My Latest Knife

[crashdive123]

This one is made from 1095 steel, 3/16" thick, 11-1/2" overall length, Bluejean Crashcarta, homemade Mosaic pin in center, nickel silver pins, brass lanyard tube, red liner.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint002.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint005.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint006.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint008.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint009.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/crashdive123/Knife%20Making/BlueJeanDropPoint011.jpg

[Sourdough]

I am getting tired of saying..........."Very, Very NICE" but you just keep improving at rocket speed. I would have never thought someone could progress as fast as you have.

[Rick]

Holy Mackeral! You're getting pretty fancy. That's a gorgeous knife!!

[Pal334]

I agree with Sourdough, you have come a long way kiddo :) Only getting gooder and gooder

[randyt]

awesome looking blade, it's a shiny one too.

[Ted]

Mouse skinner?...LOL!!! Thats a dandy! Nice Crash, real nice!

[Justin Case]

looks great,,, :)

[panch0]

I love the shape of the handle. That mirror polish is awesome!

[crashdive123]

I'm getting better with my hollow grind. I still had to do a bit of hand sanding - took three days off and on sanding with my left hand. Now I've got to build a 10" soft contact wheel to eliminate most of the sanding.

[oldtrap59]

A big well done Crash. IMO this is the best you have done. You've made alot of nice knives over the time I've been viewing your work but man this one is a real eye catcher. Again, well done.

Oldtrap

[roar-k]

Fabulous work crash. You are improving all the time and it's amazing to watch the progress.

[rwc1969]

Again, looks real nice. I like the Crashcarta handle.

[Reverend Greg]

I love that Knife!Ive made a few blades in my day ,and you have inspired to make them again...
(G)

[rebel]

Very, very nice!

[Ole WV Coot]

No frills, handle and blade. I agree, your best yet, basic, simple yet close to perfection in my opinion.

[gryffynklm]

Dang, Crash that is scary beautiful.

[hunter63]

Wow, Wow, Wow and I can say I knew him when!

[klickitat]

what they said.

[Winter]

I like everything about it Crash. Great utilitarian design.

[paracordist]

amazing how quickly your knives have evolved (they were always nice) but that is gorgeous!

[Erratus Animus]

SO shinny ! Looks good bro! I think that is thew best looking crash carta I have seen yet. I like the entire knife alot!

[nell67]

Love it Crash,another great knife!

[JPGreco]

wow, I so want to learn how to do that. Any pointers you can give a rookie? I'm a carpenter so I'm well versed in tools and such, I've just never tried making a knife. Really I'm concerned with the metal work right now. I'll figure out the handle later.

[crashdive123]

I started out looking at some of the knife makers here, and watched youtube vids (Greenpete has a good series). The best advice I think would be to try and hook up with a local maker - it'll make the learning curve steeper.

[aflineman]

VERY NICE! I really like that one.

[jc1234]

Really nice knife! Great scales too. What is it about red spacers? It seems many of the professional bladesmiths use red spacers exclusively too.

I love the mirror polish. In a world dominated by the tacticool, I think the satin and mirror finishes have been left behind. As a camper and hiker who doesnt plan for the end of the world during my day to day activities, I prefer a bright finish, it works well as a mirror and more importantly, will resist rust better. Yes it will look beat up more quickly, but a well used knife is a well loved knife.

[crashdive123]

Really nice knife! Great scales too. What is it about red spacers? It seems many of the professional bladesmiths use red spacers exclusively too.

I love the mirror polish. In a world dominated by the tacticool, I think the satin and mirror finishes have been left behind. As a camper and hiker who doesnt plan for the end of the world during my day to day activities, I prefer a bright finish, it works well as a mirror and more importantly, will resist rust better. Yes it will look beat up more quickly, but a well used knife is a well loved knife.

It's the first time I have used colored spacers. It just off sets the scale material. Not sure why red is so popular - it comes in a wide variety of colors. I'm going to order a few different colors and might play around with making my own.

[jc1234]

It's the first time I have used colored spacers. It just off sets the scale material. Not sure why red is so popular - it comes in a wide variety of colors. I'm going to order a few different colors and might play around with making my own.

I have my knife back into the bladesmith that made my knife to convert the knife to interchangable scales so I can use bright orange during the winter. I know he exclusively uses red spacers, but I noticed that quite a few of the pros do too, and TOPs does as well. I thought maybe there was some special material that only came in red or something.

