Low buck drawknife I

[Hillbilly3995]

I was wrong once, I suppose it could happen again...That is not a fleshing knife, its a spoke knife.

Also talking about your HUGE PITA, I once stripped a 48' sweetgum with a 20" machete for a draw knife (towel wrapped around sharp end)... yikes I'd rather not do that again.

 

[WesternSaw]

Flushcut

Okay I miss spoke but know what I mean. My buddy uses a winch with a foot pedal to pull the hide off and then to the fleshing board with a fleshing knife to remove the flesh. His name is Trapper Dan for a reason.[/QUOTE
Just as long as you know that I was not trying to come down on you at all or disrespect you!!
For I have made many an error and will continue to do so.The winch set up you are talking about is basically the same thing they use in larger beef slaughtering operations,they also use air knives to assist the hide pulling machine when the hide gets hung up.Sorry to break away from the thread.
Lawrence

 

[820wards]

HUCKLEBERRY,

Here is a draw knife I made from a Farrier's file. My old neighbor gave me a bunch of them after they got to dull for his work.

I took the file and put it in the bottom of my BBQ under the coals and BBQ'd one day. I left it there until the coals were cool. The following pictures shows how it was made and it works great. I still have not had to sharpen it since I made the knife.

Picture of File after I used a heavy grinder to remove file teeth.

Material removed from file with plasma cutter. I could have done a better job, but the torch kept getting caught on the file teeth.

Comparison of cut file with an original file/gas pliers.

File worked down with grinders and small DA grinder. I didn't put the final edge on it until I mounted the handles.

I'll add the remaining pictures in a second Quote.

jerry-

 

[820wards]

HUCKLEBERRY,

Last pictures of draw knife.

Backside shot of knife.

And here is a final shot of my version of a draw knife. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of how I did the handles. I tig welded some 3/8" stainless steel bolts I cut the heads off of. I then made the handles from some limb wood off a black oak tree and sealed them with urethane. The handles are held on with SS ny-lock nuts. The tool is great for knocking off bark. Anyone who has access to the farrier files should try making a draw knife from one.

jerry-

 

[HUCKLEBERRY]

HUCKLEBERRY,

Here is a draw knife I made from a Farrier's file. My old neighbor gave me a bunch of them after they got to dull for his work.


jerry-

Very nice job. You used two skills I'd love to learn more about. Tempering and tig. Wish you lived a little closer so that I could look over your shoulder and pick up a thing or two.

Good post and thanks for the pics.

 

[flushcut]

Okay I miss spoke but know what I mean. My buddy uses a winch with a foot pedal to pull the hide off and then to the fleshing board with a fleshing knife to remove the flesh. His name is Trapper Dan for a reason.[/QUOTE
Just as long as you know that I was not trying to come down on you at all or disrespect you!!
For I have made many an error and will continue to do so.The winch set up you are talking about is basically the same thing they use in larger beef slaughtering operations,they also use air knives to assist the hide pulling machine when the hide gets hung up.Sorry to break away from the thread.
Lawrence

It's all good Is it possible that a spoke shave and a fleshing knife are the same thing? The only spoke shaves that I have seen are of the more concave kind than the one posted. My buddy traps ****, yote, muskrat, mink, and deer(hunts deer). His garage looks like a horror movie blood every were.

 

[Hillbilly3995]

It's all good Is it possible that a spoke shave and a fleshing knife are the same thing? The only spoke shaves that I have seen are of the more concave kind than the one posted. My buddy traps ****, yote, muskrat, mink, and deer(hunts deer). His garage looks like a horror movie blood every were.

Yes indeed it is all good, I was in no way belittling your comment. I wish I could read the marking on it but to me it looks like an English or German spoke knife. the reason I think it not a flesher is that the handles should be leaning to direction of cut and those two sharp corners would destroy a hide. Like I said I could be wrong, just ask my Ex.

 

[Ted J]

That is a fleshing knife for skinning animals not wood

Here's mine. Although I didn't make it... got it off of the "bay".
it's about 20 1/2" long including the handles, and the blade is 2 1/2" wide.

I prefer the straight handles instead ot the angled ones. The straight is more comfortable on my wrists, no twisting.

Ted

Interesting: but I know what I'll be using mine for.... Wood

http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Fleshing+Knives/Sheffield+Fleshing+Knife

 

[Ted J]

Yes indeed it is all good, I was in no way belittling your comment. I wish I could read the marking on it but to me it looks like an English or German spoke knife. the reason I think it not a flesher is that the handles should be leaning to direction of cut and those two sharp corners would destroy a hide. Like I said I could be wrong, just ask my Ex.

The stamp on my knife says:
W.H. Horn & BRO. with Antlers

Ted

 

[Hillbilly3995]

The stamp on my knife says:
W.H. Horn & BRO. with Antlers

Ted

English and antique!

 

[Ted J]

English and antique!

I couldn't find anything on it... but I'll still use it though...

Ted

 

[flushcut]

In the end it's whatever works right.

 

[820wards]

Very nice job. You used two skills I'd love to learn more about. Tempering and tig. Wish you lived a little closer so that I could look over your shoulder and pick up a thing or two.

Good post and thanks for the pics.

If you can gas weld good, you will pick up tig welding easily. You can pick up some of the new air cooled tig welders at a fair price. I have an older water cooled Airco Tig welder that can be run all day if you want. For home use a small air cooled unit would be a good choice. If you can find someone close to you that has a tig and is willing to teach you, go for it. Another suggestion is to see if your local JC has a welding program, they will also teach tig welding. Once in the class you can use the facility to do your own welding. Just a suggestion.

