40 replies to this topic

[Serge Panchenko]

Hi guys, several people requested that I show how I make these forged guard hunters so this will be a tutorial, starting from a drawing ending with the finished knife.

I almost always start each knife with a 1:1 drawing of what I want it to look like. The project knife will be 7" overall, with a 3.5" blade.

Edited by Serge Panchenko, 07 May 2009 - 01:21 PM.

[Hogan Baker]

Great! I have been wondering for a while how your knives were made. Thank you, in advance, for taking the time to document your process.

[clint c]

I'm interested! Have really admired your knives of this style that you've posted lately, and am looking forward to seeing one in progress. Thanks for your time and effort in doing so.

Clint
www.chisanknives.com

[Serge Panchenko]

OK, here’s basically all the equipment I use. I and my wife live in an apartment with no garage right now so most of my stuff is set up on one table at my parent’s house. Whenever I decide to do some work, I go over there, ask my brother to help me move the table out of the garage, and get to work We are moving to a duplex at the end of the month and it has a 2 car garage-can't wait!!!

[Serge Panchenko]

So here we go... I start with copying the original design onto the steel. I’m using 1/8” thick, 1” wide 1080.

I then use a cut-off saw to do the handle profiling, I leave the blade square for now.

Here is the profiled handle blank after I cleaned up the edges on a belt sander. Notice I left some extra material in the guard area for flaring the guard.

I then use a sanding drum to clean up the scratches from the belt sander and also to make the guard area perfectly round.


The next step is to stamp my maker's mark so I use a marker to help me stamp it in the right place. I also scratch in the lines as the marker disappears when the steel heats up.

Stamped blade. The stamp looks a little off but that will be taken care of later.

[Serge Panchenko]

The next step is to flare the guard. I hold the blade with some "tongs" and lean it against a big piece of steel I have clamped in a vise and tilted agains a table. I use a ball peen hammer to do the flaring. I do the flaring at a red heat and it usually takes 3-5 heats to do it.



I then use a marker to color in the area I will be cutting out. The guard is more "sculpted" than forged I guess.

I use a cut-off saw to cut out the area in front of the guard.

[Serge Panchenko]

I then use a Dremel tool to clean up the cut out area.



After that is file time. I use a variety of jewelers files to get into the corners.




I then use 320 grit sandpaper to clean the area further.

[Sam Salvati]

Cool Serge, interesting how you go about things.

[Avadon]

You sure are doing a heck of a lot of excellent work with little tooling and workspace. Goes to show you its about ability, ingenuity and creativity, not endless toolery.

[Rossi Knives]

Thanks a lot.

Now I know! I will have to give this technique a wack.

[Ben Potter]

Great tutorial so far very helpful.

[Kevin (The Professor)]

Hey,
I have the same Delta sander with belt/disk. The disk on mine is terrible, the key doesn't fit the shaft, and the little adhesive disks don't come off. Judging by the wear on yours, it is not changed too often either.

How well does the Craftsman wider belt sander work for you? How many hp does it have?

Thanks a lot for doing this. I have been interested in your technique since I have seen your first knife. I also watched the video demo of someone doing a simillar technique. I am going to do my best to learn this. It seems cool, and looks great when you do it.

Kevin

Edited by Kevin (The Professor), 08 May 2009 - 12:31 PM.

[EdgarFigaro]

After the discs have been on for a bit, they really don't come off easily. I've found that when I wanna change mine, something that helps is to carefully use a propane torch to warm the disc while it's running, careful not to burn it, but to me it doesn't matter much as I'm usually throwing it away when I'm taking it off. Then stop it, and peel it off. The torch warms the paper, which warms adhesive, loosening it.

I've got a 6x48 craftsman I use to grind my blades that works quite nicely, you just kinda learn to deal with the quirks or you can make modifications.

[Serge Panchenko]

Thanks guys! Kevin, I use the disk once and never changed the adhesive disk. I use the 4X36 Craftsman to true up the surfaces and for cleaning the spines. HP is 1/2 I think, don't remember for sure.

[Serge Panchenko]

The next step is to clean up the guard. I use an 80 grit belt, then a 240 grit.

Then I clean it up further with the drum sander with an old 120 grit drum.

After that I use 240 grit sandpaper on the guard.

And finally 320 grit sandpaper.

Now it's time to shape the blade.

I again use the cut off saw to cut out the profile of the blade.
The paper cutout is the original design.

Sand smooth the edges.

I then scribe a center guide line to help grind the blade evenly on both sides.


I scribe the top as well to help get the swedge right.

I made the scribe out of a file, the hight is perfect for 1/8" steel.

[Serge Panchenko]

I then start grinding the blade. At first I grind at a very steep angle and grind the edge untill I come to the scribed center lines.


Blade is ground on a 80 grit belt, then on a 240 grit.

Both sides are even.

Now comes the most time consuming part: hand rubbing the blade to a 600 grit finish. I use a 1" wide sandpaper belt attached to a 1" wide and a foot long length of steel with two clamps. The goal here is to get all the vertical scratches out so you are left with scratches running lengthwise on the blade.

After using up 5 feet of sandpaper, both sides are sanded to 240 grit.

I then use a sticky backed sandpaper attached to a piece of steel to take the 240 grit scratches out and sand to 400 then to 600 grit.

Sanded to 600 grit.


I now make sure the guard is the same height as the blade. I clean up the guard after cutting some off.

[Serge Panchenko]

I now grind the swedge and clean it up.

I clean up the spine on a used 180 grit belt using the 4X36 sander.

This is my quenching tank filled with motor oil heated to about 100 degrees.

I use two tanks to heat the blade to a bright red-orange color and then edge quench the blade. The torches work OK for these smaller blades but I will have to build a forge when I start making bigger stuff.

Quenched blade.


I begin sanding the scale off with a 320 grit sandpaper with steel backing.

As soon as blade is mostly free of scale so I will be able to see the colors of tempering, I soft back draw the blade.

Blue spine, bronze edge.

Clean the blade after the first temper.

And temper again.

Hardened and tempered blade at 320 grit.

[Alan Longmire]

Really nice job on the torch tempering, man!

I love to see those colors run...

[Herb Kettell]

Serge,

I like your process. It's humbleing to see what you get done with the set up that you have. I know all about living in an apartment and going back to the folks house to work in the shop. Maybe it's just a time thing but I should be getting more done. ~Herb

[NDunham]

so the only thing you really forge is the guard?
I was wondering if its would be possible to split the guard out with a hot chisel.