Thread: a crap ton of blades

started with a big bar of 5/16" O1 Starrett Tool Steel. i ran over it real quick with 220 grit to knock off rust and then wiped down with denatured alcohol to give a clean surface for marking out. i drew up my blade designs on poster paper, put packing tape on front and back and then cut them out to use as templates. i then traced around them with sharpie to get my rough layout in nested blanks on the steel.

i next focused on freeing the two mammoth choppers from one ed of the bar. i dont have a metal cutting bandsaw (at the moment) so i resorted to punching centers across the bar between groups of nested blanks. then the drilling of those centers to make a line of holes. the steel is substancially weak across that line of holes so i just broke off the end i needed with one swift ghetto slap while clamped in the bench vise. basically the same thing for separating the two blanks from each other, much more carefully. after drilling the holes between the blanks i hacksawed til the blanks popped apart with minimal effort. as you can probably tell my ADD kicked in before i got them apart and thus i ground as much profile on one blank as i could while still together. not really wasted time but definitely not an advantage to do so finally once separated i profiled the blanks completely, marked center lines on the cutting edge, heel, toe, top and bottom of tang.

7 day set with room for a mistake? Looks like your graduating away from restore work :<0)

after marking center around the blade i rough ground the hollows and rough tapered the tang. for reference here is one of the blanks next to a 15/16 razor. still a bit oversize so after heat treat it will shrink in most dimensions a bit but the design called for finishing at 10/8, maybe slightly larger on these ones, with beveled spines. superfluous to say the least. but fun and pushing the learning curve is always beneficial in my mind. these two shown in a grouping of other blanks just about ready for heat treat. and this is roughly half of them....... a crap ton

Love seeing all these steps Man! Keep me coming.


Aaahhhhhhhhhh! Those Kamis!!!!!!!!! I need one!!!!!!

Originally Posted by 10Pups

7 day set with room for a mistake? Looks like your graduating away from restore work :<0)

hahaha! well that would be quite a set. these are 3 different designs, 3 of the mammoth choppers, 4 of my biggins and one odd ball that is supposed to turn into a french point somewhere along the way

Originally Posted by HARRYWALLY

Love seeing all these steps Man! Keep me coming.


Aaahhhhhhhhhh! Those Kamis!!!!!!!!! I need one!!!!!!

thanks man, plenty more progress pics to come.

Looking good. Can't wait to see them finished.

Thanks for the photo progression! I admire your ability to stick to a job and see results happening without some of the "needed" tools! Very good jobs of work and well proportioned while you were at it!!
~Richard

I see mine........Right there!