My big knife

[randallss7]

OK after making a few large knives here latly and playing with them a bit I decided to make one for myself, to replace my old military machete I use once or twice a year...lol. I decided on 14" and a nice thick handle. This knife is constructed of 1/4" stock thickness 0-1 tool steel (its really 17/64). I only hand sanded the grind marks out of the blade, i always do that before heat treat for several reasons, after heat treat I bead blasted the blade then painted a few strips on it and then put it in acid bath, really just to do something cool without the need for hours of sanding. The handle is made from 3/8" thick scales of olive canvas micarta shaped with rasp then bead blasted, that along with the grooves cut into handle it shouldn't go anywhere. I plan on beating it around this weekend. No loops or anything on sheath as I will never carry on belt, just need a safe place it keep it.



14 1/4 total length
blade 8 1/5"
handle is green canvas micarta, with bead blast finish
sheath is kydex.

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[operator742]

that's a really good looking knife. do u sell them and how much?

 

[swampratt]

BAD ASS!!!!
that is all i can say about that.

 

[randallss7]

I have chopped so many logs, limbs, and 2 x 4's today my arms hurt, but I wanted to give it a good test, finish is holding OK edge retention is amazing I figured cooking this 0-1 at 450F would make edge retention less than Ideal but nope its awesome, I usually cook my 0-1 hunting knives at 300F to 350F. I sharpened knife at 25 degrees on the edge a common angle for heavy use knives, I can achieve a shaving sharp edge at that no problem here is a video of a two 2x4 test uploaded to my photo-bucket enjoy I tried to make it short, my arm got tired 1/2 way through the 2nd cut. If you don't watch the vid basically I just chop through a 2x4 twice then demonstrate the edge is not damaged and it will still shave hair.

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[randallss7]

The good thing about making yourself a knife is you can test it without the concern of marring the finish or what ever, when I first started making knives on a more regular basis I tested them regularly but now I'm so busy and I'm comfortable my my processes so I do not get around to testing them as often. This morning I got up and decided to do a tip brake over test, I was a little nervous as I did not want video proof of a disaster...lol or to brake my new knife, for a large knife this one has a fairly thin and pointy tip. I did this test on two 2x4 pieces the 2nd one because I guess I didn't hit record on the camera. As you may be able to see from the video the tip actually pierced the board twice and went into the marble surface....that was not planed but to my surprise the tip survived, it did dull the edge but surprisingly it did damage it as much as I expected.

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[swampratt]

Really cool test! Did not see that comming.
I have never got to use that 0-1 steel
I have tempered and hardened many leaf spring knifes...
When mine go into the oven they are polished first...or at least clean and shiny...
450 temp. I watch as the steel changes colors..it will be dark grey first then enter into a light stray color then medium stray then dark straw....I remove heat and let cool at medium straw color as i have been taught that this is about 56-58 rockwell C on the hardness scale.

Before it ever makes it to the oven i heat the cutting portion of the blade to glowing orange and quench in cooking oil or trans fluid.
I then clean and take a file to the area and if the file bights into it i re do the process and get the area glowing brighter and test again..
Is this the method you use for the tool steel??

 

[randallss7]

Really cool test! Did not see that comming.
I have never got to use that 0-1 steel
I have tempered and hardened many leaf spring knifes...
When mine go into the oven they are polished first...or at least clean and shiny...
450 temp. I watch as the steel changes colors..it will be dark grey first then enter into a light stray color then medium stray then dark straw....I remove heat and let cool at medium straw color as i have been taught that this is about 56-58 rockwell C on the hardness scale.

Before it ever makes it to the oven i heat the cutting portion of the blade to glowing orange and quench in cooking oil or trans fluid.
I then clean and take a file to the area and if the file bights into it i re do the process and get the area glowing brighter and test again..
Is this the method you use for the tool steel??

here is my process very similar possibly a few more steps:
1st thing I do is grind the shape, edge then hand sand to 220 grit to remove any grind marks
2nd, normilize the steel, bring steel up to just above critical temperature then let air cool, this helps relieve any stress and helps with smaller grain. let cool to room temperature
3rd, I slowly heat it to critical temperate in my forge, and I do mean slowly this knife took 20 minutes to get where I wanted it then let it soak for another 10 or so, this also helps keep the blade a uniform temperature you know the edge the same color as the spine etc. You cant just turn on forge full blast then you cant soak without over heating or over heating the edge and under heating the thicker parts, over heating is a bad thing.
4, I take the evenly heated blade straight way from the forge and quench it in Chevron quench oil (its worth the money 50.00 a gallon) I move the blade up and down, never swirl.
5, I take the blade straight way to the ready tempering oven, I use different temperatures to achieve different hardness's any where from 250 to 500 hundred degrees for 3 cycles at 1.5hours each. You need to do this quickly as the hardened steel is in a very stressed right now and is looking for relief (stress cracks).

I do all my blades like that, then if I want to soften the spine I will put edge in water and use torch to take spine to a blue color. I then polish or sand blast or what ever i'm going to do the the knife.

that's kind of it in a nut shell.

 

[Sledge302]

OMG that is bad to the bone

 

[randallss7]

I never really do this but as a test I split a few logs with it, I'm not sure what it proves this knife will handle more than you can give it in that area, these were seasoned pecan and apple logs I use for smoking meet, I had a hard time beating the knife threw one of the knots but he knife itself had no problem, it was hitting it hard enough to split the hard woods that was the problem, I was hitting the logs so hard that the camera would quit recording...lol. anyway here are a few vids if you are interested kind of whatever? I lost some if the video due to camera stopping due to the vibrations caused by the pounding...lol.
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[Wild Weasel]

Well I think you should make some to sell. I would buy one.