Kind of a long post. No need to read it all if you are not interested as the pics speak for themselves.
Over this winter I've been lusting over some new steel. I've thought that the woodlore style knife would work well for my needs and our Adirondack's own Adventure Sworn Knives makes some very nice examples. Though very nice, the price was a bit out or my range so I thought I'd give building my own a try. This was my first attempt but with a lot of research and patience, I think it came out OK.
I started with an old dull bastard milled that had served its purpose well but was near useless as a file anymore. I threw it in with a good hot fire in January to anneal (soften) the steel so that it could be worked into the shape that I wanted. After a couple of hours with the angle grinder and belt sander, I got the rough shape that I wanted. You can see that I elected for a hidden tang design because of the handle material that I wanted to use.
With the shape roughed out, it was time to quench (harden) the steel. Lacking a forge or anything similar, I went to the fire pit. Using charcoal and a box fan, I was able to get the steel hot enough. Without getting into it too much, file knives need to be heated cherry red so that they are no longer magnetic and then quenched in ~100 degree cooking oil.
After that, the knife blank was cleaned with steel wool and then tempered (toughened/softened) in the kitchen oven by baking it at 375 for an hour. I then put an edge on the blank and wrapped the tang with nylon twine and made up a quick temp sheath. I wanted to be able to test the knife out to make sure the heat treating went well before putting the final handle on it. After a couple of weeks of use, I was extremely pleased with the edge retention.
For the handle, I really thought that stacked birch bark would give me the look and feel that I wanted. I made up a bolster (part of the handle nearest to the edge) out of birch burl that would show off part of the full width blade and then also make the transition into the hidden tang. After that, about 100 layers of birch bark were cut and stacked on top of each other and compressed with a bar clamp. No glue was used for the handle because birch has natural tar that acts as a binder when heated to 250 for about an hour (will not adversely affect the heat treatment). The pommel (bottom of the handle) is a silver quarter. The whole thing is held together by peening the end of the tang over the pommel. Here are some pictures after a few hours at the belt sander.
Shaping the handle was very interesting. Very cool to see it take shape. It's a bit asymmetrical but it only needs to go in my right hand and it fits perfectly. After getting the shape right, it was taken from 150 to 2000 grit paper. I also tried my hand at some leather work putting the sheath together. Here is the finished result.
I'm very happy with the way it came out. It cuts like a laser and there is very little fatigue in the hand wile using it.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
Over this winter I've been lusting over some new steel. I've thought that the woodlore style knife would work well for my needs and our Adirondack's own Adventure Sworn Knives makes some very nice examples. Though very nice, the price was a bit out or my range so I thought I'd give building my own a try. This was my first attempt but with a lot of research and patience, I think it came out OK.
I started with an old dull bastard milled that had served its purpose well but was near useless as a file anymore. I threw it in with a good hot fire in January to anneal (soften) the steel so that it could be worked into the shape that I wanted. After a couple of hours with the angle grinder and belt sander, I got the rough shape that I wanted. You can see that I elected for a hidden tang design because of the handle material that I wanted to use.
With the shape roughed out, it was time to quench (harden) the steel. Lacking a forge or anything similar, I went to the fire pit. Using charcoal and a box fan, I was able to get the steel hot enough. Without getting into it too much, file knives need to be heated cherry red so that they are no longer magnetic and then quenched in ~100 degree cooking oil.
After that, the knife blank was cleaned with steel wool and then tempered (toughened/softened) in the kitchen oven by baking it at 375 for an hour. I then put an edge on the blank and wrapped the tang with nylon twine and made up a quick temp sheath. I wanted to be able to test the knife out to make sure the heat treating went well before putting the final handle on it. After a couple of weeks of use, I was extremely pleased with the edge retention.
For the handle, I really thought that stacked birch bark would give me the look and feel that I wanted. I made up a bolster (part of the handle nearest to the edge) out of birch burl that would show off part of the full width blade and then also make the transition into the hidden tang. After that, about 100 layers of birch bark were cut and stacked on top of each other and compressed with a bar clamp. No glue was used for the handle because birch has natural tar that acts as a binder when heated to 250 for about an hour (will not adversely affect the heat treatment). The pommel (bottom of the handle) is a silver quarter. The whole thing is held together by peening the end of the tang over the pommel. Here are some pictures after a few hours at the belt sander.
Shaping the handle was very interesting. Very cool to see it take shape. It's a bit asymmetrical but it only needs to go in my right hand and it fits perfectly. After getting the shape right, it was taken from 150 to 2000 grit paper. I also tried my hand at some leather work putting the sheath together. Here is the finished result.
I'm very happy with the way it came out. It cuts like a laser and there is very little fatigue in the hand wile using it.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
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