As for tempering the blade. Before I welded the handle bolts on I re-heated the blade so it was a cherry red. I then quenched it in water. I used stones and a diamond stone to put an edge on the knife.

jerry-

 

[BobL]

Nice work Jerry!

As for tempering the blade. Before I welded the handle bolts on I re-heated the blade so it was a cherry red. I then quenched it in water. I used stones and a diamond stone to put an edge on the knife.

I always thought that a rapid quench after a cherry red like that would fully harden the blade and that it could also tend to make it brittle.? May you rehardened the file since you cut the edge off the file with a plasma cutter?

I thought tempering was what is done after hardening to ease the hardening back so that a tool can be sharpened more easily and to make it less brittle?

When I use (already very hard) files for woodworking tools I cutting them with a water cooled fine kerf abrasive cutting wheel. Keeping the metal cool does not destroy the hardness of the file so I don't have to reharden it

Then I temper the files by placing them in an oven on a metal tray for about an hour at 465F where they develop a straw yellow color on the surface.

 

[jimdad07]

Nice work Jerry!



I always thought that a rapid quench after a cherry red like that would fully harden the blade and that it could also tend to make it brittle.? May you rehardened the file since you cut the edge off the file with a plasma cutter?

I thought tempering was what is done after hardening to ease the hardening back so that a tool can be sharpened more easily and to make it less brittle?

When I use (already very hard) files for woodworking tools I cutting them with a water cooled fine kerf abrasive cutting wheel. Keeping the metal cool does not destroy the hardness of the file so I don't have to reharden it

Then I temper the files by placing them in an oven on a metal tray for about an hour at 465F where they develop a straw yellow color on the surface.

If I were to make a draw knife blade out of an old leaf spring, will I need to temper it after putting an edge on it?

 

[HUCKLEBERRY]

If you can gas weld good, you will pick up tig welding easily. You can pick up some of the new air cooled tig welders at a fair price. I have an older water cooled Airco Tig welder that can be run all day if you want. For home use a small air cooled unit would be a good choice. If you can find someone close to you that has a tig and is willing to teach you, go for it. Another suggestion is to see if your local JC has a welding program, they will also teach tig welding. Once in the class you can use the facility to do your own welding. Just a suggestion.

jerry-

I'd love to find an older TIG unit at a bargain and get into it. I've done some gas welding and I'm pretty sure I could work through the Tig basics pretty quickly but if another large piece of equipment "shows up" in my garage my wife might make me sleep with it.

 

[BobL]

If I were to make a draw knife blade out of an old leaf spring, will I need to temper it after putting an edge on it?

There are 3 basic heat treatment processes. Hardening (name says it all) and Tempering (reduces hardness) and Annealing (reduces the hardness right back to as soft as the steel can be)

Spring steel is already close to as hard as it can get so what heat treatment it needs depends how you cut the spring to shape. If you use an angle grinder or oxy or any method that turns the steel a blue colour then the steel has been annealed and will need to be hardened.

If you wanted to cut the spring with a hack saw then you may deliberately want to anneal it, this is done by heating it to cherry read and then just let it cool slowly in air.

Of course once it is annealed it will be too soft and lose it's edge too easily even in wood so it will need to be rehardened. This is done by the method described by jerry, get it nice and red hot then and quench it directly into water. The quenching method and liquid depends on the type of steel, but leaf spring I believe can be quenched into water.

Then, if you need to (it's not essential but it makes the steel less brittle and easier to sharpen) the steel should be tempered. This is done by heating to a specific temperature or color.
eg http://www.bluebladesteel.com/temper_colors_chart.html

I heat wood working blades to 465F for an hour - this makes the edge hard enough to maintain an edge but not so brittle that chips of metal will break off the edge if it hits something hard.

 

[TraditionalTool]

If you wanted to cut the spring with a hack saw then you may deliberately want to anneal it, this is done by heating it to cherry read and then just let it cool slowly in air.

When learning how to forge I was taught to anneal in ashes, as it slows down the cooling process. Just to add to your point, that if you stick it in ashes after you heat to cherry red, it will lengthen out the cooling process for better anneal treatment.

 

[BobL]

When learning how to forge I was taught to anneal in ashes, as it slows down the cooling process. Just to add to your point, that if you stick it in ashes after you heat to cherry red, it will lengthen out the cooling process for better anneal treatment.

Good point -
If you have no ashes here's an alternative. At home if I have a number of items to anneal I use a gas BBQ flame, around which I build a small closed chamber out of fire bricks and a couple of bits of angle iron to support the steel. After heating to cherry red I kill the flame and let the whole thing cool down over a few hours. Try to do it in still air if possible.

At work we have electric furnaces and it can be programmed to perform a controlled cool down overnight.

 

[820wards]

When learning how to forge I was taught to anneal in ashes, as it slows down the cooling process. Just to add to your point, that if you stick it in ashes after you heat to cherry red, it will lengthen out the cooling process for better anneal treatment.

Would I use wood ashes or bone ash like case hardening on firearms?

The method I used was taught to me by my neighbor who shoes horses and does blacksmithing. All I know is that it worked for me and my knife is still sharp after a lot of use.

Bob, your access to an electric oven would be the optimum method of getting the metal to a specific temp for tempering. I'll bet your tools stay rea sharp for a long time?

jerry-