Computer paper is way too thick to demonstrate sharpness. Use phone book paper. This knife is decently sharp but it could be better.

http://youtu.be/vwPEYU1l-sE

Yeah, spyderco is no joke.  I've seen some of their knives slice through half a dozen full water bottles like air, over and over, and over.

In my defense, this knife hasn't been sharpened in at least a week, and it has cut a dozen boxes, like 3lbs of plastic, a bunch of rope, and some other shit since.

Still, I know, I'm amateur..  I'm learning at least.

Well, not much exciting, as I said... All I did was work a bit of wood down to a reasonable thickness for a handle.  Shitty soft wood, to match the shitty practice knife..  It will look nice with the wood varnish and stain I've bought though..
Also, just polished up the said practice knife a bit to test the new sandpaper, didn't go as hard as I could have, that will come after the heat treat and such..  Went from like 120 grit, to 600.  120, 2something, 400, and 600 I believe was the progression.. Though, I only spend a minute or two on each, had other stuff to do and this was just killing time.

Before:
http://s27.postimg.org/a92sg78c3/1workbefore.jpg

After:
http://s27.postimg.org/x45oiuyur/1workafter.jpg
All I did was flip it over for some reason, I worked both sides the same.  I imagine had I spent 5X as much time on each grit, it would be pretty fucking shiny..  We will see...

Here is a skinning knife I am making for a friend..  So far its the knife I've been putting the most work into.. I bough all the different sand paper for it, a bunch of stain and varnish for the handle, ect.  I even stamped it on the other side with my makers mark, and serial number (01, lol)  I made the mark from "hardened" type writer keys, they stamp into hot steel very nicely.  Though, I won't show you my mark yet..
http://s27.postimg.org/pqqajwesz/1friend.jpg

Here's what I was sanding with for the most part, trying to thin out some soft wood for my practice knife handle.  60 grit sand paper, taped to my counter top.
http://s27.postimg.org/n84lj7t2r/1paper.jpg

Here's how thin I made it for now..  This is like 1/4th as thick as each piece was.. It was a plank from a particularly nice pallet I found at work.  With stain, and varnish, it should look nice enough.
http://s27.postimg.org/49jmqacxf/1shavedwood.jpg
http://s27.postimg.org/ybjmb2oz7/1wood.jpg

And here is what I was using to keep my fucking kitchen free of fire hazard wood shavings...
http://s27.postimg.org/n5kpwdpf7/1shopvac.jpg

Basically taped the big wide attachment to the edge of my counter, thing is STRONG.  Almost all wood dust got sucked down immediately, and I used it to clean up the extra frequently.


And here, is the first 1084 knife I made, for use at work.  Fully hardened and tempered.  At least a few weeks old, can't be sure exactly.  It's been worked hard, cutting everything from boxes, plastic, paracord, whatever, and I have only sharpened it lightly once since then, but here it is, going to work on a piece of generic computer paper..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIE7DPtzXX0&list=UU8rvUdhK_CpTmzx7vChdACw
Holds a pretty good edge I think.


You cunt's better reply.  I am putting in work to make this thread worth a read, you could do the same.

Example.. Today I seen this guy on the boulevard between oncoming and incoming traffic on the highway at the edge of the city, where there is a light.  Anyways, he had a sign saying, "Traveling, and hungry... Help??"  I looked him over, he was either really a traveler on hard times, or a very dedicated con artist.  Worn out shoes and clothes, dirty, backpack with sleep roll on the back, bottle of water hanging from hip, a couple sweaters tied around his waist, ect, ect..

I drove past.  Though, a few minutes later I thought, well maybe I should have helped him, I can afford it...  So I looped back around, and came up to him again, called him over, and gave him a $20 bill, he seemed like it was the best thing ever, he almost started crying it looked like lol, "FUUUUCK YEAH MAN!  This is a real supper tonight!"  He started to walk away, I called him back, asked him if he smoked, he said yeah, so I gave him about 5 cigarettes too, and then I asked again, "do you smoke?"  making the universal sign of somebody puffing on a joint.  Again, "Fuck yeah man."  So I gave him this little vial with like .5 of bud left in it I had left over from the day.  I probably made this fuckers week with my generosity.

Here's the thing.  I don't really give 2 shits if that guy went to bed cold and hungry or not, sure I can empathize with the situation, and even feel sorry for him.  Yet, I really don't care, he's some random fucker ill never see again.  I didn't go back because I wanted to help the guy out, not really... I went back because I thought, "Hey, if I help that guy, I can feel good because I did something good for somebody else!"

His satisfaction meant nothing to me, only my own...

Is that still a good deed?  Does that make me a bad person?

The Wire
6 Feet Under
Deadwood


Didn't even have to think about that for 2 seconds, those are the best written and intently satisfying tv shows I have ever watched, there are only 2 or 3 more I would even consider putting in that class.

I was on totse for a couple years at least, I believe.  Went by a different username though, something stupid nobody would remember anyways so that's besides the point.
I was probably into Zoklet more then totse, I didn't post much on &t but I did on Zoklet.  As far as this site goes, I dunno, I'll try to give it a fair shot I suppose, but for some reason I don't even really want to, not sure why.

What is the thickness behind the edge? What primary angle are you grinding them down to?

What angle?  I don't know man.  I am amateur still.  I work with 1/8th inch thick steel now, use an 1/8th inch drill bit to scribe my line across the edge, grind it down to that, heat treat it, then make quick even passes until it is sharp and jagged, at which point I take it to the "buffer wheel", and finish the edge to a point where you cannot tell the difference between a razor slice to newspaper, or one of my knives edges with the naked eye, seems pretty sharp to me even if the geometry isn't perfectly set.

The fourth one looks nice enough and simpler too.

Actually, unless I am mistaken, I chose that same one for the work knife I want to make for myself.  http://s22.postimg.org/zffl5mm1t/kn_ife.jpg  The last one from the bottom, though, I have modified the shape slightly to my own liking.

I'll post it when it is done, however I will make another, like I said in detail.  As close to that as I can and we will see how it turns out.

I won't have much time though, I need to finish the one I just talked about, and the other for a friend, which is the last one in that picture.  From there, i'll do this next one for the thread.

What clearing out some land and dragging an old oil drum for where I'm going to put up my shop for the forge and I got to thinking to look at that old car wreck to see if still has it's suspension in it... Well... Jackpot.

I don't usually make knifes but I've been wanting to try my hand at a custom design so maybe in a year or so I'll have something worth while to post here.

Slowly adding to the collection as well so I can make my multi fuel forge, I got the oil drum donated for nothing and a burner head for "get it the fuck off my property" so when I bring my spare air compressor in from my old place I should be able to make something workable.

Al

Keep us updated brah.  Any recent smithing work to show off, I know you're good.


So, some new knives... The first 2 are totally finished, though they have been work tested, hard, so they are a little scuffed up, yet they still slice newspaper like nothing.  The rest, are in various states, yet to be finished.

All 1084 steel, first 2, as they are finished have obviously been heat treated, the rest have not yet.  Still learning my way around wood, so my handles look like shit still.

http://s22.postimg.org/zffl5mm1t/kn_ife.jpg