useless with a whetstone, honestly. I do my sharpening on the belt grinder! One thing that's important either way is to keep your angle consistent, and watch for a shiny line to show up on the cutting edge of the blade - you'll basically be wearing steel off to roll into a thin wire. Once you see that, use a piece of leather to strop the edge - it breaks that wire off and leaves the sharp cutting edge behind.

    Walter Sorrels is a professional bladesmith I've learned a lot from. He's got a few videos on sharpening and stropping, and these are a couple of them with some good content.



     
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