knife making

[Straight Shooter]

What i want T O is the make 1 adze 1 froe and 1 scorp i think the scorp may well be beyond my skills ...never done any smithing worth talking about.

[T-oddity]

I'd start with the froe by far the easiest of the lot to make, not done an adze or a scorpe, mostly made knives and wood turning tools dont need much in the way of extra tools other than a pair of tongs and a hammer and a big lump of metal to bash it on

[Pete Grey]

RE. Knife making

Have seen an old thread on knife making using an old spring leaf. The steel mainly used is EN45 silicon manganese with 0.55% carbon, this gives a tuff blade which will hold a reasonable edge.
Soften by heating to red heat then allow to cool slowly, flatten then wire brush, draw knife profile on leaf and cut and shape using angle grinder and bench grinder, rough grind edge on the blade.
Drill holes in handle part to allow for rivets. To harden the blade heat to bright red (850C) then oil quench to cold, slowly reheat until blade JUST starts to show a little red (600C) and slowly cool, blade is now tempered. You can now polish the blade, fit a handle and sharpen you new knife.
If it doesn’t turn out first time you’ve had an interesting day, Good luck.

[Mortblanc]

(9 January 2016, 22:11)Straight Shooter Wrote: After reading Charles post yesterday got me thinking....and looking today......and finally found a leaf spring off ...i think ..and old ford Anglia ....any advice on working this metal would be great anyone have any knowledge ?

This post somehow escaped my notice. Do you still want some info on working such materials SS?

Thinking about the situation it might be easier to make a crossbow from an Anglia spring than a knife.

You are going to need a forge, and a good sized one at that, just to get the arch out of the spring, normalize it so you can work it, then reheat it for hardening.

Last one I did was a large sax blade with reindeer antler slabs for handle scales.

That one was made from the seat spring off an old horse drawn wagon.

[Straight Shooter]

I had a froe given me ....by John the farm MB , its surprising what he's got in those barns and sheds....i still have the leaf spring kicking about though....i did mention on here about a anvil i spotted and tried to get but no luck , John has one ....small ...but would do me....making a forge is well within my capabilities .....but i get side tracked a lot these days like a ship without a rudder some of it down to me ....but mostly down to insurance companies and loss adjusters doing their level best to ....me over.

[Pete Grey]

Having worked with furnaces and vehicles springs for many years the basics of heat treatment are quite simple, what is is difficult is getting even temperatures along the whole item.

A forge works well with a short blade, knife of spear head, but a bow would need a furnace chamber to get an even temperature otherwise you could not get an even temper, one end would bend/flex more than the other.

EN45 silicon manganese spring steel hardens at 850C, oil quench then temper at 650C and allow to cool, good luck.

[Mortblanc]

Yes Pete is absolutely correct, I have used forges of all sizes and worked in shops where we had large coal fired forges but it is nearly impossible to get even temperatures on a long blade even with gas fired forges.

Even a big coal fired forge is going to have hot spots in the firebox due to air flow.

And a small anvil is no use for working something like a car spring. You need a big 150-250 kilo chunk of anvil and a hammer of substance too. Best to have a couple of guys with 5K mauls ready to flatten whatever you slap on the anvil.

I have worked small blades on an anvil I made from a small auto brake drum and a crank blower, and used charcoal, but that is a tough way to work.

[Straight Shooter]

Sounds to complicated for me to even contemplate having a play at ...given i have no real knowledge at all....i'll move on to something less challenging within my pay grade ...but thanks anyway guys .

[Pete Grey]

SS a forge is a useful asset whether using coke or charcoal and an old vacuum cleaner as a blower, or using a propane torch and a few house bricks, even an oxy/acetylene blowtorch can be used on small jobs to harden and temper steel or even just make a few brackets, hooks etc. Have a go it’s good fun.

[Mortblanc]

(16 April 2018, 16:01)Pete Grey Wrote: SS a forge is a useful asset whether using coke or charcoal and an old vacuum cleaner as a blower, or using a propane torch and a few house bricks, even an oxy/acetylene blowtorch can be used on small jobs to harden and temper steel or even just make a few brackets, hooks etc. Have a go it’s good fun.

Yes SS, give it a go!

There is really nothing like making your first good knife, even if it is a small one for daily use.

I forge blades from files and old broken chisels (my favorite found steel is old horse drawn hay rake tines) and heat treat them in the forge and using the kitchen oven. They often do not look spectacular but they make excellent and usable devices and it gives you one more skill to add to the list.

So build your forge and google some info on how to work the steel on the simple devices and have a go.

You probably have the materials lying around to build the forge already. One of my friends made a forge from "kitty litter", an old kitchen sink and a shop-vac. It worked magnificently.

An anvil for small blades is as near as the flat part of your bench vise, a big piece of I beam, or a chunk of railroad track. My present anvil is a section of RR track about 12" long.

Any big 2# hammer will work for moving the metal.

And if you learn to "forge weld" you will have a skill almost lost to modern adhesives.