First knife grind

[mitunnelrat]

I decided to try my hand at knife making this week. Its with a 1/16" thick, rusty chunk of scrap metal I picked up, and cut to size along some pre-drilled holes for a width of just over 1".

The oal is around 11", and I think I'll be able to get about a 6.5" edge out of her.

I'm doing a wharncliffe blade and my thought is to give it a chisel grind so all I need to carry with it is a strop to keep it sharp. That may be subject to change though.

Here it is, still in rough form.


Just in case some of you aren't familiar with it, a wharncliffe design is what you see on utility knife razor blades. I'm just making a much larger, more gnarly version. I figure the length and grind would make it a reasonable compromise between a fighting and utility knife. A strop would also pack lighter than many stones. So goes my thinking.

I'm just gonna cord wrap the handle on this one.

[Sniper-T]

Interesting... any idea of what kind of steel it is?

[mitunnelrat]

None whatsoever! Lol

[Sniper-T]

so you could be playing with an A36/44W which would make a nice wall hanger, but would dull catastrophically while dicing grapes?

[mitunnelrat]

Yes, I could be. Lol. For a free chunk of steel and access to tools though, it was worth a shot. I have further ideas if I like this though

[mitunnelrat]

Yes, I could be. Lol. Is there any way to test it? For a free chunk of steel and access to tools though, it was worth a shot. I have further ideas if I like this though

[Sniper-T]

it is a lot easier to play with crap steel and refine some techniques.

There is no way to tell what it is by looking at it, but how it handles a file or grinding disc can lend some clues to what it is. The only way for sure is lab work.

[jamesneuen]

You can guess steel content from the way it throws sparks on a grinding wheel as far as high or low carbon.

[ElevenBravo]

My suggestion is move forward with your project and learn, theres a damn good chance its typical mild steel, which wont be a good blade.


Moving forward, check more details on google, youtube and forums... I learned a lot from them.


I read things such as saw blades and lawnmower blades tend to be better than typical mild steel.



There are also sources for knife blanks...


GL,
EB

[bacpacker]

Old saw blades and lawn mower blades are good. Newer blades not so much.