Something I am thinking of for the future, though which steel I use I don't know yet.
My latest knife completed- don't show the wife!
- Thread starter Peter Eaton
- Start date
Something I am thinking of for the future, though which steel I use I don't know yet.
Thanks for the kind words
Highlandsjohn
Well-Known Member
I look forward to seeing that Peter, the heat treatment itself is an interesting subject. You do wonderful work with an eye for detail.
I have no idea what my colleague done with them,wall hangers maybe. He was a marine engineer so it was a hobby.I believe he demonstrated them in martial arts classes.
It was a time before digital cameras or phones with a camera even,so no pics alas..
Can’t wait my limits in the knife industry are limited to the ken onion sharpener and then its pretty hit and miss just can’t find a fool proof belt sharpener yet
Just be wary with the small belt sharpeners, you can over heat the micro edge of your blade, some don't believe this but is has been proven in studies, dip the blade in water every now and again
Thanks....I know the rep is openly admitting he is as excited as a kid at Christmas, he is collecting Monday.
Have to admit I will be sad to part with it, thought to be honest I always am with knives even when someone pays me lol
Must be akin to selling a child!
You mean children can only be sold to over 18s? I never knew that!Must be akin to selling a child!
If you ever want to try forging a blade rather than grinding, I have a tonne or so of a very low tech. blacksmith friendly tool steel called Progen from the now defunct Seaboard Steel Company...they advertised it back in the day as being capable of razor blades to decoiling mill guillotine blades...I think it is similar in properties to the American Flutagon developed for the army smiths to use in the field. Forgiving in both forging and heat treatment.
Good looking knife by the way!
Alan
Hi Alan
Thanks for the offer but I afraid forging is something I would love to try but its a whole different game and also my arm tendons are so knackered I would not be able to wield a hammer all day long. I met a maker in Cape Town last year who was entering a knife for his Guild entry which was a pattern(Damsacus) steel that he had forged, though his mate did have a power hammer so a lot easier. The knife was stunning, I have never seen work like it.
I hardly ever hand forge stuff...power hammer or press seems to be much more civilised!
When I was starting out I made a crown steel shearing hook for a friend who was training to be a thatcher...I was always unsure of edge tool making and worried that it would fail on him, but I met up with him 40 years later and it was still his favourite...40 years of neck tension relieved for that project anyway!
The crown steel comprised a farriers rasp as the meat in a sandwich of wrought iron with a mild steel backing strip all fire welded together and then drawn out and formed...core was glass hard supported by the toughness of the iron and mild steel. Very old school compared to your Uddeholm!
A few years ago I had a German journeyman, Uli Hennicke, working with me for a month or two. He had taught himself to forge knives before he went to study blacksmithing with a friend of mine in Mainz. When he left me he went back to being a knife maker, so artist blacksmithing evidently didn't impress enough!
While he was here I bought one of his early pattern welded knives which he had forged in his back garden...before he had been told by real knife makers that the metals he had incorporated were impossible!
Alan
When I was starting out I made a crown steel shearing hook for a friend who was training to be a thatcher...I was always unsure of edge tool making and worried that it would fail on him, but I met up with him 40 years later and it was still his favourite...40 years of neck tension relieved for that project anyway!
The crown steel comprised a farriers rasp as the meat in a sandwich of wrought iron with a mild steel backing strip all fire welded together and then drawn out and formed...core was glass hard supported by the toughness of the iron and mild steel. Very old school compared to your Uddeholm!
A few years ago I had a German journeyman, Uli Hennicke, working with me for a month or two. He had taught himself to forge knives before he went to study blacksmithing with a friend of mine in Mainz. When he left me he went back to being a knife maker, so artist blacksmithing evidently didn't impress enough!
While he was here I bought one of his early pattern welded knives which he had forged in his back garden...before he had been told by real knife makers that the metals he had incorporated were impossible!
Alan
That's lovely and of course so unique!
Here you go Alan,
This is the work of the gent I met in South Africa, stunning work...….hence I wish to point out these knives are NOT my work.
Oh and two of those knives are mot even finished, the one dagger with the bronze guard was his guild submission and the dagger is one of the knives that a maker can choose to make for submission. If the maker does out forward a knife for consideration it must be to precise measurements and of the highest standards.
This is the work of the gent I met in South Africa, stunning work...….hence I wish to point out these knives are NOT my work.
Oh and two of those knives are mot even finished, the one dagger with the bronze guard was his guild submission and the dagger is one of the knives that a maker can choose to make for submission. If the maker does out forward a knife for consideration it must be to precise measurements and of the highest standards.
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Can I ask a serious question, how practical and everyday usable are these knives?
Can I ask a serious question, how practical and everyday usable are these knives?
The knives themselves are not designed to be used and there was no suggested they would be.
But they are designed to be hugely challenging to the maker, who for instance must be able to master the art of pattern forge welding, possibly to a specific design. I would imagine a dagger grind is chosen as it is about the most difficult grind to master and will easily show errors by the maker. Even the handle in this instance is difficult as a spiral which is hand carved out of a set criteria of materials if I remember correctly.
Just found the criteria
How to become a member the Knifemakers Guild of South Africa
How to become a member of the Knifemaker Guild of South Africa. Become a member of the KGSA.
www.kgsa.co.za
Can I ask a serious question, how practical and everyday usable are these knives?
From a metal strength point of view, very practical...if you have an everyday use for a stabbing blade...Damascus pattern steel could be perfectly serviceable.
On a basic blacksmithing level (I am not a bladesmith)...the goal of hardness to hold an edge and toughness so as not to shatter has been achieved over the centuries in different ways...Lots of axes and other edge tools were made with a soft wrought iron body which supported an inserted high carbon /blister steel cutting edge a bit like the crown steel I described earlier...it is much the same principle as the ceramic and tungsten tipped inserts in a mild steel lathe tool holder. Initially done for both physical strength and economic reasons. When tool steel became relatively less expensive to produce the whole tool could be made from it, the required properties being achieved by differential hardening and tempering.
The pattern welded Damascus blades from steels of differing carbon content also combined the hard and tough...the samurai blades went even further and were refined over and over and although there is carbon migration between the layers it makes for a very refined structure with those admirable properties.
The modern powder steels as in Peter's OP blade take it to yet another level.
Alan
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Lovely but a little OTT for Cake Knife!
Well done
K
Well done
K
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