DJ are you saying they shrunk in the dryer? that's what you get for mixing materials with different weaves.... oh that's fabric... it works the same way for steel too, right?

Don't give Gary beer... make him work for it.:D

Speaking of "shrinking"... :eek: There were two UUKs originally. That's the big compound ground sucker with the coyote handles and the 45 degree handle, second from the right. The other one, I must have ground the primary bevel too thin, because that bastard curled up like a potato chip! I have a 2x4 with a notch sawed into it that I use in situations like that to deflect and true the edge. The warp just didn't want to come out, so I started going at it with some real gusto, when *PING*... Then I got mad. That knife is bent in half now and hanging over my bench as a reminder of what NOT to do. At least I know I'm getting my edges hard enough. ;)

I didn't say I wasn't going to put Gary to work, I said I wasn't going to make him chop wood. :D

Stuff for Vegas.

Hey DJ... none of them shrank in the dryer or got all twisty this time... looking great there !

I tell you what... as cool as all DJ's stuff looks here you HAVE to see it in person to really appreciate just how freaking cool all his work is! From his knives to axes and sporks... just unbelievable!! Picked up a MIGS OG from him and it is BAD ASS!!
Had a super good time hanging out, drinking some beer, and talking knives. Our women finally made us end our play date or we'd probably be three days into a bender!!
Thanks D! Need to do it again soon!

x SF med: That's because I ironed them. Extra starch. :p Thanks buddy! Glad you like 'em.

Gary: You are welcome here ANYTIME, bro! Had a blast. Excellent meeting the family. Thrilled that you're happy with your new cutter. Oh and thanks for the brews! You can imagine my surprise when I opened the fridge and there were 12 Shiners in there. Scrumdillyicious! Give me a holler when you're settled.

DJ, How was the Vegas trip?

It was awesome, thanks for asking! But the drive back home turned me into a robot, if robots fart death. Alamo is going to have to burn their truck. :eek: Next time I'm flying, although I will really miss the drive through UT and CO. That scenery will about knock your eyeballs out.

Got to re-meet Mark from Spartan. Didn't get to talk to him long, he was very popular. :D

You going to be around later this week? When I'm more functional, I'd like to pick your brain about some stuff.

Second sub-group I just finished of the "small" stuff from this batch. Banging out Kydex now on these, and then on to the finishing of the rest of the smalls.

D.j., That's a nice looking group of blades. :lifter

Thanks, Bill! I think that must mean that I'm on the right track. :D

Here are some closeup pics of a few from that tray that I'm particularly fond of, as well as the most current iterations of the sporks.

Awesome work!

Thanks, buddy. Glad you like.

Here's some more eye candy. Last of the smalls from this current batch. I'll post some pics of some of my favorites close up once I'm done with the sheaths.

Your knives are really fabulous.

DJ,

I really enjoy looking at your knives.

I noticed on your website that your fixed blade knives are 1095 steel and are differentially heat treated.

What are the benefits of 1095? (I ask because it seems others are using some sort of stainless. I could be wrong about what's the popular steel for custom makers. Please correct me if I am.)

Have you found the differential heat treatment adds to the strength/toughness of the knife? That would seem like one of the real positives of a custom knife over a mass-produced blade.

Finally, do the folders have a patina, or is that the lighting making them look darker? Either way, they are gorgeous.

http://americankami.com/SHTFmain.jpg

http://americankami.com/shffmain.JPG
Thanks for posting here.

(Tried to embed the photos. Looks like it didn't work.)

Glad y'all like them. Thanks so much.

Leozinho: Here are my thoughts on 1095, which should address all of your questions. This is a little verbose, so please bear with me.

When I was first starting out, I wanted a steel that I could easily heat treat myself. I felt that was an important skill to learn to do properly as a maker, and I also didn't want to give up control of that aspect of the process. With the technology I had at my disposal at the time, this limited my selection to oil hardening steels such as 01, 5160, and my personal favorite, 1095. I stuck with 1095 for a number of reasons:

1) It's a proven steel. Been around for a loooong time. Lots of notable makers who have been at this much longer than I have used it, and are still using it.
2) It's a simple steel. Not a lot of alloying elements, which appeals to me aesthetically.
3) It's a living steel, i.e., it readily develops a patina with use. Patinas are cool.
4) Visible temper lines/hamon. VERY cool.
5) With proper heat treat, it produces knives that are very tough, with good edge retention, which are still easy for users to sharpen in the field.
6) If you match the hardness to the tool, you can build pretty much anything out of it. I've done swords, hammers, axes, folders, big knives, small knives, you name it, all out of 1095.
7) