I thought a would make a head knife

[tomcat]

I had a piece of O1 tool steel laying around and i wanted to make a head knife as simple as possible in case someone who couldn't afford one, and with some basic skills, a hack saw, a file, a mapp (propane type torch), a nice piece of wood, could make three for about $10 (the cost of the steel), assuming you have the wood and the torch ...I took a few pictures of building it, and if you like i will make a small tutorial of how to, including heat treating and tempering....

[rdb]

nice job tomcat! she's purdy. Ingenuity wins again.

A tutorial would be wonderful.

[Tkleather1]

I have a few saw blades that I would like to use to make a knife or two but I dont know where to start without taking the temper out of the steel. if you could I would love to have more info on this.

Thanks

Tim

[sdkid]

I 2nd the tutorial. The knife looks great.

[electrathon]

I have a few saw blades that I would like to use to make a knife or two but I dont know where to start without taking the temper out of the steel. if you could I would love to have more info on this.

Thanks

Tim

If you cut it without showing color, the temper will stay. If you get color, grind past it, and all will be good.

This is not as good of an answer as tempering it initially, but is a great solution for home work.

[ryano]

I would like a tutorial also.

Thanks! She looks really good!

[UKRay]

I'd like to know more about knife making too - bring on the tutorial!

Ray

[tomcat]

Thanks everyone for the kind words, like i said i will keep this as simple as possible...The first thing we need is a good tool steel, all steels have a number or letter, the steel i want you to use is a great all around steel, knife makers still use this because its simple and keeps an edge......O1 tool steel here is where you get it...

http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=87_72

Get the 1/8 x 12" i think its $10.95 and you can make at least 2 of them ....

When you get the steel, its not hardened so its easy to drill and file, remember this is your design, and its custom, so if you think of wanting to do something different, by all means do it, just be careful, and be safe, remember we are dealing with a sharp knife and heat and flames, so follow all necessary precautions....

Here is a picture of the steel, and the halfmoon shape i cut out with a hack saw, and filed....

[tomcat]

For some reason i can't do more than one picture at a time, so i will have to have only one picture in every post...

I cut out another piece out of the steel to make a handle, in my case i welded it, if you don't have a welder or know someone that will do you a favor and weld it for you, don't worry, you can bolt or rivet it together, Hey if your a leather worker you should have plenty of rivets around lol....

[tomcat]

Her is a picture of me filing away....Now if you notice i started to make an edge, at this point don't make it sharp, looking down at the point leave about a 1/32 of an inch in the center, in other words file it even on both sides but don't come to a point, you will do that last little bit after you harden it...In case you are curious, if you made it very sharp now, the edge won't stand up to the heat, it will be too thin.....

[tomcat]

Now we come to the heat treating....O1 is an oil hardening steel whick means that after you reach the proper temp. you quench it in oil....At this point you need a mapp torch, you use the same tip as on a propane torch, assuming you have one, you can get Mapp gas at Lowe's or HD, its in a yellow container, and produces a much hotter flame...Now you have to get the steel to 1500 degrees, or until the steel becomes anti-magnetic....What you do is while you are heating it have a magnet in you hand and keep touching the steel with it, until you no longer feel it sticking ( usually around cherry red).....Then you quench it in oil...Now what i did was got an old metal icecube tray and put enough oil in it so you can dip the edge in it...I used some motor oil i had...Also be careful where you do this and have a fire extinguisher ready, the oil will flame up but should go out very fast...I should mention that you put the knife in slowly, too fast and it might crack....More pictures and info coming next....

[tomcat]

Now the steel should be cool enough to touch, run a file across where you hardend the steel, and it should kinda skate across, if it does you did it right, if it doesn't and files very easy, that means it wasn't hot enough...Now lets assume everything went well, now you have to temper it...what i did was got an old toaster oven, and set the temp. to 350 for 2 hours...You can use you regular oven if you want its only a piece of steel it won't hurt anything....Also some other things to mention, before you first heat the steel with the torch make sure its cleaned of all the preservative oils and when you quench it it will become black, and if you sanded and polished it before it should polish back up again..

[rdb]

Wow, that's just great! Thank You for this, tomcat.

[tomcat]

I had a piece of cocobolo that i had left over from another project that i used, you can use anything even leather....I drilled two holes where i wanted to attach the handle, then i sanded everything together, also i put tape over the Blade to protect myself...I also got some brass screws and cut other slots with my Dremmel, and put the nuts on another screw and put it in my drill and made the nuts round by holding a file against them....More pictures coming....

[UKRay]

Very helpful indeed. Many thanks for your time and effort, Tomcat.

