Home Made Marking Knife

[Jim Koepke]

There are many extra plane blades around my shop. Many were bought on purpose. Some came with boxes of other junk.
Some have lots of use left in them, some do not. Being one who hates to throw anything away, there is always thought of what can be done with this.

Today, I took some time to make a marking knife from an old type 10 blade.

The blade was cut with a Dremel. Then a little work with a bastard file and some more work with a stone in the Dremel. Then some bevels were ground and the edges honed. The last picture show the knife I have been using that is made out of all things, a piece of an old kitchen knife that came with some other box of parts.

If another is made, the angle may be made more acute.

jim

[Ray Gardiner]

Nice use of old plane blades, I like the old kitchen knife one as well.

[Chuck Nickerson]

Jim - which cut-off wheel lets you do that? I find it difficult to cut anything of substance using the Dremel cutting wheels.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim - which cut-off wheel lets you do that? I find it difficult to cut anything of substance using the Dremel cutting wheels.

It is the one to the left in the picture. I am not sure if it is ceramic or composition. It took a bit of time on the blade end. The top of the blade is not hardened and was a lot easier.

The Dremel tool used to smooth the sides was a carborundum stone and did wear quite a bit.

The beveled edges of the knife were formed with a Veritas MK-II power sharpening system.

jim

[Mark Stutz]

Jim did you have to harden the cutting end, or was the original blade hardened that far up?

Mark

[Robert Loss]

I use a thin kerf cut off wheel on a 40 year old 1.5HP 8" table saw to cut metal. It's a lot quieter that an angle grinder and the lower RPM makes it a bit safer. I have also added water cooling so I can cut tempered steels with it without affecting their temper. The table saw features T-track mitre and fence also come in really handy.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim did you have to harden the cutting end, or was the original blade hardened that far up?

Mark,

The lamination usually runs all the way to the notch.

So, no hardening was necessary. I had a smaller blade I was going to use, but that one only has about a 1/4" of good stuff left. That one gets used as a small scraper now and then.

The one used for the knife was a 2" blade.

So far, it seems to work nice enough that I am kicking myself for not doing it a long time ago.

jim