WoW, I was busy today...

I started a knife project today.  Well I kinda started a couple of days ago I guess.  Thanks to Spencer of SAR Global, with some coaching, and his awesome knife making equipment a new blade is born.

It started a few days ago with the selection of steel.  We decided to make a knife from a file.  So I went through my shop and gathered up some files, then I picked the one on the right, because it was the thickest flat file, giving me the optimum size for the knife I had in mind.  The file is a Simonds Nucut Flat-BD, and files are a great piece of steel.  I am still working on attaining the grade.

First things first, a file is hardened and we must remove the temper so into a kiln at 1500 degrees for around seven minutes then shut off and allowed to naturally cool overnight.  Once the temper was removed we went through a whole bunch of other stuff and here's a few pics.

OK, so there was a bunch of grinding, but there was a bit more.  Scribing, profiling, tweaking, different wheel diameters, drilling and so on.  Next is re hardening.  We will have to go back into the forge at 1500 for about 6 to 7 minutes, then right into a vat of oil to quench.  Then into the kiln at 400 with a natural cool down period twice for the final temper.  But we are long from finished,