mikekrall

Well, I apologize to you all... I ran up a post then forgot to come back. I've got myself set to "watch" all topics I reply to with instant e-mail notification, now. This won't happen again. It still surprises me 1075 would be considered an ideal steel for head and round knives... it's a saw blade steel in it's main cutting application, and the carbon is kept at a level (0.70% to 0.75% carbon) due to increased brittleness in higher carbon levels. That is, a saw blade needs to be tough so wear resistence is sacrificed to keep the cutting edges from chipping in use. Larger saw blades have, like 7" bandsaw blades, have nickel added to increase toughness even more with the same amount of carbon. I understand saw blades are not tempered to as high a hardness as a person would have in a knife blade, but even at higher hardness 1075 gives up wear resistence for toughness. Anyhow, there is no D1. The D series steels start at D2 and go on through 3, 4, 5, and 7... all "high carbon, high chrome, cold work tool steels". D2, as well as A2, is an air hardening steel and the thing Art said about getting hardening from heavy grinding and/or drilling is true with D2, also. To me, the advantage of using an air hardening steel for a head knife is avoidence of warping during heat-treat. I'm figuring on profiling precision ground stock, heat-treating, then grinding in the hardened condition. Spent 3 hours yesterday with Jack Meese (Lander, Wyo.). Jack is an amazing fellow who does (among a lot of other things) some very fine rawhide braiding. I stopped by to see if he had a head knife pattern he would let me trace and measure. Jack made a D2 head knife for my brother Jamie (used to be the saddle maker in Lander a few decades ago) and I was hoping to get a pattern for it. What Jack showed me was a head knife with two different corners, one profiled for soft curve and straight cuts, the other profiled for tight curves. It's 4 1/4" wide and about 2 3/8" from nose to start of handle. The two different corners are a little under and a little over that nose to handle dimension from the nose. The shape is slightly pointed at the nose (tighter curve) than either side curve. Jack recommended I use 1/16" stock but I know the knife he built for my brother was at least twice that thickness, if not more. Have any of you got pro's/con's for stock thickness? I understand, the thinner the stock, the less grinding it takes to get a proper bevel, so I'm wondering if there are other reasons to have thin or thick starting stock you know of. One last thing... Jack showed me an old Osborn head knife. One with a star. He picked it up at a yard sale for $2. Somewhere along the line someone had got more than a little carried away using it as the wrong tool for the job. It has two major edge chips in the nose area, the bigger a circular fracture measuring about 7/16" by 3/16" deep... poor old thing! Mike

Art, It surprises me a head knife would be 1063-1073. I would have thought a higher carbon steel like 1095, W1, W2, or a high carbon tool steel like 01, A2, D2 would have been the choice. If you have knowledge on common steels used for head knives and commonly used RHc tempered numbers for them, I'd love to hear about it. Mike

I'd like a set of Randy Seffen's plans, if you would... tried to send you an e-mail about it but I don't think I got it done. Mike Krall Lander, Wyo.