Started a fillet knife (finished)

[Cardboard_Duck]

I am making a surprise fillet knife for a friend and would like some input on the design I have -



I freehanded the shape, the blade is 5" and the handle is roughly 4.5".

1/16" 01 tool steel that I will heat treat and temper, and I was thinking a black walnut handle. Any suggestions or just go with it ?

Thanks in advance 

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Don't make it TOO thin...

[Frawg]

Antler handle would look sweet on it duck. Nice looking blade, your friend should love it
Matt

[Cardboard_Duck]

I don't think 1/16" is too thin... I have 3/32 and 1/8 and those are way too thick for a fillet knife.

I like the antler idea, I'll  check to see if I have a big enough piece. I'm thinking of using aluminum pins instead of brass for this one.

[KHalverson]

should work great.
if it was me
id set my bevels give it a good normalization cycle
edge quench and temper at 400 f for 2  1 hour cycles
put on a good scandi grind and fillet away
if ya need antler ive got some elk antler thatd make some nice scales
id be happy to send ya
Kevin

[Cardboard_Duck]

Thanks for the tips Kevin  I'm still really new at this whole knife thing... I'm going to have a hard time soaking it at a constant temp with my forge. I make a two brick mapp gas fired forge that has a coating of satanite and ITC-100. It gets up to a nice temp but I have a hard time judging the temperature of the steel. So to normalize it, bring it to 1600 and then let it cool to around 500 and then bring to non magnetic (just over 1400?) and hold for ten minutes and just quench the edge? I've only worked with 1080 which seems to be a lot easier to HT than 0-1...

[KHalverson]

this is how i do it(not everyone does it exactlly the same)
first heat come up the next color past non magnetic pull from the forge and hold the handle area with your tongs . let cool till its not red
2 back into the forge and up till just non magnetic  remove from forge holding again till below red
3 heat till just an even red and remove from forge hold till red is gone
shut down forge  and place blank back in and allow the whole thing to come down slow

my biggest fear with steel that thin is not gettin it hard but having it warp into a boomerang.

when your ready for the actual heat treat  let your forge come up to temp without the blade in it
the reason i did ths was my brick forge had a wicked hot spot
when ya think its hot enough  taper off your heat some and place the blank in forge
let it come up to non magnetic as evenly as possible  and hold that temp for 2-3 minutes then into the quench with the bottom third to half of the blade
if ya have any questios feel fre to give me a call and ill talk ya thru it the best i can
(231) 460-3738
ill be in the garage working on knives myself today
Kevin

[Cardboard_Duck]

Thanks for the run through

I will give it a try today, I have plenty of steel so if I mess up it's just a learning experience  I'll post my results tonight... good or bad...

Here is the little forge I built -


The torch goes in the side towards the top of the cylinder and kinda creates a spiraling flame that shoots out the opening.

[Cardboard_Duck]

Here it is -



I used black walnut for the handle with two 1/8" and one 3/16" aluminum pins.

[Olanigw (Pekane)]

Looks good.  How well does it flex?

[KHalverson]

WOW!
now thats a looker.
any problems with warping?

[Cardboard_Duck]

WOW!
now thats a looker.
any problems with warping?

Thanks!

Still straight as an arrow!

[osage outlaw]

WOW!  That turned out nice.

[Ifrit617]

Ooh boiy, I would love to take that off your hands... that is gorgeous...

Jon

[mullet]

I want to make one now, that is a good looking knife.