Started with an old file and shaped with sand paper and a little mora knife to shape the wood all by hand. Its finally starting to look like a knife and actually shave hair.


Still have some work to do.

did you make the knife out of a finger nail file?

lol no, A real file.

that makes much more sense. if you made that knife out of a fingernail file i was gonna have a cow.

No its a 9 inch knife. The blade is 4 inches long and 3/16 inches thick

thats a good lookin knife. i might have to try to make one.

Its a joy crating things by hand. I hope that is just the first of many knives you make. Its a great hobby. Did you aneal the file to make it soft enough to shape? Did you then heat treat it and temper it?

I still have the very first knife I made back in 1982. Ive lost track of all the dozens and dozens I have made since then.

No I left it hard. I was thinking it would be great for skinning and such being super hard but its looking like I'm going to have to go ahead and anneal it in order to put pins in the Handle.

I was able to take my time and shape it with sand paper but that is looking like a waste now as I can not get holes drilled in the handle.

You wont be able to anneal it with the handle on (that you show in the first picture). Most old files are made from WI steel (W indicates water quench) but it could even be 1095 steel.

You could bake the file in the oven at 450/500 Degrees F and then turn the oven down to 400 for an hour and then 300 for a half hour and then leave it in the oven to slowly cool. That will soften it up a but allowing you to grind a bevel, drill holes and do final shaping.

Then your going to need to re-harden and temper the steel so it holds an edge.

Heat the blade to 1,400-1,500 degrees F (A magnet should not cling to the metal at this point) Then quench the steel in 180 Degree F salt water or veg oil. Have your oven preheated to 450 degrees F and take the still hot blade and temper it for an hour in the oven.

Its going to look black and scaley so you will need to clean it up and polish it again.

After this, get your hands on some O1 tool steel (buy it already annealed) and save yourself some work.

Thanks

The scales are just loosely glued on. They will come off.