[crashdive123]

I have my knife back into the bladesmith that made my knife to convert the knife to interchangable scales so I can use bright orange during the winter. I know he exclusively uses red spacers, but I noticed that quite a few of the pros do too, and TOPs does as well. I thought maybe there was some special material that only came in red or something.

I'll bet that a black spacer material would look good with the orange scales.

[BearBirch]

B E A utiful. Im sorry if im not caught up in the loop, but do you order your blades or
do you actually "DING DING.... pssst" it yourself? But again, really nice :)

Ok, so now Ive looked at your youtube clips. Maybe I should actually do a little
research before I ask my questions :S
Nice work!

[crashdive123]

B E A utiful. Im sorry if im not caught up in the loop, but do you order your blades or
do you actually "DING DING.... pssst" it yourself? But again, really nice :)

Ok, so now Ive looked at your youtube clips. Maybe I should actually do a little
research before I ask my questions :S
Nice work!

No knife blanks. Just flat stock, saw blades, files, planner blades, etc.

[beetlejuicex3]

That is gorgeous! Crash, how long did it take you and tell us more about "Crashcarta". Is that micarta?

[crashdive123]

That is gorgeous! Crash, how long did it take you and tell us more about "Crashcarta". Is that micarta?

All told, between the grinding, homemade micarta (Crashcarta), homemade mosaic pin and finishing it left handed I probably had about 20 or 25 hours in this one.

[BearBirch]

I really like your youtube section.
When you do the heating, what does that do to the metal?
And is that oil you dip it in after the heating?

I watched a documentary on samurai swords. The master blacksmith
used clay in different thickness on the blade before dipping it in to the water to give it variable durance threw out the blade. Really interesting.

[crashdive123]

Without going into a discussion of austenite and gamma phase iron, when you heat treat and then rapidly cool the steel (some are cooled with liquid and some are air quenched) you are changing the crystalline structure of the steel to harden it. When you do that, you are also making it more brittle, so it is necessary to draw out some of that brittle, or temper the steel. That's kind of a simplistic explanation, and there are a lot of different methods and techniques to use. I have been using motor oil but will probably switch to olive oil.

[Camp10]

I really like your youtube section.
When you do the heating, what does that do to the metal?
And is that oil you dip it in after the heating?

I watched a documentary on samurai swords. The master blacksmith
used clay in different thickness on the blade before dipping it in to the water to give it variable durance threw out the blade. Really interesting.

A knife needs to be hardened in order to keep its edge. The way to do this is through heat treat. The simple explaination is this...knife steel has carbon as an element in it. The carbon is what makes simple carbon steels hard but only after it has been changed into austenite and then transformed from that into martensite. To do this, the metal has to be heated to "critical temp" to change the grain structure and then quenched to keep it in this state. You can google these terms and they will do a much better job explaining the science behind the process.

Crash used 1095 for this knife. Critical temp for that steel is about 1500° F When you have reached and held that temp for a peroid of time (every knifemaker will argue about what that time needs to be) it needs to be quenched to cool the metal fast enough to keep the carbon in its new state.

The steel will be somewhat unstable at in this state and will need to be tempered back (or slightly softened) in order to be tough. The balance act is to keep it hard enough to keep an edge but tough enough to keep from breaking.

As far as the swords, the clay will keep the spine from hardening by not letting it get to critical temperature. The quench is in water. Now the clay that kept the steel from getting to hot will work to keep the steel from getting to cold and hardening. This is why the swords curve during heat treat. The hardened structure will "freeze" in its new state but the spine will go back to its original grain pattern. The hot metal under the clay will also help to temper the blade as the heat slowly warms the hardened portion back to a stable and useful hardness. This is a very simple explaination, but I hope it helped some.

[BearBirch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQqtf86qOc

The Katana making!

[JPGreco]

The only thing I don't understand in that video was it showed the cutting edge cooling faster, yet the katana bending away from the cutting edge. Wouldn't it bend to the side that cools faster? Or is this just another example of them not doing their research properly?

[Camp10]

The only thing I don't understand in that video was it showed the cutting edge cooling faster, yet the katana bending away from the cutting edge. Wouldn't it bend to the side that cools faster? Or is this just another example of them not doing their research properly?

If you watch the video carefully, you will see the metal first bends towards the cutting edge and then away. Metal expands as it is heated and the cutting edge will freeze at nearly this size when it is hardened. The spine goes back to its original size when it cools and that gives the blade it's shape.

[JPGreco]

ah, ok, I missed that. My bad...

[hoosierarcher]

Wow that is a beauty, sorry I missed this post when you first made it. Ditto what everyone else said.