Knife Advice

[littlecanoe]

I drew out a pattern for a hunter/skinner today. I have some old leaf spring stock that I need to de-temper. I figure that steel is a good high carbon and safe to start with.

 

I'm wanting some advice on what parts and pieces I need to put the handle on. The scales(?) will likely be American walnut or Black cherry. I believe that we have some Brazilian cherry around the shop also. I know that I'll need to epoxy and rivet the scales to the blade but what size rivets are recommended? Any special tools required or will I just need stuff that is around the shop?

 

Thanks, lc

[724wd]

littlecanoe, i dont know that i would use "rivets" exactly. were it me, i would get some stainless pin stock or mosaic pins from someone like jantz or texasknife. it comes in a variety of sizes, the rule that sticks in my head is go with the same thickness as the steel you're using. i would also recommend buying a piece of new steel from a leaf spring shop. we have one locally that charged around 18 bucks for 3 feet. the reason being is you know FOR SURE of what you have. leaf springs can be a lot of things, and the one you want is 5160. starting with known steel is best, and it doesnt cost a lot. with 5160, you can even do your heat treat yourself, at least, that's what they tell me. i sent mine out. good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

heath

[ken98k]

I cleaned up a rusty old western skinner last year to go along with a Chilean

95.

I used caribou antler and epoxied 1/4" aluminum pins

[littlecanoe]

Kenny, That looks like a great rehab job on that one.

 

I heated and straightened the spring today. Got it cherry red then hammered it straight.

Problem: still very hard to cut through. Makes me think that it isn't fully de-tempered.

I let it cool to ambient temp slowly.

 

Do I need to heat it again to make it more workable?

 

thanks, lc

[littlecanoe]

Yep, thinking of having a local guy cut it for me. I'd really like to have my own.

 

I just figured out my problem. I didn't keep the spring steel hot for a long enough time

to soften it. I got it cherry red but didn't keep it there long enough to allow the carbide to

convert back to carbon.

 

I'll do that and then I'll be able to cut it with a blade and manage getting the edge

contoured more easily.

 

Here is a nice vid link that I found came across. A pretty basic approach with basic

tools but looks to be very effective. Basic knife

[BradD]

LC, et al,

 

I don't know anything about knives except that I know what I like and I have a bunch of them in the safe I'll probably never use. Hope my kids think of something for them.

 

Now that I have established my expertise I have a question.

 

When you take an old spring, admittedly there is some good steel to be found there, and rework it, is there any chance that the steel will have acquired a previous and permanent "set" from the spring action that you will never overcome? Thus never allowing you to have a reliable and consistent knife?

 

Thanks,

Brad

[Jimro]

Red hot (to where a magnet won't attract) should reset any "set" the steel has as it changes the crystalline matrix of the steel.

 

If you want to anneal the steel to it's softest you'll need to keep it hot a lot longer. I'd get the steel red hot and then let it cool slowly in an insulating material, like a sand bath that you heated up in an oven wrapped in fiberglass insulation. If you have an oven that you can keep at 500 degrees for 12 hours that should do it too.

 

Jimro

[littlecanoe]

Brad,

 

I'm not the resident expert by any shape of the imagination. Rank amateur won't even cover my skill level. I'm really just starting and trying to slowly make my first one and see how it goes. Some of these guys have made some really nice poducts. I'm just trying to pick up some tips where I can.

 

Jimro nailed the tempering/annealing issue from what I've read. The link that I had in the last post that I made is a neat one for some basic knife making.

I realized that I hadn't annealed my spring steal fully because a power sander would barely take metal off the blank. I'm working on a pretty broad learning curve.

 

lc