Ray

[tomcat]

[tomcat]

Thank you all it was my pleasure to do it....I, like a lot of others have gotten tons of infomation from the unselfish people on this forum who readily give their secrets away...If something is not clear, feel free to contact me, and remember the info for heat treating and tempering is for O1 steel only, other steels differ, some greatly...Have fun and above all be safe...Tom

[electrathon]

Very good tutorial. A couple things I would like to add: When oil quenching, any oil will work. Used engine oil really stinks. Cooking oil is a lot more plesant smelling. Olive oil almost smells good. A lot of people use old engine oil for cost reasons though.

When doing the quench, if you do not submerge the steel in the oil and keep it moving you tend to get a mixture of very hard and softer spots. If you just plunge it in without moving it there will be bubbles formed from the boiling of the oil that can even damage the blade. If the blade is completely submerged, the fire will generally go out right away. If you leave the hot metal partly out, you will have flame as the oil is igniting on the not submerged steel.

[ArtS]

Thanks!!! This is great info. I didn't know about the heat treating. I'm etching to try one now.

I've read about some people using circular saws to make one. Have you ever tried this? Is that metal ok to use and would you still need to heat treat it?

Thanks again - this was a great tutorial.

Art

[oneminer]

Thank you for an excellent post. I often thought about making a head knife, but didn't know where to start. Your post gives the confidence to try. Now if I can only make the time.

[TwinOaks]

More additional information: TK mentioned using sawblades. While you can make a blade from it, it is far from ideal. I made a small knife out of one and found the following:

Sawblades are typically made from L6 steel. For its purpose as a sawblade, it's good. There's a reason that lots of sawblades have carbide tips though.

L6 can be water quenched, and will take a dandy edge, but it rusts....very quickly. I haven't found a way around this, other than lots of oil, which is not so great for leather.

L6, while hardenable, doesn't hold up like good tool steel.

Other good steels to use for beginners are 1095 (very forgiving), and 5160 spring steel (common source: the rusted out jaloppy in the field). A search on knife maker forums will yield more info.

[Tkleather1]

More additional information: TK mentioned using sawblades. While you can make a blade from it, it is far from ideal. I made a small knife out of one and found the following:

Sawblades are typically made from L6 steel. For its purpose as a sawblade, it's good. There's a reason that lots of sawblades have carbide tips though.

L6 can be water quenched, and will take a dandy edge, but it rusts....very quickly. I haven't found a way around this, other than lots of oil, which is not so great for leather.

L6, while hardenable, doesn't hold up like good tool steel.

Other good steels to use for beginners are 1095 (very forgiving), and 5160 spring steel (common source: the rusted out jaloppy in the field). A search on knife maker forums will yield more info.

hey thanks for the info I am not a metalurgist so I really didnt know what type of steel was used in a saw blade. One question though to temper it would I just heat it red hot like mentioned and water quench. or do I need to do another step like the oven? I think I will try it just to see if I can do it, I have never tried anything like this so if I ruin some old saw blades I am not out any money. and one more. Can I use my oxy/acetylene set up or would that put too much carbon in the steel?

[ArtS]

Thanks,

Art

More additional information: TK mentioned using sawblades. While you can make a blade from it, it is far from ideal. I made a small knife out of one and found the following:

Sawblades are typically made from L6 steel. For its purpose as a sawblade, it's good. There's a reason that lots of sawblades have carbide tips though.

L6 can be water quenched, and will take a dandy edge, but it rusts....very quickly. I haven't found a way around this, other than lots of oil, which is not so great for leather.

L6, while hardenable, doesn't hold up like good tool steel.

Other good steels to use for beginners are 1095 (very forgiving), and 5160 spring steel (common source: the rusted out jaloppy in the field). A search on knife maker forums will yield more info.

[electrathon]

hey thanks for the info I am not a metalurgist so I really didnt know what type of steel was used in a saw blade. One question though to temper it would I just heat it red hot like mentioned and water quench. or do I need to do another step like the oven? I think I will try it just to see if I can do it, I have never tried anything like this so if I ruin some old saw blades I am not out any money. and one more. Can I use my oxy/acetylene set up or would that put too much carbon in the steel?

Do not quench in water, use oil. The water tends to make it brittle. If you are going to try using your torch use the rosebud tip. Also, box it in somehow to make a makeshift oven so that the blade heat will be more consistant. You do not want one part of the blade being a couple hundred degrees hotter than the other parts.

I have made round knives from hand saw blades. It works well.

[Tkleather1]

Do not quench in water, use oil. The water tends to make it brittle. If you are going to try using your torch use the rosebud tip. Also, box it in somehow to make a makeshift oven so that the blade heat will be more consistant. You do not want one part of the blade being a couple hundred degrees hotter than the other parts.

I have made round knives from hand saw blades. It works well.

so I use oil to quench. How hot do I need to get it for how long? Cherry red? then quench in oil then do I need to place in oven for a while? Sorry but I want to try this but when I am done I want the dang thing to hold an edge.

How do your knives hold an edge? reasonable time or do you have to strop after every few cuts?

Thanks for all of the info.