Today I finished my first full machete - (I have attempted several in the past but the stock I used, 1/8" or 3/32" 1075, I would always grind too thin and end up with a wonky blade.
This blade came from stock I had watterjetted from an old sawmill blade. The blade was 24 inches across, and was already hardened to about 50 hrc - not great hardness for something like a combat knife or even a EDC utility blade, but that hardness is decent enough for a machete. Machetes, if hardened throughout the entire blade, shouldn't be in the 58-62 HRC normality range of knives. They will chip easily at that hardness, if used extensively or cutting tree branches. A common tradeoff in factory made machetes is only the edge will be hardened, with the spine being only partially hardened or not at all.
I figured 50 HRC would be enough for a compact hiking machete for average use, so I never annealed it or hardened it. I drilled the holes with a Cobalt M42 drill bit, which is rated at 65 HRC according to Google. It drilled it with some difficulty, and I had to ReSharpen the bit when I was dome.
Anyway, so the first step was to take the blank blade I got cut and transform it info a machete. I laid down layout fluid, scribed some areas that needed to be cut off, then cut with an angle grinder. I then rounded the edges of the blade out. I heavily modified the handle to fit my hands, using the spinning wheels on my belt sander to get nice round choils. I repeated this for about an hour, taking small increments off until I was satisfied.
I then did the bevels. I did them completely by eye, freehanding them, because I didn't feel like putting a 16 1/2 inch blade on my bevel jig meant for 10 inch max knives. This was the longest process and I probably spent about two hours just freehanding it, and checking my progress.
The blade went through several iterations of handles, the first three of which were dogwood, photinia, and oak. After all 3 pin peening attemps ended in cracked scales, I did some research. It turns out, the 5mm diameter beryllium copper pins I was using are actually nearly impossible to peen. The ideal peening size is 1/16", 3/32", or 1/8". So the fact I was trying it on pins six times larger than they should have been complicated things unnecessarily.
I took a break for a bit and decided to give the machete TWO etch baths in ferric chloride. I cut the ferric solution 50% with water. Each session lasted about 20 minutes. The solution gave the blade a nice grey protective color and coating.
On my 4th scales, I decided to dig into my even more exotic scale stash and pulled out some spalted Brazilian jatoba. I got 5 sets of them at a decent discount off eBay a while back, and I'm glad I did because they are nice to shape, and beautiful in general. This time I used some scrap ends of 3/32 Aluminum TIG Welding rods. These peened great.
Finally, I cut off the excess scale material with my bandsaw, and then I textured the handles on my oscillating spindle sander. Three light coats of gunstock finish made the scales POP.
I am very happy with this blade.
This blade came from stock I had watterjetted from an old sawmill blade. The blade was 24 inches across, and was already hardened to about 50 hrc - not great hardness for something like a combat knife or even a EDC utility blade, but that hardness is decent enough for a machete. Machetes, if hardened throughout the entire blade, shouldn't be in the 58-62 HRC normality range of knives. They will chip easily at that hardness, if used extensively or cutting tree branches. A common tradeoff in factory made machetes is only the edge will be hardened, with the spine being only partially hardened or not at all.
I figured 50 HRC would be enough for a compact hiking machete for average use, so I never annealed it or hardened it. I drilled the holes with a Cobalt M42 drill bit, which is rated at 65 HRC according to Google. It drilled it with some difficulty, and I had to ReSharpen the bit when I was dome.
Anyway, so the first step was to take the blank blade I got cut and transform it info a machete. I laid down layout fluid, scribed some areas that needed to be cut off, then cut with an angle grinder. I then rounded the edges of the blade out. I heavily modified the handle to fit my hands, using the spinning wheels on my belt sander to get nice round choils. I repeated this for about an hour, taking small increments off until I was satisfied.
I then did the bevels. I did them completely by eye, freehanding them, because I didn't feel like putting a 16 1/2 inch blade on my bevel jig meant for 10 inch max knives. This was the longest process and I probably spent about two hours just freehanding it, and checking my progress.
The blade went through several iterations of handles, the first three of which were dogwood, photinia, and oak. After all 3 pin peening attemps ended in cracked scales, I did some research. It turns out, the 5mm diameter beryllium copper pins I was using are actually nearly impossible to peen. The ideal peening size is 1/16", 3/32", or 1/8". So the fact I was trying it on pins six times larger than they should have been complicated things unnecessarily.
I took a break for a bit and decided to give the machete TWO etch baths in ferric chloride. I cut the ferric solution 50% with water. Each session lasted about 20 minutes. The solution gave the blade a nice grey protective color and coating.
On my 4th scales, I decided to dig into my even more exotic scale stash and pulled out some spalted Brazilian jatoba. I got 5 sets of them at a decent discount off eBay a while back, and I'm glad I did because they are nice to shape, and beautiful in general. This time I used some scrap ends of 3/32 Aluminum TIG Welding rods. These peened great.
Finally, I cut off the excess scale material with my bandsaw, and then I textured the handles on my oscillating spindle sander. Three light coats of gunstock finish made the scales POP.
I am very happy with this blade.
