Knife making adventures... part 3B - Correcting profile of my blanks with angle grinder.

Today I started early as well. I felt more comfortable with my new toy and I decided to remove as much material as I could.

Now my blanks really look like knives.

Knife making adventures... part 3 - Cutting out the blanks.

My next step was to cut out the blanks. The truth is that after cutting 5cm of steel with hack saw I had to surrender. My tennis elbow will not last long if I will cut metal like this. I was lucky enough that I had a birthday on 8th of February and I got some money from my girlfriend. For that money I bought new Makita angle grinder with 115mm cutting discs. In addition to that I bought 5 metal cutting 1mm discs.

So on the next day I just settled me up in front of my flat. I am pretty sure that now, my neighbours hate me. I live in block of 18 flats. Grinding in front of the main entrance is let's say... inappropriate. I thought that using belt grinder in my bathroom was loud, but to be honest it was nothing in compare to noise of angle grinder.

And here is the result. At the biginning I was a bit afraid of using this machine, but after 5 minutes I felt quite comfortable with it. I think that with more practice, one can be very accurate. I didn't want to bother my neighbours anymore so I have left it like this, with lots of material to file out. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow I will use my new Makita to remove more metal. For today I had enough of noise.

And this is what left after all cuts. I must say that 1mm cutting discs wore out quite fast.

TBC...

Knife making adventures... part 2 - Knife projects

Now it's time to make a project of the knives. To be honest with you, those projects are copies of existing knives. Why I copy somebody projects? First of all I am making it for fun, so why should I not copy somebody knife? Second of all, I am pretty sure that they will change shape anyway through the process of shaping. And third of all, my drawing skill level is same as kid from preschool, so I even don't want to make myself a lampoon.
I would also like to say that afterall all knives are similiar so who is copying from who?
Who did I copy from? I will not tell you, but these are one of my favourite blacksmiths projects  and I have a very big respect for them.

My projects: Three neck knives.

And three kitchen knives. Gyutos - 240mm ''Wa'' style, 210mm western style and 180mm ''Wa''  style.

 I cut out my projects and have attached them to the piece of steel with blue tack.

 And then I sprayed them with red paint.

Does they look like knives? I hope so:D

TBC...

Knife making adventures... part 1 - belt sander modification.

Hello there.

I was waiting for this moment for a very long time. Some time ago, exactly in November 2013, I finished making my first knives. At that time I made small neck knife and something what has to be sujihiki, but then I broke it and it became a petty knife. I was very happy with them, because they were my first knives and also they weren't that bad.
Now I have much more experience, knowledge and understanding of kitchen knives. This is why I have decided to make new batch of knives. I bought some O1 carbon steel and have started collecting other materials as well, for example 3 pieces of unstabilized Amboyna burl.

Before I start making knives I must modify my belt grinder to avoid situations and constructions like this:

Later on I didn't need to make construction like this, because I wasn't making a knives. I used 50mm wide piece of wood to lift the belt, when for example I was thinning some blades.

 

 My piece of wood was 11mm thick.

 And it cause more problems, for example I couldn't use it with the table.

 But I am using my belt grinder mostly to make Japanese style handles and other so gluing piece of wood every time when I wanted to make a handle was pointless. This is why my goal was to make removable platen, which will be very easy to attach. Also this will allow me to use 4'' belts as well as 2''. So I bought 6mm thick piece of O1 steel...

 I want to make it flush with the table.
 
 So my first step was to cut a piece of steel. After cutting 5cm of steel I knew that I don't want to do it anymore. Not without proper tools.

 6mm is not enough to lift the belt so I used my 3mm piece of O1 steel to rise it even more.

I have used double sided tape to glue them together...

 ...and have marked platten position on my belt grinder.

I will use this kind of screws to screw it to the belt grinder.

Drilling 9mm steel was a nightmare. I am pretty sure that with good drills it shouldn't be a problem. It took me 2.5h to drill four holes. In that time I burned 2 drills and other two had to be sharpened every 20 second of drilling.

 After drilling.

I am happy that some time ago I went with my girlfriend to ''Lidl'' for usual every week shopping and I found this drill sharpening machine.

And after sharpening:

Here you can see four holes drilled. Do you remember 2.5 h for drilling those holes? Yes, it was a nighmare. Now I had to drill another 4 to hide screw heads. I left it till the next day.

After next day's drilling:

Heh, and after another nightmare drilling, I had to drill four holes in the cast iron belt sander body.

 And here's the end result. I am happy, because now belt is flush with the table in 90 degrees angle.

And here is how it is attached to the back. I think that in the future I will change my nuts to the butterfly nuts to even easier assembly.

TBC...

Ittinomonn nakiri repair.

Hello there.

I received this Ittinomonn nakiri from Spain. It was chipped in the middle of the blade. I must admit that repairing this blade was pure pleasure.

And after repair:

This is an JNS 1000 and White Binsui edge.