Making a Knife, pt. 3

A road trip snuck up behind me and took me away before I finished my knife. I came home this morning, and set about getting this thing done.

Unwrapped after the heat treat. Again, wear gloves at this stage. That stainless bag is at least as dangerous as it was when the blade was first made, perhaps more so. This is what the blade looks like after a trip up to 1800 degrees. After cooling, it was tempered to 300. I'll see if that is too hard. When I've made plane irons in the past, that's about the temperature range I've used.

Remember that little piece of paper?

Surface discoloration can be removed with scotch brite.

Like with my pastry scrapers, I am using Loveless handle fasteners. A dab of red loctite is important.

I put some epoxy on the handle and tightened down the fasteners.

One lesson I learned before is that it's helpful to saw the excess material away from the fasteners, as opposed to just grinding it away. Less grinding equals less heat.

The handle after rough shaping.

All done. A few blade flaws are evident in the picture if you look close enough. This is a learning experience, and you need to start somewhere. The handle finish is my simple utility finish: oil, shellac, wax. This isn't a knife you can just drop in the sink or run through the dishwasher. But you shouldn't do that with good knives anyway. My pastry scraper uses the same finish, and it has held up well to constant use over the last year.