Thread: Knifemaking photo-essay (1)

I make most of my knives using steel from large circular saw blades (nominally L6 grade carbon steel), although I have also worked with D2, 440C, and Uddeholm Elmax.

The large circular saw blades are about 3.8 mm thick. Using a 9" angle grinder with cutting disc, I cut out rough blanks. I anneal the blanks by heating them to 760°C, and then letting them cool slowly in the furnace overnight. The annealed blanks are now soft and can be readily drilled, filed, ground, and sanded.

The numbers refer to the images below.

1) Top - rough blank cut from a saw blade; bottom - annealed blank. Note the hard, adherent black oxide skin on the annealed blank.

2) I clamp a template to the blank and scribe around it.

3) Rough grinding the profile using a 200 mm bench grinder.

4) A shameless plug for Abbot and Ashby 200 mm bench grinders! I've had this grinder more than 20 years, it's seen a lot of use, and is still going strong. What I like about them:

powerful;
work rests are made of heavy gauge steel;
the grinding wheels are spaced well away from the motor;
can accommodate 32 mm wide grinding wheels (as shown).