The Gun Counter

Work in progress - utility\fighter forged from W2 steel ( which I had to import to Spain from New Jersey ! )
It's just been drawfiled to profile and polished with 120 grit ready for differential heat treatment - hard edge, softer spine and tang.



The knifemaking is going slowly right now, I'm out of belts for my grinder and had to order more from the UK and they STILL haven't arrived. I sometimes wish I lived in a first world country

Antony Beevor's book about the Spanish Civil War has some good information about why Spain is so fucked up.

Full vs Stick tang? I don't know how long the blade is but I'm why you choose a stick tang design for a blade that looks pretty large?

Good steel though, and it probably will be really cool once you get some Micarta or G10 handles on it

bubblewhip wrote:Full vs Stick tang? I don't know how long the blade is but I'm why you choose a stick tang design for a blade that looks pretty large?

Verrrry good question...

1) It's a more economical use of the steel - which is expensive by the time I've paid for shipping. The tang is drawn out rather than being profiled with a saw or grinder, so the blade is maybe 25% longer than the barstock I started with.

2) It'll be strong enough. The blade is a full 1/4" thick in the tang area, although it tapers towards the tip for balance. The cutting area is 8.5 inches so it's not a massive size.

The world turned upside down... A bladesmith in Spain having to import steel from the Americas....

Netpackrat wrote:The world turned upside down... A bladesmith in Spain having to import steel from the Americas....

There isn't really better quality steel than what the US and specifically CPM puts out in the world. There are a few steel makers in Seki City Japan that you can call equals to close equals, but today usually all the innovative super steels and traditional blanks of 1095, 5160, and D2 are generally all from America.

A couple of Austrian steels like Boheor are showing to have good results, and some Scandinavian companies and Chinese steel houses are doing good too.

But if you're building top end knives like Chris Reeve, Rick Hinderer, or top end Spyderco's, it's usually an American steel.

bubblewhip wrote:But if you're building top end knives... it's usually an American steel.

Or you can do it on the cheap. I picked up some good quality but worn German- and Swiss-made files for peanuts at a fleamarket in Bavaria last week. I think they will make excellent organ donors for some very amateur knifemaking.

Looks good, HighSpeed!

Files are good Denis, but test the steel first so you don't screw it up at the heat treat stage.

#1) Get a little test piece red hot ( if you want to be scientific use a piece of magnet on a stick to confirm that it's become non magnetic ) and then allow it to air cool.
If it's softer afterwards go to #2
If it's still hard then it's an air hardening steel and you have your work cut out there

#2) Take your now soft test piece, heat it to critical again and quench in oil
If it has hardened you have an oil hardening steel
If not, go to #3

#3) Heat to critical, quench in water. If it doesn't harden then you did something wrong

This test will ensure you don't use an incorrect quenchant and fail to harden the blade, or worse make it crack

Then heat the whole file to critical and allow it to cool slowly in wood ash or vermiculite or similar. You don't want to work steel in it's hardened state unless you have to ( I'm assuming you aren't forging to shape )

#4) Have Fun !

Also put the blade in a toaster oven to [strike]anneal[/strike] temper it and soften the steel so it's not so brittle. Don't go too far of course.

Thanks for the advice, both. I will be breaking out my copy of the $50 Knife Shop for bedtime reading.

About forging, HighSpeed, I missed out on a nice anvil at auction today, but I have my eye on another coming up next week!