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My first knife, from a rasp

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Aaron H:
This is a knife that I made from a rasp.  I made it about two years ago, it was my first attempt at making a knife.
I built a good fire, threw the rasp in the coals and left it overnight to anneal the tool steel. I shaped it with a grinder, then built another fire in a plow disc that I hooked up some fittings to. Got a good strong fire burning then hooked up my shop vac to the fittings and turned the vacuum on with the hose on the blow side, this made a really nice forge.  I heated the blade cherry red until a magnet quit sticking to it, then dipped just the blade side of the knife in some used motor oil.  After a couple different fire extinguishers were used up on the oil fire I had in my back yard, I had a hardened blade.  I heated my oven to 400 degrees and tempered the blade as my wife looked upon me with with disapproval.  Once the blade was tempered, I sharpened it, then polished it up with some 1200 grit sandpaper.  After all this I made a grip out of box elder that was impregnated with plastic.  I am pretty happy with the results, it is very sharp and it holds an edge really well.  It measures 11 1/2" long, 1 3/8" wide, and 3/16" thick with a full tang.
Aaron

bubbles:
"After a couple different fire extinguishers were used up on the oil fire I had in my back yard, I had a hardened blade. "
Haha, amazing.

Looks cool, good work.

---GUTSHOT--->:
That's a nice looking knife

Ozzy:
Sweet nice job

Adam:
Very nice! I like how you shaped the sheath too.

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