Marking knives

[Justin Ludwig]

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.
bois darc initial fit.JPG

I used some QSWO for the other knife. I made the dowels out of soft maple.
dry fit.JPG

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.
Hardening oven1.JPG Hardening oven2.JPG heating oil.jpg tempering oven.jpg

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.
pre-assembly.jpg

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.

qswo knife.jpg

[Frederick Skelly]

Good stuff Lud! Been wanting to do one myself and just havent gotten around to it.

Did you decide which of the two styles you prefer, yet?

Fred

[Justin Ludwig]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to prefer the longer single bevel blade. I'm going to make another one of those but grind it "mirrored" to this one. I think a thinner steel would be preferable also, but I could just grind a steeper bevel to offset the thickness. I currently don't have a need for 1/16 flat stock so I can't justify ordering it. I'll make do with what I have. I could also repurpose a sawzall blade too. I may experiment with that this weekend.

After I get a chance to use them both more I'll try to come back to this thread and give some pros/cons.

Next up is a mallet and a marking gauge...

[David Ragan]

Very cool

Great setup for hardening and or tempering-Thankfully most of tool steel is already hard/tempered (right?), like old jointer/planer blades(?).

Oh, about your transgressing on using electricity........I love what you did, that what matters.

[Justin Ludwig]

Here's both of them side by side. They need to be coated again with oil. The first two coats were well absorbed. I'm going to keep them in a window when not used so they'll darken. It's hard to beat the look of aged bois d'arc.
sidebyside.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

You can be forgiven for using power tools to make hand tools.

Nice pair of knives.

A sawzall blade should make a decent knife.

My favorite knife for marking dovetails and other transfer markings is made from an old saw blade:

Saw Blade Marking Knife.jpg

My other two shop made marking knives were made from an old plane blade.

jtk

[Mike Baker 2]

Jim, you mention using a sawsall blade. All of them I've seen have a coating on them; white or black, usually. Any tips on removing that?

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, you mention using a sawsall blade. All of them I've seen have a coating on them; white or black, usually. Any tips on removing that?

My comment was that it is likely good material for the job. My knowledge of things sawzall is zilch from only using them once or twice.

Hacksaw blades are also likely good candidates for marking knife material. My saw blade marking knife is great for tight spots or light marking.

My most used marking knife is made from an old plane blade:

Shop Made Knives.jpg

The bottom knife is my most used. It and the top knife are made from the same plane blade. The cutout, on the bottom knife, from the large hole at the bottom of the blade is a comfortable finger rest in use.

When it was first made the top one didn't have a handle. The bare metal wasn't comfortable and was difficult to pick up at times so some scales were added.

jtk

[Steve Kaminska]

Jim, you mention using a sawsall blade. All of them I've seen have a coating on them; white or black, usually. Any tips on removing that?

Its just paint. It usually comes off when the blade is used. If its stubborn, hit it with a wire wheel

Next time you have a plumber come to the house, ask him for a used one. He'll have a couple dozen rattling around in his truck.

[Rob Luter]

The knife on the bottom is a homebrew I made from a skillsaw blade. It's a razor sharp spear point that works well for marking dovetails. The handle is rosewood and was purposely made flat so it wouldn't roll off the bench.

[Justin Ludwig]

Lovely knives you guys are sharing. I like my tools ugly and rough. That way I don’t cringe when I ding, drop, or scuff them up.

Here’s what I know so far. 1/8 steel is too thick for a marking knife to be used for marking pins of dovetails. The bois d’arc blade is too short. As a right hander, the white oak blade needs to be beveled the opposite side. I didn’t think it would matter, it does.

I have not used them extensively, so these comments are on the face and subject to change as I develop more skill. Hell, I’ve only cut 7 dovetails in my life and have yet to build a piece by hand. Gotta build more tools firsts... and a bench...

[John C Cox]

If using saw blades - be sure you have a way to deal with high speed steel.... Where tools like that were made of high carbon steel in the past - they are now HSS.... So they don't really harden and temper like O1..