Justin Ludwig
04-21-2018, 8:15 AM
I decided to take a crack at making some marking knives. I see a lot of designs and everyone has a preference for various reasons. I had no idea which style I would prefer so I made 2 different.
I started by cutting a couple ends off of my 1/8" flat stock of O1 steel I ordered for chip breakers. The white oak blade is 1/8 x 9/16 x 2-1/2. The bois d'arc blade is 1/8 x 1/2 x 2.
I grabbed an offcut of bois d'arc from my last plane build and resawed it down the middle. I started to chisel out the dado groove for the blade. After getting tired of listening to the wood laugh at me, and eventually splitting it from too hard of a deadblow hit, I cut the groove on the table saw. Is it frowned upon in the Neander forum to use power tools to make tools? Guilty.
384319
I used some QSWO for the other knife. I made the dowels out of soft maple.
384320
I cheated again for hardening and tempering. Sue me. The temp adjusted knob is broken and kept skipping all over the place. It landed on 1575 and I quickly hit SET. No problems from the extra heat. The oven takes about 2 hours to get to 1500. It works out great to just set the steel in the oven at the start, set a timer and walk away. I used the big bars of random steel to preheat the oil to "hot to the touch, but not burn me temp." Quenching 1/8 steel is quick. Quench for about 15 secs, wipe off oil, throw in the tempering oven for an hour + cool time.
384321 384322 384323 384324
Using old oil to quench turns the blades black. I flatted the backs up to 1000grit and cleaned them up. Here's a look at everything laid out and ready to glue up. I used wood glue for the bodies and bottom dowel. After they dried I used epoxy on the blade and upper dowel.
384325
Pre-shaped on the band saw by hand without drawing any lines. They're a bit crude... don't care. They work. I need to get a picture of the final bois d'arc knife. I coated them in BLO.
384326
I started by cutting a couple ends off of my 1/8" flat stock of O1 steel I ordered for chip breakers. The white oak blade is 1/8 x 9/16 x 2-1/2. The bois d'arc blade is 1/8 x 1/2 x 2.
I grabbed an offcut of bois d'arc from my last plane build and resawed it down the middle. I started to chisel out the dado groove for the blade. After getting tired of listening to the wood laugh at me, and eventually splitting it from too hard of a deadblow hit, I cut the groove on the table saw. Is it frowned upon in the Neander forum to use power tools to make tools? Guilty.
384319
I used some QSWO for the other knife. I made the dowels out of soft maple.
384320
I cheated again for hardening and tempering. Sue me. The temp adjusted knob is broken and kept skipping all over the place. It landed on 1575 and I quickly hit SET. No problems from the extra heat. The oven takes about 2 hours to get to 1500. It works out great to just set the steel in the oven at the start, set a timer and walk away. I used the big bars of random steel to preheat the oil to "hot to the touch, but not burn me temp." Quenching 1/8 steel is quick. Quench for about 15 secs, wipe off oil, throw in the tempering oven for an hour + cool time.
384321 384322 384323 384324
Using old oil to quench turns the blades black. I flatted the backs up to 1000grit and cleaned them up. Here's a look at everything laid out and ready to glue up. I used wood glue for the bodies and bottom dowel. After they dried I used epoxy on the blade and upper dowel.
384325
Pre-shaped on the band saw by hand without drawing any lines. They're a bit crude... don't care. They work. I need to get a picture of the final bois d'arc knife. I coated them in BLO.
384326