THE PRODUCTION OF A BLADE

 THE PRODUCTION OF A BLADE

The Production System

Introduction 
A good knife is a knife as close to the need of its user. Whether it is a highly specialized knife, or it is a knife either as "all purpose", who wishes a knife must offer some valuable information to the producer. First, it is necessary to know what it will be used for, what specific uses and what limits should be used. It is important to clarify what expectations from that knife are (to cut very fine, to withstand shocks and abuses, or not to be stainless, etc.). A knife to do all at once does not exist except in fanciful commercials, any extra in a sense will have at least a minus in another sense. A knife with a fine edge will not resist the abuse or a sturdy knife will never cut sufficiently large sample space of fine for anyone who wants it. So, it starts from the need of the customer and his expectations.
With all my experience, I have managed to conceive and I have come to love certain forms, sizes, shapes and bright. They have grown to be models proposed by me, which, in my vision, are perfect for certain uses, models made of steel or another handle material and mounting preferred by my customers fully to satisfy those customers looking for ergonomics and performance but I am not stuck on a model.

For the beginning. ..the steel. 
It is by far the most important thing in choosing a knife steel, suitable for the purpose and expectations of the customer. At the moment the world steels used for knives can be divided into 3 categories.
1. Carbon steels, e.g. steel arch, OLC, OCS, etc., easily bought, easily machined and heat treated, are sufficient as well as general performance to little things but they are very cheap. 
2. Superior high-alloyed Steels e.g. D2, 420, 440, 440B, 440 c has, bearing steels (5200), C120, D3 etc, specialized steels for an increased abrasion resistance, better corrosion resistance but more difficult to process and more demanding at heat treatment. 
3. The so-called "super steel", metallurgical powders are the most specialized steels at the moment, steel whose performances are absolutely incredible girl the other two categories. Just like the high-alloyed steels, these are specialized in certain uses, so it is essential that the choice of the type of powder metallurgy in relation to the use of the knife. I have to dedicate another longer article about these super steels.

Steel is bought in the form of universal iron or more depending on steel and vendor.

The trace phase follows the shape of the blade, I draw it with a marker.

After this point, it follows a long and demanding stage of cutting shapes. Many craftsmen use at this stage a drilling technique to cut step by step, but I use the angle grinder with higher risks and effort, but it is much faster.

The next stage ... drilling of the handle. Mainly, the handles are of two kinds, rat tang, which are like a chadra and will handle material sunken to enter into the tail of the blade and fixed by epoxy resins and fulltang, i.e. on the knife handle is attached by gluing and riveting the mills of the TLS handle.

The second version (most commonly used) is required, the holes for riveting must be carried out before the heat treatment. If it is thick, steel for knife balancing will run in the handle, the more holes, the large diameter, strictly to ease the handle.

Then it will proceed to grind the blade. It is a stage in which the blade gets a profile meaning when processing the edge and the blade from a piece of sharp board gets a side (or both). This profile of the blade must be designed and manufactured according to the specifications and characteristics of the blade and steel used, using a low angle so a very brutal blade profile for superior materials and knives that will be used for specialized, or larger angles with blades resulting in more robust profile from steels less performant or will be abused.

The edge profile is made step by step with a hard hand, first on one side of blade and then on the other side.

The blade should never be heated very strongly during processing, the profile becomes thinner the heat resulting from grinding cannot be distributed in the material fast enough and it is greater than the danger of overheating.

The blade must be periodically dipped in cold water and the grind must be made to replay on exactly the same angle as before, theedge surface must be smooth and permanently with a single plan.

After a part is completed ...we should continue with the other side symmetrically

It follows a simple step but which is very important ... punchingthe logo on the blade which is still soft.

Then the blades are wrapped in special stainless steel foil which prevents the decarburization steel at high temperatures. It is a procedure that is applied by the artisans, in the case of dairy, knives are used with the neutral atmosphere ovens (either be inert or gas vacuum)

The edges must be carefully run in order that the oxygen to enter in… then, they are placed in the oven.

Tempering is the process of physical changes by which the steel is structured by means of cooling from an acidstemperature (specify for each steel, carbon steel the 800 to 1,200 degrees, metallurgical powders), suddenly and in an environment which absorbs warmth with a sufficient rate, generally specified in the technical data sheet of steel.

I generally cool it in oil.

After hardening remove protective foil ..

In this case we have a steel blade in layers and layers of Suminagashi are seen without treating with acid. Follow a simple but essential phase, quenching the blade at an acids for stress relief (called "revert") when steel gets tenacity, I mean the ability to withstand shocks, after hardening it having a particularly tense structure being brittle and brittle. Depending on the recipe of hardening and tempering (i.e. heat treatment), we like the same steel we have an increase in hardness at the expense of tenacity or an increase in hardness at the expense of tenacity. Considering that the hardness is required to be maintained in the recommended parameters of steel maker to have a quality blade, these variations are small. In order to fool steel and maintain a maximum hardness but with very good toughness, metallurgical powders are applied the treatment plant, meaning further cooling of steel up to-80 ° c and maintain at this temperature to complete all physical transformations in its structure. This is done through the ice dry ice.

After cleaning the blade, it follows the return fitting and the handle. The handle will be made according to customer s requirements. Proposed materials by me, in general, are stabilized wood acrylic, raffir, camel bone, micarta, Buffalo Horn, but you can use other materials.

About fitting the handle we will talk with another opportunity. Thank you!