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Big camp knife (FINISHED)
Zion:
Hey guys, I started working on this knife about a week ago. It was 1/4" x 2" x 16" 5160 bar stock originally before I started forging it. After a few days and probably about 12 hrs of forging it has grown into a 19" monster, definitely the biggest knife I've tried to make. I regret not taking pics of the forging process, I didn't think about it then.
This build along starts kinda in the middle since I start with most of the filing and grinding, the forging took some work but that's a whole different process.
Here I start filing the tang from it's rough forged shape to something flatter. This is going to be a tapered tang. I already did most of the 'thinning' on the forge, so I just need to remove the irregularities.
Here it is after filing with a course file for a few minutes.
You wan't to check the flatness by using a square edge in the light. It allows you to see where the high/low spots are.
When I get most of the big bumps out of the way I switch to draw-filing, which allows me to see where the more gradual changes are.
This get's me to here. You can see much less light and progress from now on is very slow and careful.
I swith to rough sandpaper wrapped around a piece of flat barstock.
At this point it is relatively flat both length-wise and width-wise.
Flipping it over, you can see how rough it is right off the forge. I use the fine side of a farrier's rasp to hog off metal. The steel is completely annealed right now so it really doesn't damage the rasp.
After doing both sides, we derive this result. The picture was taken at a bad angle so it looks a lot worse than it is, but it still needs more refining. Eventually I'll tape some sandpaper to a piece of flat marble and run it back and forth until it's dead flat, but for now it's fine.
Moving to the business end, you can see I already did some grinding on the blade's bevels. I find this the most tedious process which is why I had decided to forge the knife, so that I could hammer out most of the bevel's without having to use stock removal. This is an enjoyable process and really utilizes the full piece of steel, and I ended up about a quarter inch wider along the whole blade after forging. I forged the bevels down to about 1/8" thickness initially so all I had to do was run the angle grinder over it a few times to get this finish.
Here I start filing the plunge lines. I just decided what kind of angle I wanted relative to the blade and drew a pencil line which I then filed.
I then moved up the blade gradually, keeping the angle consistent and removing the same amount of material up and down the blade. Again I use the fine side of a farrier's rasp, It's pretty crazy how aggressive it is.
I then move to a finer file and draw file. The change of direction in the scratches left by the file let you see where you need remove material.
Once both bevels are evened up I file in the choil. I just use a sharp chainsaw file. You can vary the size of the choi lbut I thought a smaller one looked better on this knife. I can always change it later.
Zion:
I decided to do some file work on the back of the spine, I like the way it looks but I don't like overdoing it. I've never really been a fan of fancy blades but I do like the traditional look it gives, in moderation. I came up with this design pretty much on the spot, a wide variety of things will work as long as you keep it pretty consistent.
I begin by marking out where I will remove material with a hacksaw blade as a guide
I position the filework about halfway down the handle and a little bit into the blade, maybe 2/3 inches.
I then take a round file and remove the material between the marks I made, going about 1/3 of the way into the spine, trying to keep each one consistent with the next.
When I'm done i do the other side. You could stop here if you want and it would look fine, but I decided to continue with the next step...
I take a small, sharp chainsaw file and make another half-circle directly on the sharpie marks I made.
When both sides are done it will look like this.
Unfortunately my camera broke the other day so I won't be able to post for a while, I did do a little more finish work on the blade and got the tang completely flat. I'll wait to drill the holes for the handle and heat treat the blade for when I get the camera back.
bubby:
Very nice so far😉
lebhuntfish:
Looking good! I can't wait till you get to the hardening and tempering part. I have one in the works right now and never done it before! Thanks for doing this build along! Patrick
Zion:
Thanks guys I appreciate it. I just bought some handle materials and quenching oil so we're all set there. I'm kinda ticked off because my camera just stopped working for no reason, otherwise I would have posted more by now... hopefully I can get it back before the holiday season is over and get this sucker heat treated. Until then I guess I'll just have to wait, sorry bout that!!!
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