# I dont really know what I'm doing. First knife build



## Jdaschel (Jul 19, 2013)

I got bored so I decided to give the knife thing a go. I picked up the knife kit when they had it on sale a while ago at woodcraft. The wood is stabilized flame box elder. 


Cut in half to bookmatch or something like that

[attachment=27911]


Then I sanded both sides on the drum sander. 
[attachment=27912]

Draw some stuff on them..
[attachment=27913]


I was going to use the original pins but I decided not to because they required the width to be set before you glue the knife up. It was like a screw with a matching screw on the other side. Too much thinking for me...:dash2:
So I made my own out of some old alumilite I found.
[attachment=27914]


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## Jdaschel (Jul 19, 2013)

Drilled the holes. 

[attachment=27915]


Then I sanded the ends over (the part at the front of the knife) Because I read in some tutorial that is was hard to sand. So I did. 

[attachment=27916]


Then I glued it all together with black epoxy. Clear epoxy dyed with alumlite black dye. 

[attachment=27917]


And thats all I have so far..


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## Kevin (Jul 19, 2013)

Scott sent me some practice knives just like those - I actually have a set of scales roughed out for one but that's as far as the project got before the shop got gutted. 

Looks like yours will be really knice.


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## Jdaschel (Jul 19, 2013)

Kevin said:


> Scott sent me some practice knives just like those - I actually have a set of scales roughed out for one but that's as far as the project got before the shop got gutted.
> 
> Looks like yours will be really knice.



Yea, I usually start projects and never finish. I figured I better at least get it glued up before I stopped.


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## Jdaschel (Jul 19, 2013)

more pics.


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## jimmyjames (Jul 19, 2013)

Just curious guys, have any of the knife makers used d2 tool steel for knife blades? I know its hard to heat treat it but I can have flat stock laser cut into the profile of a knife and heat treat it to 62, I would love to have a d2 bladed knife


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## robert flynt (Jul 19, 2013)

I have used D2 but not much. It's a good tool steel and has been around a very long time. It is known for it's abrasion resistance but if I'm going to use a steel that is just out of the stainless category I like CPM 3V. It's as abrasion resistant as D2 but is more shock resistant. RC62 is at the high end of the usable hardness for D2 and you might find that the blade will chip in hard use because the impact toughness is the lowest at this hardness.


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## jimmyjames (Jul 20, 2013)

That is correct, all of our tooling we draw it at 960 and then 910, that gives us a hardness of 59-60 and is much more chip resistant, at 62 sharp edges are hard to keep from chipping, our punches can hold a sharp edge even after stroking 200,000 times through .125" thick steel, if we were to draw it at a lower temp and get a 61-62 the edge would be gone in no time. I've read a lot about the hardness of some knives and I myself don't understand why its a must for achieving an 61-62 hardness for a knife blade, all metals just get to brittle at that state, plus a 59 is pretty dang hard. For what I do with a knife I would rather have a softer more chip resistant blade. Some of the guys go through probably a 30 hour heat treat process with long ramped draws to get all the good stuff to precipitate to the surface of the steel, a higher temp draw does the same thing, I soak d2 at 1850 for 1 hour per inch of thickness and first draw at 960 for 1 hour of thickness and second draw at 910 for 2 hours per inch of thickness and that's it, all these guys bragging about a hardness of 62 boggles me, I don't believe there's any reason for it other than bragging. If you test the hardness of any off the shelf knives you'd be hard pressed to find anything over a hardness of 55, OK sorry for the thread hijack, excellent work for your first knife!


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