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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 11-27-2012, 12:16 PM
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cbsmith111 cbsmith111 is offline
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What did I do?

A while back I sent three knives off for heat treating. Just a 4" drop point utility design flat ground from 3/16" precision ground A2.

I only took the bevel a little more than half way to the spine. When I finished out the first one I realized that on this thickness of steel that didn't produce very good blade geometry for slicing.

As I was working on the second one I had a sudden rash of bravery(stupidity?) and ground the bevels the rest of the way to the spine. I went very slowly and didn't get the blade hot at all. Both sides came out basically even and flat. Overall a pretty decent grind. However the blade got EXTREMELY thin towards the tip. From where the edge starts dropping into the point, maybe 1"-1 1/2" from the tip, the spine goes from the full 3/16" thickness down to basically nothing. Like I said the blade looks pretty good overall, but it looks extremely weak toward the tip to me.

I didn't do this conciously, and it is very even from one side to the other. As far as I could tell I was just following the already established flats of the bevels. Any insight into why this would happen? Should I even be so worried about it? I'm going to try the same thing with the third blade soon, so I would like to figure out what I did so I can avoid it on that one. This may be a little vague, but if anyone could help me figure out what's not clicking with me here I would appreciate it.
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Old 11-27-2012, 01:36 PM
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BCROB BCROB is offline
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I usually leave 2x the normal thickness in the toe of the blade before heat treat and take off the remainder afterwards as desired.............
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  #3  
Old 11-27-2012, 04:38 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Just practice CB. The blade gets narrower as you move towards the tip, so if you try to keep the tip area on the exact same plane as the back of the blade the spine of the tip will get almost as thin as the edge area. The trick is to increase the angle of your grind as you pass the place where the edge starts to curve upwards. Increasing the angle makes it less likely you'll do as much grinding on the spine area above the tip. In a word, you want the spine to taper to a point but you don't want it to disappear.

Think of the tip area from the upward curve of the edge forward as a separate blade. Grind it as required to make it flat and bring it to a point without cutting into the spine any more than required to accomplish the taper ....


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Old 11-27-2012, 07:56 PM
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I tend to grind the blade portion first and leave the tip alone for the most part, then finish the tip up at the end. If I do the entire blade at once I will sometimes put too much pressure on the tip and thin it out too much. Theres less material to be removed there and if I do the tip on each pass I will end up removing too much.


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Old 11-28-2012, 06:59 AM
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Thanks for the advice. I think I'm just going to have to write this set of as a learning experience. I'm going to go to some thinner steel which is what I should have started with anyway. This brings me to one last question. I have some 1/8"x1" A2 that I had planned to use for some stick tang scandinavian style knives. I've decided now that I'm not quite ready for that project. I normally use 1 1/2" wide stock for my full tang knives. Is it practical to make some small utility/edc type knives or should I just put it back for later and buy some wider steel? I know it's probably wide enough for the blade, but once I work out the handle and everything do you think I can make a comfortable and effective full tang from 1" wide steel? I've drawn out designs that fit into that size, but it's always different when you actually cut them out of the steel. I'll probably try some mild steel patterns to make sure, but I didn't know if maybe someone had some input on this.
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Old 11-28-2012, 07:43 AM
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It just depends on the users preference, and of course the task at hand. Myself, I typically prefer small, thin, fairly narrow blades and the knives that get the most use from me for everyday chores are made from 1" wide stock. But then I've had customers buy 1" wide and ask for larger pieces because it felt too small for their hand.

Would I make a chopper from 1" wide? No way. But I like it for leather work, cutting paracord, trimming my nails, peeling veggies, and various edc chores.


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Old 11-28-2012, 09:40 AM
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Thanks for the input. I like a narrow handle myself, but my hands probably aren't very average. They're fairly long and slender. I've had a little more trouble designing something ergonomical that will fit into the 1" width, but I think I can get it down.
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advice, angle, arrow, back, bevel, blade, design, edge, flat, full tang, grinding, handle, heat treat, hot, knife, knives, leather, made, make, material, paracord, project, steel, tang


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