My Neighbour's Knife

[CalgaryPT]

I've got a great neighbour—super smart mechanical guy I'm really lucky to know. What I found out recently was that he makes knives as well. But it takes him a long, long time because he does everything by hand. The blades are reclaimed industrial saw blades. He hand files everything. Gotta love creative people like this, and I totally get the labour of love aspect. He made the case as well.

Hard to tell from the pic, but the handle is contoured (thicker in the center). He did this by hand with just files. So nice.

 

[DPittman]

Yes very nice especially considering it was all done manually. There is a skill and finesse involved in shaping metal by hand/files.

 

[PeterT]

Just cant resist the Crocodile Dundee meme LoL.
Now did you get the impression he is regrinding finish hardened saw blade stock to the final shape? (Versus annealing to soft, profiling & then re-hardening).

 

[CalgaryPT]

Just cant resist the Crocodile Dundee meme LoL.
Now did you get the impression he is regrinding finish hardened saw blade stock to the final shape? (Versus annealing to soft, profiling & then re-hardening).

View attachment 15755

Regrinding mate. His garage isn't set up for any kind of hot work—it's as cramped as mine but most of it is flammable.

 

[6.5 Fan]

Nice shape to that blade.

 

[historicalarms]

He must let the grinding process get the metal hot enough to anneal it to a softer state, any industrial saw or planer blades I've tried to do anything with , a file wont even mark the steel ....however he does it, it's a fine looking knife for toad stabbing.

 

[CalgaryPT]

He must let the grinding process get the metal hot enough to anneal it to a softer state, any industrial saw or planer blades I've tried to do anything with , a file wont even mark the steel ....however he does it, it's a fine looking knife for toad stabbing.

My apologies that I don't know more; not being familiar with forging or knife making I just stood there and gawked instead of asking about the process. The guard is copper, and the brass on the handles came from the slides on commercial garbage trucks. The white is actually the plastic kick plate/puck board on hockey rinks.

 

[DPittman]

He must let the grinding process get the metal hot enough to anneal it to a softer state, any industrial saw or planer blades I've tried to do anything with , a file wont even mark the steel ....however he does it, it's a fine looking knife for toad stabbing.

He's got pretty fast hands to get the metal to that temperature if he's actually doing everything by hand.

 

[PeterT]

He must let the grinding process get the metal hot enough to anneal it to a softer state, any industrial saw or planer blades I've tried to do anything with , a file wont even mark the steel ....however he does it, it's a fine looking knife for toad stabbing.

I suspect it might be the opposite because PT said he wasn't set of for heat treat. He is probably keeping the blade cool enough so as not to loose the hardness while grinding. Whether that's lots of water dips, or low removal rate... probably time consuming patience work. Not much different than when we sharpen knifes on a whetsone, just a whole lot more material removal.

 

[historicalarms]

The OP specifically said "filing" and filing just aint gonna happen on an industrial hacksaw saw blade without some "softening" in the procedure, at least any that i have handled.

Yes wet stoning does remove material but Carborundum wet stoneing is a far different catskin than filing. If the knife maker stoned that knife out of a piece of sawblade he deserves a "double atta-boy" from me.

 

[Johnwa]

What is an industrial saw blade and where do I get one?

 

[CalgaryPT]

What is an industrial saw blade and where do I get one?

The one he showed me looked a little like a hand mitre saw blade, but it was thick—looked to be 1/8". No idea where he got it. I'll try to get him to join the forum, but he seems to be the busiest guy I know, so we will see.

 

[PeterT]

The OP specifically said "filing" and filing just aint gonna happen on an industrial hacksaw saw blade without some "softening" in the procedure.

I think we are both reading between the lines. If a file was used, annealing would be required as you say. He also didn't mention anything about 'softening', you did. It's not a stretch to assume a common torch was handy to anneal. But then what, you have a soft blade, not a hard blade. Not really an effective cutting instrument but neither you or I know what the objective was. Maybe it's a knife-knife or maybe its more of a decorative knife. OP did confirm he has no HT facilities which tells me he was not re-hardening = my original question. In post #4 OP says 're-grinding'. So I interpret that to mean he is removing material with some form of abrasive & thus has the ability to preserve hardness, but that's just yet another guess. Words are funny that way. Moving on now....