Newly made marking knife

[rafezetter]

Here's some pics of my newly made marking knife - my first attempt, so please take that into consideration

I learned a fair bit, including not to work on the blade until after all shaping and finishing was completed ! Pics should be pretty self explanetory - the metal bars with numbers on was my basic routers "guide" and I use that term extremely loosely, the forked thing on the left is a shaped spacer made to bridge the gap created from the thickness of the blade.

Basic copper rivets as I like the colour contrast (and it's what was to hand). Incidentally I kept the markings on the outside so it was more "honest".

It will need a blade guard so suggestions welcome.

 

[JohnPW]

Looks good. Is the handle metal? What's the big piece of metal on the right in the first pic?

What steel is the blade made from? Tools used?

 

[n0legs]

I quite like that. I like the all metal style =D>

 

[rafezetter]

Looks good. Is the handle metal? What's the big piece of metal on the right in the first pic?

What steel is the blade made from? Tools used?

Thanks for the comments.

The handle is all metal, made from the 2 sections of bar from the router guide (the bits with numbers on), and a thickness spacer in the centre. The metal section on the far right of the first pic is what's left of the router guide, the angled bit, after the guide bar was cut off; I included it sort of as a "These are junk to use, but you can make this with it".

The blade was a metal cutting jigsaw blade from a cheapo set that came with my first jigsaw... as you can see it's much wider than a normal one, and I must admit that did help keeping straight cuts, but it was blunt. My original intention was to use a normal sized one, as many other people have done in the past, but I also wanted to have the curved blade (like an ashley isles marking knife) instead of just a straight tipped one for more versatility, so this blade matched my needs perfectly.

Tools used: (simple tools but he asked )

- Hacksaw
- Thin metal cutting diamond dremel blade in my basic corded drill like these, highly recommended instead of the "grit" type ones that just disappear before your eyes - so far mine has cut metres and metres of thin and thicker metal and it's still cutting no problem. http://www.amazon.co.uk/8pcs-Diamond-Wheel-Rotary-Arbor/dp/B00CE3W4FK - I used it to cut and shape the forked spacer.
- A small glazing hammer, as that gave me much more control to draw the copper around to fill the rivet countersink.
- Poundshop metal file - yes I was amazed too - for rough removal they work just fine!
- Belt sander - then with a hand block

Scary sharpened the blade freehand.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Scary sharpened the blade freehand.

Sorry, but I've got to ask. What angle did you use to sharpen it? :lol: :lol:

BTW, very nice knife.

 

[rafezetter]

Scary sharpened the blade freehand.

Sorry, but I've got to ask. What angle did you use to sharpen it? :lol: :lol:

BTW, very nice knife.

I have absolutely no idea, somewhere around 15 - 20 deg at a guess.