That’s a pretty cool pic of you mate. No doubt you learned heaps from the train8ng course, and there’s no better “teacher” than “hands on”. I like the basic shape of that knife mate...it would make a nice kitchen paring and utility knife. Biggest problem with a carbon steel knife in the kitchen is rust, so a stainless alloy would be the way to go methinks.

WHoa!!
Vince, you know how hard it is to forge stainless steel?

Vince....dripping/fat is your friend...even cooking oil will do.looking at knife block in kitchen as I type this we have 6 knives in it. 3 stainless,3 not. they never get rust on them...nor do my cast iron skillets or camp oven....sometimes clean ISNT best.

You are right Gelan...it would be a PITA to forge...it would have to be a "stock removal" build...then there is the heat treating. Hmmm...carbon steel is looking good.

QMAC members should be able to help you heat treat stainless Vince.

gelandangan wrote:

QMAC members should be able to help you heat treat stainless Vince.

Thanks mate...didn’t give them a thought to be honest.

I note that Gameco has stainless, carbon and Damascus blanks for sale...time to give serious consideration to a belt sander methinks...a file and stone is damn hard work, and not always even when finished.

That is a belt grinder not a sander. The belts are longer and thicker and there is a support that the belt runs over to keep the cut straight. You can mess up a blade just as easy with it as you can with a file or stone and a lot quicker too.

Thanks Paul.

Vince wrote:

I note that Gameco has stainless, carbon and Damascus blanks for sale...time to give serious consideration to a belt sander methinks...a file and stone is damn hard work, and not always even when finished.

Much cheaper to purchase your damascus billets from the Creativeman.com.au
While the billets are made in china with chinese material, they are quite good quality and cheap. I actually went to their factory in china.
The stainless billets is a san mai with unknown type outer and Chinese VG10 inner.
The carbon damascus is roughly 1095.
Both are pre hardened so you do not have to heat treat, but is a bit@h to grind due to the hardness. Doable tho.

Re belt grinder, just make one up, with skateboard wheels and old motor. You only need to weld up some frame to suit.
I made mine in a couple of hours and has been using it for years.

Awesome. Truly an art that meats science. Very traditional. Love the sound of hammer on anvil. Mom won't let me near fire or sharp things. For obvious reasons. Good on ya mate, good on ya!

gelandangan wrote:

Re belt grinder, just make one up, with skateboard wheels and old motor. You only need to weld up some frame to suit. I made mine in a couple of hours and has been using it for years.

I’ll look creative man up mate...sounds good.

Making my own belt grinder would certainly be the cheaper way to go, not arguments there...just a matter of whether or not I could actually do the build. I have an insinkerator that is cactus, although the motor is good, so I’m thinking of pulling that apart to see if the motor is usable. I’ve looked at several “home builds” on you tube and they range from simple to very complex. I would only want something simple so it would probably be doable, just a matter of roughing up a plan and looking at materials.

Vince wrote:

gelandangan wrote: Re belt grinder, just make one up, with skateboard wheels and old motor. You only need to weld up some frame to suit. I made mine in a couple of hours and has been using it for years. I’ll look creative man up mate...sounds good. Making my own belt grinder would certainly be the cheaper way to go, not arguments there...just a matter of whether or not I could actually do the build. I have an insinkerator that is cactus, although the motor is good, so I’m thinking of pulling that apart to see if the motor is usable. I’ve looked at several “home builds” on you tube and they range from simple to very complex. I would only want something simple so it would probably be doable, just a matter of roughing up a plan and looking at materials.

Creativeman,com,au <- tell Bjorn you are my old friend and I send you there. He came with me to China on this trip,

Re. grinder, just align the four wheels at the same plane, ie. on a table with the belt steretched between them, and build structure that keep them in place.
Forget the plans, just do it.

“Gelan” wrote:

...Re. grinder, just align the four wheels at the same plane, ie. on a table with the belt steretched between them, and build structure that keep them in place. Forget the plans, just do it.

You make it sound so easy mate. I have to at least have a plan in my mind otherwise things don’t go together properly.