New knife maker -- polishing and remediating

[OH_Spartan]

Thanks to a mix of the encouragement of a buddy at work and reading the forums here, I am trying my hand at knife making.

My wife wants a 7" Cutco Santoku Chef Knife for Christmas. My goal is to match or beat their quality for the same price....$93.

Before I ruin a santoku knife, I am practicing by making a couple small hunting kinves. The first one is a slightly rusted high-carbon steel that I bought out of the Clearance Flyer of Dixie Gun Works. I bought it because I wanted a low-cost challenge to learn how to polish a blade.

I have read several threads here that talk about polishing blades with files and sandpaper. What kind of files and what grit of sand-paper should I use?

I started with steel wool lubricated with WD-40 and about 30 minutes of elbow grease isn't doing much to take the surface stains off.

Also, I have a buffing wheel for my drill/grinder. What kind of buffing compound should I pick up for final finish?

 

[rcmodel]

It's not as simple or easy as that!

See this about hand rubbing all the scratches out of a new blade.
http://beknivessite2.homestead.com/handrubbing.html

That's the only way I know how to do it properly.

rc

 

[JTW Jr.]

Knife-making is far more than refinishing old knives.

 

[bikerdoc]

Simple polishing I use mothers mag polish on a wheel

Scratches = whole nuther animal, progressive grades of wet dry paper up to 2k grit, maybe.

I know nothing about santoku, but there is a wealth of knowledge and some nice guys at Knifeforum.com - they even have a newby section. havnt been there in a while but I got good basic training there couple years ago.

Good luck.

 

[OH_Spartan]

I didn't mean to trivialize knife making. From what I can see so far, knife-making ranges from starting with a strip of steel and a grinder (an art) to sanding two pieces of wood provided in a kit (a Cub Scout project).

Someday I hope to be in the class of the former, but realize I'm closer to the latter. There are several sites that sell Santoku blades. I will start with a stainless steel alloy that has already been heat treated so my work is limited to making a handle and finishing the blade.

Hence my practice project on the rusted/stained carbon steel blade from Dixie. The tang was fully finished, with holes pre-drilled into the handle. I thought that the project would entail, polishing and sharpening the blade and making a handle. I have a scrap piece of flooring that will serve as the material for the handle.

I don't want to trivialize knife making, but given the info above, is there more to this that I am missing?

 

[JTW Jr.]

There are people who buy kits and assemble them or buy pre-ground blades and handle them and call themselves knifemakers. The general rule is if you didn't at least grind the blade , then you aren't a knifemaker.

Some will outsource and get their blanks waterjet instead of cutting the profile on the bandsaw , but knifemakers actually grind the blade bevels and attach the handle.

Here is a link that has many tutorials , many of which you can use for what you are wanting to do:
http://www.knivesby.com/knifemaking.html

just be careful hand finishing a blade that already has an edge.

((speaking from experience there))....

 

[hso]

knife-making ranges from starting with a strip of steel and a grinder (an art) to sanding two pieces of wood provided in a kit (a Cub Scout project).

No, it doesn't.

A knifemaker forges or grinds the blade.

Kit hobbyists and "modders" are not knife makers, but some makers have started out as kit or mod hobbyists and gotten the bug to actually make a knife.

 

[OH_Spartan]

You guys have illuminated my ignorance without making me feel stupid...thanks. I never would have imagined someone forging steel in their own shop...wow!
Per HSO, I will consider this the first step in getting bitten by a new bug and promise not to call myself a knife-maker until I at least grind my own steel. No one balances their check book and claims to be a mathematician, so I won't claim to be a knife maker....YET!

That said, I am where I am....I'll start with polishing and putting a handle on the carbon steel knife from Dixie. Then I'll pick out a non-440A alloy and buy a blade for my wife's santoku Christmas present.

Back to OP....about 15 minutes of brass brush and 3 hours of hand-sanding with steel wool and I still have about 6-7 stubborn stains on the blade. I will pick up some wet/dry sand paper to try to get them out.

 

[hso]

OH Spartan,

My 11 year old daughter has forged a couple of knives at ABS Youth Hammer-Ins. I've forged half a dozen (and never finished out a one). People forge in their garage/barn/shed/chicken coop all over the US. Stock reduction knife makers, folks that grind away everything that isn't a blade from a piece of steel, work in the same sorts of spaces. I know very good knife makers with very humble looking garage shops with just a porta-band band saw clamped in a vise, a Craftsman belt sander and a matching drill press and 3 Nichols files and several grits of paper. Some people start with classes at schools for this and some start from an itch that they just have to scratch and no one to teach them.

I have a sword that the maker smelted the ore into steel using traditional Japanese methods. He then sorted the steel from the smelter and forged the steel into a billet which he forged over time into the blade. He quenched the hot steel and stone polished it by hand. He produced what other makers have called nearly a perfect large Japanese style sword blade. I asked another maker to finish all the furniture and fittings and he took that blade and completed it. Those are knife makers.

 

[OH_Spartan]

I'm sure each and every one of the garage/shed/barn knife makers started with a different motive. For me, I just want to give my wife something with a personal touch that performs better than she would have otherwise gotten from the catalog.

 

[hso]

A very good reason for a start.