Carving knives

[Powder Keg]

My last couple projects have involved that brown stuff. And the need to work it. I've been leaning to the use of hand tools and older things here lately. Mainly I just want to try something new. I'd thought of buying a set of carving knives, But what would the fun be in that? I had some old bandsaw blades. I drew a few shapes out and cut them out with an angle grinder. The wood was scraps from other projects. There is some curly maple that a friend gave me. A piece of African Blood wood. And a scrap of walnut from my shot gun project.  I'm going to rivet the scales to the blades with some copper rivets. They are made from some electrical wire left over from out hot tub. Here is what I have so far. I'm starting to file the scales to shape.

They will all have a single angle grind. The longer two will be a left and a right.





I'm trying to get these done soon. I think I broke every little drill bit I own trying to drill out these saw blades. But I got them\o/

[fluxcored]

Very nice.

Can you please post a few pics of the riveting process, if you do'nt mind.

Silly idea but I've got to ask  - would drilling with a masonry bit not generate enough heat to anneal the spot so that it's easier to drill with a metal twist drill afterwards??

[Powder Keg]

I'll do it. I think I need to make a couple of rivet punches. I''ll take good pictures of that also.

[fluxcored]

Thx. Looking forward to it.

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Keg -- Just an idea for you.  I got into making "unit knives" for various military units a few years back.  You can see the civilian versions of some them at http://www.mccannindustries.com/knives.htm.  In any case, we found that making a threaded insert that was a close slip fit to a reamed hole in the blade allowed us the greatest flexibility in overall design and field cleaning/sharpening.  We would then attach the grips using (as appropriate) either small socket head cap screws or flat head socket cap screws to allow for adjustment and removal of the grips.  The "inside" faces of the grips themselves would be counterdrilled (reamed) to be a close slip fit to the threaded (round stand-off type) insert.

We had the advantage of working with normalized stock and heat treating after all the machining was done.  However, I think I have seen in other of your posts that you have stick welding equipment.  It should not be all that hard to jury up a local spot annealing rig to localize such work.

[Powder Keg]

So, If a fellow wanted to spot anneal a part how would he go about it? I have a stick welder with a tig torch and a spot welder.

[Blade]

What I would try is heating at each point that you want anealed and sticking the blade in vermaculite or something that will retain the heat .You can try this idea on some scrap first if you have some.

Another way that I have used on material that is hard is to just blow holes in it with the cutting torch. Or drilling with carbide bits, a good alternate if carbide bits aren't available is masonry bits, I just sharpen them so that they wil cut steel.

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

So, If a fellow wanted to spot anneal a part how would he go about it? I have a stick welder with a tig torch and a spot welder.

Keg -- I've seen it done, but I've not done it myself.  Basically the way I have seen it done is: Place a chunk of copper on either side of the part you want to spot anneal.  Pass the welding current (and I have no idea what type of rod was being used) through the part until the spot in question is a bright "cherry red" (as I am dead colorblind to red courtesy of a "joke" played on me with a neon-argon laser in college, I have a hard time with this part) and then cover the whole thing with sand to let it cool.  I have seen ash and vermiculite used in place of sand.

In essence, you need to heat the area in question to a temperature higher than the Curie point (where it loses magnetic attractive properties) and then not quench it.  If the steel in question is an air-temper type of steel, you will need to slow the cooling to less than normal air radiation losses.  In many (most?) cases just letting it cool without a quench should be sufficient.  That's the short summary of what the ASM handbook says.

The alignment of a steel's crystalline structure changes from a body-centered-cubic (BCC) to a face-centered-cubic (FCC) type of structure once it is heated past the Curie point.  (Mind you, more modern metallurgy texts use more detailed crystal structure designations.  Mine are 40+ years old.)  When you quench it from this temperature, you "freeze" the structure in this "less likely to slip along planes" crystal form.  In this form, the steel is: harder, stronger, more brittle, and (believe it or not) less dense than normalized (annealed) steel.  (Normalized steels run about .285-.287 lb/in³ -- hardened steels run about .281-.285 lb/in³.)  Tempering is the process of relieving the stresses that make fully hardened steel brittle without changing much of the crystal structure that gives it the "hard and strong" properties.

[Powder Keg]

Thanks Lew! Come to think of it, That would be dead easy with my spot welder. I'll give it a chance next time I make one of these.

Thanks again, Wes

[ieezitin]

Keg.
I am assuming the thickness of the steel is a blades width? 1/16 3/32? If so turn around your tungsten leaving the blunt square end sticking out, crank your amps up and then stab the tungsten on the area your trying to heat don’t pull off or you will create an arc, let the area heat up to the color what Lew said then pull off quickly, it should work being the plate is so thin, don’t worry about the tungsten you wont hurt it, don’t look at it either as you pull off as you will get flash because if you get flash you would have to hit yourself in the head with a ballpein hammer so your eyes don’t hurt anymore!.



Happy days……..   Anthony.

[Powder Keg]

Thanks for the tips guys!!!

I managed to get some more sanding done on my knife scales. I kind of had a false start finishing these up. I roughed them to within about 1/32 or so of the metal. I then started shaping them. When I started sanding down to the metal the profile was way off and I had to reshape the outside. Oh well, I like how they are turning out.



Should I seal the wood before or after I rivet them to the blade?

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Should I seal the wood before or after I rivet them to the blade?

Keg -- Finish the "inside" face at a minimum before you rivet it to seal it from expanding/contracting with humidity changes.  Dry everything thoroughly in an oven and run a thin bead of real (i.e. 24 hour cure, 2 hour working time) epoxy around the edge of the handle/blade before you nail it down.  This will keep moisture from getting trapped around the blade (causing it to rust).  You can finish or refinish the outside to your heart's content later, if you wish.

[Powder Keg]

Thanks Lew!!! These knives have been fun to build. I got quite a bit done last night. I'll post some pictures after work today.

[Powder Keg]

Been having fun with these. I found that If I took the wood down to the metal with the belt sander, things went faster. Here is the knife made out of African Blood wood. This stuff has a little oil in it.



I'm going to try and get a lot done on the walnut scales today.

I then need to decide how much longer the rivets need to be. I think I'm going to try 1/6". Any suggestions?

Wes

[Divided he ad]

They look pretty funky Wes   


I've just done a bit of that there riveting and found that a small chamfer in the hole to allow the rivet to fill it gives a nice tight grip and less likely to fail IMHO.
I cracked the wood on my first attempt so found out quite quickly that 2mm was too much and 1mm worked just right. But I riveted them before final shaping and finishing.



Don't know how much of this you have done but I'll happily say this even if it pertains to sucking eggs....

After placing a small chamfer on each hole I placed the rivet in full length. Placed one side on the anvil and peined the long protruding end over to about 1.5 times the diameter of the original rod.

Then knocked it through so it was tight into the hole and placed that side on the anvil. Then cut off and filed the remaining rod to approx 1mm protruding. I then peined that over till it filled the hole, then turned it over and peined the first side again till it filled the hole. Then i filed them flush and finished the job with emery paper (or a linisher type affair)




As said, just in case.... Might help someone? 

Just posted the pic's on the one I did in the gallery this afternoon.




Good luck






Ralph.

[Powder Keg]

Thanks for the tips Ralph. I haven't done any riveting yet. Soon though

[Powder Keg]

Today I carved the walnut scales for one of my knives. I've been wanting to try stippling. It's a finish for wood. Here are the results. I really like how it turned out.



I'm going to try and do the scales made out of African Blood wood tomorrow. I can start applying the finish to these now. I'm thinking a few coats of Tung oil.

Later, Wes