Huge fan Walter, I want to leave this comment not for you but for those who may be considering making a marking knife as i have made and used many and would like to point out one thing. It may not be super critical but in using a marking knife as long as i have one thing you may want to do is make the blade long. When marking dovetails by transfer you want to make sure that the entire flat side of the blade will register againts the pins/tails without the handle getting in the way. Hope that makes sense.
I WAS ABOUT TO SAY THE SAME THING. I'M A GUITAR BUILDER AND I USE A PENCIL TO MARK ALL OF MY LINES BUT MY NECK MORTIS, THAT HAS TO BE NAT'S ASS AND A LONGER BLADE IS EASIER TO SEE WHEN MAKIMG THE MARKS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS AN AMAZING VIDEO THIS GUY REALLY KNOWS HIS STUFF AND I'DE BE HONORED TO OWN THE KNIFE PRODUCED IN THIS VIDEO.
THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST TUTORIAL VIDEOS I'VE SEEN ON RU-vid. I BUILD CUSTOM GUITARS BUT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO MAKE CUSTOM BLADES TOO. I HAD A SMALL METAL FAB SHOP THAT I BUILT CHOPPERS AND TATTOO MACHINES IN BUT I HAD TO SELL IT ALL TO OPEN A TATTOO SHOP AND FUND MY GUITAR SHOP. THIS VIDEO HAS LIT THE FIRE MAN I'M PUMPED TO START LEARNING ABOUT BLADES. I'M GOING TO WATCH EVERY VIDEO YOU HAVE AND EVERY OTHER VIDEO. THANK YOU SIR FOR INSPIRING ME WITH YOUR AMAZING SKILLS.
Thank you for your videos. I love knives and now I think I can actually make one. These videos will help my learning curve. Hopefully I won't have to make too many stinkers before I make a decent one. Thank You, Jim
That part at 10:19 where you say you filed the pins flush. That had me in stitches. Ever since I stumbled upon your channel, I've been enjoying all your videos. Keep up the great work.
Hi Walter, I've been enjoying your videos a lot lately, I think you might have saved me about 10 months of learning. I was wondering, how do you go about sharpening a straight razor?
Thank you for this Walter! I found your channel through a mention from Jimmy DiResta. I'm a long way from making something like this but I really appreciated the options you gave for the apprentice. Cheers!
Very nice little tool! You're getting quite a collection of wood working tools, i presume you are getting into carpentry? Would like to see some of those projects published here too :)
The more expensive the wood, the finer the grit... I love it. Have you ever used hardness files to test the hardness of steels? I would love to see you test that. R
Great video! I want to make a similar making knife. So, I purchased some high speed steel off the internet. You mentioned that all steel must be heat treated. However, I bought this specifically as high speed steel stock. My question to you is, does the fact that tis stock was sold as high speed steel mean that no heat treating is needed? That is considering I file this down and do not introduce heat from a grinder. Or, as you said, it does not matter, and even stock sold as high speed steel must be heat treated? You are a wealth of knowledge and I have enjoyed every video you took time to produce. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Oh, and by the way, I think you got the raw end of the pick to be used during on Forged in Fire.
Thanks for educating us on this..always wanted to know if a mower blade could be useful...and approximately what steel it might be.... good testing for all of us to try for mystery steels we have laying around.
Excellent video. I like the method of testing the ability to heat treat with mystery steel. One question: how did you get the rivits snug? Did you mushroom them over?
Very cool. I was wondering how you connect the wood to blades for knife making. I've wanted to make some kitchen knives for my wife as a gift. This video helped tremendously. Question: What does the peanut oil do? Does it just help determine what type of metal you have.
A little yes, as some metal types like medium carbon content steel only harden with rapid cooling that water enables and others can harden in slower cooling oils. Not a professional, just what i read from comment section.
You can do it with a belt sander, you can do it with an angle grinder, you can do it with a file, but it may take you a while. Gander, don't pander, I hope this gives you a mile wide smile.
Mr. Sorrells, I'm not sure if I want to get into this craft, as interesting ad it is. However I wonder if I could use a toaster oven at about 200 degrees for a longer time as a last step, instead of the 400 you show ?
+jim renderer It's 400 degrees F, which is about 205 degrees Celsius. Any oven should be able to get to over 200C. And as far as I know a longer temper at a lower temperature won't get the desired result.
