Thread: File Neck Knife

Thanks for the advice, Butch. I'll do some reading on it before I attempt anything.

I have even more respect for you boys now. Three hours with power tools to make the thing, & on top of that, I'm so filthy I'll have to soak for another three!

That is a super cool looking knife. As long as it did not turn brown or blue from grinding, I think that it should be good. I would temper it like Butch said and go and see how it works.

That is one of the coolest knife I have seen in a very long while.

Charlie

Cheers Charlie. I am going to take Butch's advice. Done my reading now. I'm going to bake it at 210-220 deg C buried in sand to ensure even heating. I don't trust myself to blue the spine!
Currently it can sharpen a pencil like you wouldn't believe.

the file would most likely be in the 65RC range and with that temper you shold come down to 59-60 and still take a killer edge
the fisrt few knife i made were out of old files so i know how mych the grinding sucked

My grandfathers shop is full of old files that seem pretty toasted, not a one of them cuts anymore... I may have to look into these goodies when I get set up there

That looks great.

If you did not let it heat up while grinding you probably wont have to temper it again. It will be hard, probably harder than a knife should be... This will make it harder to sharpen and a bit more prone to chipping the edge. On the other hand, it will hold its edge very well once you have it...

I would probably just use the knife as is and see how it performs. To change the hardness with any sort of accuracy you will have to anneal it (Which, if you were going to do it, should have been done at the start. It would have made the grinding easier) then quench, then temper. Doing all this on a knife that already has its final edge is kind of asking for cracks and warping IMO. Just give it a try and see how it goes, as is.

That looks sweet. I love the handle being left as a file and the little bit of file still in the spine of the blade. It looks to be about 5-6 inches total length is that about right.
Iv'e been grinding away at an old file now and then trying to make a fixed blade razor. And seeing how well your knife turned out I think I'll have to start up on it again.