Bocote knife

[Mike Stafford]

I have been steadily working through my pile of old saw blades making knives. I am selling these at the barber shop where all the barbers are hunters and members of a very large hunting club. This barber shop is frequented by many, many hunters so it has proven to be a great venue for sales of these knives. I have been trying to make knives that would be useful to these hunters for skinning and dressing out their kills of deer, hogs and turkeys.

I built a jig out of two pieces of plywood screwed together at a right angle. On the back leg I installed two t-nuts by counter sinking them into the plywood deep enough that I could use round head bolts. By extending these round head bolts which I lock into place with nuts I can set it for whatever angle I like for grinding the bevel on my knife blanks. These round head bolts slide along on the table of my belt sander and help me to get a somewhat consistent bevel grind. On the vertical leg I drilled a series of countersunk holes into which I can screw dry wall screws. I use these screws to support and locate the blade consistently while grinding. It works pretty well. I got the idea from a picture I saw of a similar jig manufactured from a piece of angle iron. Of course the angle iron had tapped and threaded holes for bolts.

This is one of my newest shapes handled in bocote. It is about 8 inches long. I have not been able to achieve a mirror finish on my blades despite polishing through 1000 grit. I am doing this polishing by hand and it is the most tedious part of the entire process.

 

[David Johnson]

That is a sharp looking instrument. What saw blades do you use?
David

 

[Mike Stafford]

That is a sharp looking instrument. What saw blades do you use?
David

I am using my lifetime collection of used circular saw blades plus a few larger blades that I accumulate d. I can get 4 and sometimes 5 knives from a 10" saw blade. Most of the blades are pre-carbide tipped.

 

[Leo Voisine]

That is some pretty impressive metal working.

Do you hear tread the blades after you have the rough shape.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I built a jig out of two pieces of plywood screwed together at a right angle

Can we get a picture of that jig pleeeasse?

 

[Mike Stafford]

That is some pretty impressive metal working.

Do you hear tread the blades after you have the rough shape.

Yes, I do. I found a video of a guy heat treating knives like I make using a makeshift forge. Basically my forge is a semi-circle of stacked bricks with an opening on one end. I pile a bag of charcoal into the forge and light them. Then I get an extension cord and run it from the shop to the area of the forge and plug in a hair dryer. I use the hair dryer as a "hurry up" to get the temperatures up.

I sprinkle salt on the blade as the melting point of salt is a good point for me to quench the steel I also frequently check the blade in the fire with a magnet on a telescoping wand.. When the steel is no longer attracted to the magnet the temperature is above 1400 degrees and when the salt melts it is around 1475 degrees. I have a can full of used motor oil warming up close to the fire that I quench in.

The next day I turn on my toaster oven and get it to 400 degrees to temper the steel i.e. make it less brittle. To do this I let the steel sit in the oven for an hour. During that time it will turn to a slightly straw color which is indicative of steel at 400 degrees. I do this twice.

Then it is just a matter of getting all the quenching scale/black stuff off the blade and polishing it with wet/dry silicon carbide paper

Then I sharpen the blade,, wrap it in tape and handle it.

I will take a picture of my jig but if you laugh I will sic my dog on you!

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

That's a great-looking knife Mike, and from the sound of your heat treating schedule, I suspect they hold an edge well.

 

[Dave Hoskins]

That is a wicked looking knife, Mike. I like it a lot.

 

[Leo Voisine]

SWEET - I like your process.