Great little project. Quick question, I'm having a hard time putting the final shaping on the scales after I've pinned them on the blade without ending up sanding the edges of the knife handle, which screws up whatever finish I took the knife to. If I ran the blade up to 1000 grit, then use 400 to shape my scales on the sander, I end up with 1000/400... sanding over the 400 up to 1000 again always seems to end up removing too much wood.
great video. one day, you'll be as good as trollsky. j/k. just wanted to say: loved the "tastefully named..." comment. made me LOL. and thanks for all the vids, and continued success and good luck in the new year. (just don't forget to aspire to be as good as trollsky, one day. :-)
I have had one of those knives for years, I got it in a job lot of machining tools I bought from a retired engineer. I always wondered what the hell it was for, and now I know....
Great project. I noticed you didn't use the actual piece of metal to cut out the slot in the handle. Next time, to get it precise in an easy way with minimal cutting make a mark on the center of the handle,put the metal next to it between the handle and the saw fence. Tape the metal to the fence with scotch tape and make the first cut into the handle. Remove the metal piece from the fence and make the second cut this gives you a perfect sized slot with minimal to no measuring...
can i skip heat treatment if I'm taking a flip-knife and grinding it into a marking knife? I'm assuming the blade (Stainless steel Tanto blade by Klein) has been heat treated but maybe grinding will ruin that? thanks
Thanks for your videos. I have seen every one of them. I had a quick question that I possibly missed in the hours of watching your instruction. Is it possible to work with steel that has already been hardened by annealing it? If so, what are the best methods of accomplishing this?
+maskdtux Sure. Every steel has it's own annealing regimen. But with carbon steels, you're basically heating it up to around 1500 degrees and then cooling it as slowly as you can. There are more technical ways of doing it in an industrial context, but that will get the steel soft enough to work with a file.
Excellent video! I think I will make one for myself, then a few to sell to some carpenters I know. I heard you mention wrought iron at the end. I am looking to buy some wrought iron to use for some of my Blacksmithing projects but don't know where to get it besides old gates or fences. Any suggestions? Where do you get yours? I live in NJ if that helps. Thanks
hey walt quick question what was the wood type used? I couldn't figure out how to spell it via the way you were saying it. it's very nice wood and I'd like to make a few things from it.
I've noticed a lot of people are doing more and more with lawn mower blades. is there a trend going on or is it just that you had one at your disposal?
Walter any tips on getting my crappy HF 1x30 to actually be able to take off steel with out taking "ALL" day. I swear it would be faster to do it with a file. I am using crap Home Depot welding steel to practice on and using a 40 grit Aluminium Oxide belt. Also isn't it nice to actually have some non raining weather down here in the ATL area now. So glad the rain stopped. I was getting tired of it.
I got a 4 inch belt sander from harbor freight (think it was $80) and it's been working pretty good! Just using 80grit belts then 180 then 240. The 4 inch belts will take 4 times longer in theory to wear out than the 1 inch ones as long as they are the same length. May be something to look into!
+Walter Sorrells these are brand new fresh belts like from the get go, they just don't seem to be removing much. could it be because the platten is maybe about an eighth of an inch or so from the belt when it is running. .
+Joseph Rector Mine cut a lot slower with the platten back like that. I adjusted it to just barely touch and it seems to cut faster and with less rounding of the edges.
this may be a dumb question but once you heat the steel up and water quench it the file doesn't work on it. so what happens in the oven over that hour? does it soften the steel to alow an edfe to be ground ? sorry if this is dumb
The hour in the oven removes some of the hardness in the steel. Not completely but enough that the steel is no longer so brittle. Thus if it gets dropped, you have ding that can be ground out vice a broken blade.
Lovely job Walter, but not much use for most dovetailing jobs. It's way too thick. I used a piece of hacksaw blade and made a couple of scales from scrap maple. Works perfectly.
Hi mr. Sorrels, first of all, you have a great channel and I was wondering if you could make a straight razor video in the future because I think that is the only type of knife you haven't made a making-of video. Again great channel and thank you for your videos. Greetings from Chile Joaquín PD: Have a great 2016
Great video, i´ll try do make my own knife. walter each video i see, i learn new stuffs, thank you :D ¿the wood is Ciricote? i´m from México and i have some wood of ciricote from and old tree.
Hours? This takes like barely any time to make with power tools... and end result will keep its blade much better than some china made peace of scrap metal..
+mikefrecs I probably should have explained that, but when you get into heat treating there's an awful lot to talk about. Anyway, oil cools the steel slower than water. Some steels need to be cooled extremely quickly in order to harden, whereas others will harden in oil, and others harden by simply cooling in air.
+POLOLOUS3 Any alloying element will typically affect heat treatment. Manganese and chromium are two very common alloying elements which will cause steel to harden with slower quench regimens. But carbon content affects it, too. The less carbon content, the faster you have to cool it in order to harden.
