And an ironwood caper I finished today

[jindydiver]

:D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/ironwood3groove.jpg

[Luke]

You're on fire mate.. another beauty :D

[HOOD]

Simple yet practicle. I like it, especialy the hammered look of the blade.

[mayall]

another good knife mate . what steel did you use

[jindydiver]

The steel is from an old saw blade. One of the ones at the front

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/Millblades.jpg

[Puk]

That's what i love about you Jindy,
You're always embarking on some sort of new caper.

HAhahahha

Puk.

[Puk]

P.S.
Love the knife.
Puk

[mayall]

So a bit of L6 hay.
that stuff does harden really well . just have to temper it back a bit or it brakes

[jindydiver]

I did a heap of testing on it and it needs to be tempered at a fairly high temp, around 170C in my oven, and I have to watch it till it goes very golden and it is almost ready to go blue. On bigger knives I would let it get light blue, on my test pieces I had some light blue and it still held a great edge and skated on our butchers steel so I assume it was still close to 60rc.
I made a knife to test it in the field (both the steel and the blade shape) and I field dressed and quartered a fallow last Saturday with it (inc' hocking the legs) and when I finished I could still shave hairs with it..
Did I mention I LOVE saw blade steel :D

[jindydiver]

Here is my test knife

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/jindydiver/testblade.jpg

[XTfreak]

Another awsome knife jindy. I am looking forward to seeing them a bit closer in August...
Bill

[HOOD]

Another awsome knife jindy. I am looking forward to seeing them a bit closer in August...
Bill

I can see it now

'Will someone get the band aids and dettol Bills cut his tounge' :)

[mayall]

Hi Mick
Great little knife. that shape works well.
I found that at 880c then drop in oil it will harden to about 64rc. the grain of it changes a lot . I found when brought back 55rc it works good to. good to see other people making knives they are a great tool.

Thanks Mayall.
P.S love your work

[adam]

Thats something to admire Jindy.

[mayall]

HI jindy

how do you tie the cord on to your handle . i have never done anything like that
Cheers Mayall

[jindydiver]

The cord wrapping is just a five minute job, most of the time. I do it to on a few knives just so I know the handle is grippy and then I can test the other attributes, or sometimes I do it just to keep the time and materials cost down. I thread one end through the pin hole at the front and then wrap the cord around to pin it in. It doesn't have to be super secure yet, just enough so you can put some pressure on to be able to wrap the rest without it undoing. When you get to the butt end you just start to thread it through the lanyard repeatedly until you just can't get it through any more, then (if you want a lanyard) tie an overhand knot in the end of the cord and pull the last wrap back through so the knot comes up tight against the hole. When you have trimmed the excess and cleaned up the gaps and all you get a couple of tubes of super glue and go to town squirting it into all the gaps between the wraps. You want the glue to get in behind the wraps, as well as soaking in, because you want to protect the steel in case water gets in behind. I then get rid of the excess by flicking the knife and the glue comes off (like a wet paintbrush). I put the blade into a vise that is out side but under cover and let the knife dry in the breeze. You have to leave it for a long time so you don't have ANY glue still wet when you go to handle it. You wont stick to it, but the fumes will make the parts of the blade you handle go white.
If I really like the blade I can grind off the cord at any time and the pin holes are there for me to attach scales if I want.
You can do all sorts of patterns with your wraps too. If your lanyard hole is very oversize you can do some great finishes with the cord. You can also use different color cords and do layers, like one simply wrapped and the other cross hatched over with gaps to allow you to see the under wrap.

A couple of tips.
I pull the core out of any cord I use, it allows it to go flatter.
I cut the ends of the cord on an angle and melt it to stop fraying. This gives you a point so you can thread the cord easier.
Buy your super glue at the $2 shop. $2 for 10 tubes and you can do at least 5 - 7 knives for that :)

[mayall]

thanks for that tip mate very help full

[E-man]

Jindy, I have almost finished shaping a blade I've made from an old circular saw blade like the ones in your piccie.
Do I need to re-quench it again, or does it just need to be tempered?

[jindydiver]

You have to start the heat treating all over again. You might get away with doing nothing at all if you were able to grind your knife without any heat getting to it (the color would change in the steel, so you would know) and the part of the blade would make a difference too. If you can drill it to put your pins in for the handle you need to heat treat it for sure.

When you finish the blade you need to get it good and hot in the forge, to a temp where a magnet will no longer stick to it and then pull it out of the heat and let it cool slowly in the air. This reduces stress within the steel, don't do it too often or get the steel overly hot as this increases crystal size in the steel.
Then get it hot again and quench it into your warm oil and leave it in till it is cool enough to touch. Don't swish it around, just straight in edge first. Then clean it up, so you can see the bare steel, and into the oven at around 160 -170 degrees C for an hour.

The tempering temp is an estimation, you wont know what your steel needs unless you do some tests.

cheers

[E-man]

Thanks for clearing up the exact process I need to do. With the amount of opinions I've read lately on what needs to be done, I've found your answers to be the most clear and precise ones.

[jindydiver]

Glad I can help :)

That is the problem with the internet mate, for all the people you can talk with you have no idea how useful their information really is. I struck this a lot when I first started making knives and so I tracked down some guys that are known for their expertise and pestered them for info :)
Two blokes who had no problems answering my stupid questions were Ed Caffrey and Tai Goo, both great knife makers and great guys.

[Scott Riley]

nice knife mate, well done!

[Glenn]

No doubt about it Mick, you make a nice looking knife...Glenn...

[Paliadon]

Great knives.