local source for steel? Knife Making

[edub20]

Finished this one up today.



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[4dawgma]

Nice work! Now put that away and get back to work. When you get to 10, pull it back out and realize how far you've come.

[edub20]

Made this chef's knife for my mom today and also started working on another drop point skinner with a little different pattern.


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[SB]

Looking good. Are you able to put an edge on them?

[edub20]

Looking good. Are you able to put an edge on them?

Yeah, I'm getting pretty good edges and edge retention. I'm getting a Rockwell harness test done this week on my knives that I've made up to this point to understand exactly where I'm falling on the hardness scale in my heat treat and tempering process.

Up until I started making these I always used stones and a leather strop to achieve a good clean edge. I have since found that a belt sander with alternating grit belts and finishing the edge with a polishing wheel/grey compound and finalizing on the leather strop/green compound achieves the best results I've gotten thus far. The thing with a belt sander is that if it spins too fast it will heat up the steel and remove some of your temper leaving a weaker edge, so to counteract that you need to quench the steel every so often when finalizing the edge of a new knife.

I purchased an el cheapo 1x30 harbor freight belt sander to get started with and feel out how I liked this hobby. I'm now looking at making a 2x72 out of square tubing and some other components as the ready made 2x72's are upwards of 1700-2k(I'm too much of a tight wad for that). In order to hollow grind and make some other types of blade grinds I really need a belt sander with a wheel attachment.

[jdbuckshot]

you ready to make me a spear point yet ?

[edub20]

you ready to make me a spear point yet ?

Ha, my current forge for Heat Treat can only accommodate about 8'' blades. I could prob make one but haven't advanced far enough in equipment to get there.