Impractical Knife
Another knife made from a recycled Cold Saw blade, this knife has no real purpose other than to look kind of cool. At one point I had convinced my self that it was good for chopping crisp vegetables, but it never really lived up to my expectations. Regardless of it function, I am quite proud of its aesthetics. From the unique blade shape to the triple wood handle, it's about as close as I get to creating something for strictly artistic purposes. While it will likely never make its way into our kitchen, I do have it displayed on a shelf in our living room.
Required Resources: 3 hours, $10
Size: 8" x 2.5 x 0.75"
Materials: Hardened Steel, Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Walnut, 2 Part, Quick Cure Epoxy, Stainless steel pins.
Finish: Tung Oil
Tools: Band Saw, Belt Sander, Orbital Sander, Water Jet
New Techniques:
Caution, Very Sharp: The process on this knife was very similar to that on the Orca Knife, although I did take extra effort to make this knife very sharp (at least temporarily). Read below, for why this was difficult.
Lessons Learned:
Heat is the Enemy: As this was cut from a pre-hardened steel I had to take special care not to heat the steel up too hot, as this allows the grain structures of the steel to change. As you may have guess, I did not do an adequate job with this. Grinding a hardened steel requires using a coarse grit sanding belt and 1+ Horsepower sander. This creates a lot of friction and imparts a lot of heat into the steel. As the steel gets thinner and thinner, as is the case when you are sharping to a fine edge, it takes less and less heat to get the localized volume of the blade edge to a high temperature. You can tell when you've exceeded the safe temperature by the fact that the steel turns different colors (when it turns blue you gone too far). Of course at this point it is too late and you've already destroyed the heat treatment/ temper; your knife will have a poor time retaining an edge. Suffice as to say, this blade didn't stay sharp for very long.