1st Knife Build in 3 Years! FINISHED

[E. Jensen]

Glad I did a backup blade.  One barely warped at all, the other is a horseshoe.  Funny thing, its the backup blade that warped.  We'll see if I can't straighten it tomorrow. Sorta tricky once it's been hardened.  I find heat treat best to do at night, that's how my eyes are trained to see the colors and the temperatures they correspond with.  And since I temper them immediately for 1 hour so they don't ping overnight (after hardening, before tempering, the blade is under tremendous stress, which tempering relieves).  That also means its late and I'll be up another hour to check that the toaster oven shutoff.

[jaxenro]

Is that clay tempering?

[E. Jensen]

Yesir

[E. Jensen]

Final grinding is done.  Next comes the fun part.  Hand sanding the blade.

[jaxenro]

Looking good. How do you bring out the tempering line? Or should I just wait for it?

[E. Jensen]

Great question.  First step, lots and lots of hand sanding.  The belt finish is 120, start hand sanding with 220, then 320, 400, and 800.  Finished with a scotch brite pad, ultra fine.  This took about 6 hours give or take.  At this point, you can see the line in the right light, but what will really bring it out is some acid, which I will do either tonight or tomorrow morning, and then start on the guard.  The guard is a bit of a mental block for me, since I've never done a slotted guard, and I've certainly never soldered one on, and it can all go pretty wrong.  Also anxious about drill the block, and anxious about peening the buttcap.  We'll cry about that when we get there though

[E. Jensen]

[jaxenro]

Nice work beautiful hamon

[bubby]

Looking good, glad to see you making again

[E. Jensen]

Got the guard mostly fitted.  Took FOREEVVVVVVVEEEERRRRR.  Two days.  And.....it's crooked.  Should be able to correct that tomorrow. 

[E. Jensen]

Well.  Soldering was a success*.  A little too hot, and a LOT messier than I planned, but better that I learn to handle and clean these situations.  Fixed the crook I think.

[jaxenro]

Nice. Soldering guards was always one of the hardest things to do for me yours came out clean

[DC]

Doesn't that take the temper out of the blade?

[E. Jensen]

Yes but not very much and only near the guard.  Now, there was a gap in the solder, so I took it off, cleaned it up, and tried again.  My heat sink fell off and I messed it up.  Now THIS is significant loss of temper.  Only in the discolored area, but its a lot.  This build is a failure, there is no way to recover from this.  The blade is ground too thin to reharden.  I'll just finish it up and use it as a beater knife. 

[penderbender]

That stinks haha it's was looking really good. On to another one! Cheers- Brendan