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knifes from old files

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ohio ramrod

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Well the deer was in the orchard last fall. So I thought I would made some knife handles out of his antlers. Once I got started I made some more knifes out of more files and used some wood I have had around for several years. Some walnut,cherry, birdseye maple, mulberry, oak burl and even some chery. Just as the old buckskinners I never throw away any good steel. I find old files are a great high carbon steel. You can work them cold if you have a lot of patience and time. Or put them in the old woodburner over night to anneal, hot forge them to shape and then reharden and temper.

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Looks ta be a handful fer shore! :hmm: :shocked2: :grin:

Davy
 
you's been busy! :shocked2: .an ya dun real good too!! :thumbsup: very cool....nice assortment!..............................

.. :confused: I got files..?? nah, :shake: I'd get arrested fer cruelty to metal.. :(
 
Nice grouping of "working" knives.

The one big caution with using old files is to make sure that file is good high-carbon steel all the way through it. Many modern files are soft iron inside, and were case-hardened on the outside. So only the teeth have enough carbon it them. The core won't heat-treat well enough.

I have several professional knife maker friends who found this out years ago. They put 20 to 40 hours of work forging/filing/polishing knife blades from old files, only to find out that they were junk soft iron inside on that final heat-treat and temper. It's a lesson they learned the hard way. Now they ALWAYS cut off a small chunk of that file and see if it will heat-treat before they will do anything with the rest of the file. It saves a lot of ... wasted time.

Have fun ... tinkering.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

p.s. You might want to look into using some iron pins/rivets instead of brass cutler rivets or brass/copper pins on your handles. Those cutler rivets only really came into common usage in the late 1800's. And the copper/brass pins in the early 1800's. Before that they generally used iron pins/rivets. The brass/copper rivets/pins sure do look nice and stand out, but are mostly from later time periods. Just a thought to share.
 
Another way I have used is to clamp it in a vise before annealing with about 1/2" sticking out and give it a good whack with a ball peen. If it's case hardened it will crack and bend. If it's
through hardened it will break like a piece of glass.
 
I have used only nickelson or seimans files so far, no problems with rehardening files. I did have a problem with a few that were full of fine cracks and broke while working them.I stay away from Chinese junk for all of my tools and materials. I sometiumes use old industrial hacksaw blades as well, a good light steel but touchy to reharden.
 
I (dug)found this old file made into a knife, at a Civil War site, did they have that kinda stuff too?
 
Files have been around for at least a couple of millennia. I know at least from Roman times but I don't know how much earlier.
 
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