Steel for a knife

[treequip]

Files are a tad too brittle for a general purpose knife but work well if the steel is forged into a softer body to make a composite blade.

 

Making composites is a lot of skilled work and they are also much harder to sharpen than more conventional materials.

 

A circular saw blade can be re used in knife making. Modern carbide tipped blades rely principally on the hardness of the tip for durability and are likely have a lower quality steel body than an "old school" blade, which would be my choice.

[Stubby]

A file takes a lovely edge. My favourite marking knife in the workshop is made from a small flat file that was for taking the rakers down. The blade would not have much flex but nought wrong the edge it takes.

 

Yes I realize it holds a good edge as I have made them myself but it is too brittle and wont take much side load intended or accidental .

[Woodworks]

Yes I realize it holds a good edge as I have made them myself but it is too brittle and wont take much side load intended or accidental .

 

Your probably right but I am surprised how tough my little knife has been. Spend lots of money on a fancy Japanese marking knife years ago and a reground old file is nicer to use

[Coletti]

If you fancy having a play at knife making, files are the water to go. Good steel and can be had for pittance at a bootsale. It's all about the heat treating. A good heat treated will give the steel the right qualities for a brilliant knife

[Coletti]

Yes I realize it holds a good edge as I have made them myself but it is too brittle and wont take much side load intended or accidental .

 

I beg to differ. you'll not find much better steel and if heat treated correctly they can be bent past 45 degrees and still spring back to nearly strait

[flatyre]

My home made knife was made out of an old file, fired it to anneal the temper to make it easier to work with, then cut and ground it into shape with a good long teng, then had a blacksmith re-temper it in his forge but you can do this in a decent oven, made a handle out of antler which stinks when your cutting it, and fitted the blade using pine sap glue which is basically sap mixed with carbon. Great knife that really holds its edge.

[timbernut]

My home made knife was made out of an old file, fired it to anneal the temper to make it easier to work with, then cut and ground it into shape with a good long teng, then had a blacksmith re-temper it in his forge but you can do this in a decent oven, made a handle out of antler which stinks when your cutting it, and fitted the blade using pine sap glue which is basically sap mixed with carbon. Great knife that really holds its edge.

 

 

I like the sound of it, got a picture?

[Stubby]

I beg to differ. you'll not find much better steel and if heat treated correctly they can be bent past 45 degrees and still spring back to nearly strait

 

Ok . I did not do any heat treating . They were 65 rockwell but I suppose you need to aneal them and re harden to a lesser figure

[Coletti]

Ok . I did not do any heat treating . They were 65 rockwell but I suppose you need to aneal them and re harden to a lesser figure

 

That is rather hard, all the ones I have made are between 56 and 60. Due to grinding the ones I have made I have no option but to normalise and re heat treat/temper due to the heat produced when grinding. It's a pretty simple process though as long as you have a decent torch, a magnet and some cooking oil to quench

[Stubby]

Softer at the tang but harder on the business end .