12-12-2017, 11:14 AM
I will throw in my .02 here.
My first knife was made from an old 1.25" wide file I found in a random box.
Mark's comment of, "Spending time making something that looks like a knife but acts like an icicle is pretty easy, but not particularly satisfying.", is pretty much where this knife ended up.
Mark is also spot on regarding the difficulty/time/heat sensitivity of material removal on hardened files.
They turn dark blue really fast on the thin parts, and usually when you weren't looking.
There are plenty of good heat treating shops to do the magic.
Personally, the heat treating was something I really wanted to play with and learn about. And glowing red metal is fun!
Could be interesting to anneal and re-HT files, but the unknown of the base metal could end up frustrating.
I've seen videos on youtube of some semi-famous knife maker in that uses exclusively old files. She heat treats them in her shop.
The left on checkering is a pretty cool look.
My first knife was made from an old 1.25" wide file I found in a random box.
Mark's comment of, "Spending time making something that looks like a knife but acts like an icicle is pretty easy, but not particularly satisfying.", is pretty much where this knife ended up.
Mark is also spot on regarding the difficulty/time/heat sensitivity of material removal on hardened files.
They turn dark blue really fast on the thin parts, and usually when you weren't looking.
There are plenty of good heat treating shops to do the magic.
Personally, the heat treating was something I really wanted to play with and learn about. And glowing red metal is fun!
Could be interesting to anneal and re-HT files, but the unknown of the base metal could end up frustrating.
I've seen videos on youtube of some semi-famous knife maker in that uses exclusively old files. She heat treats them in her shop.
The left on checkering is a pretty cool look.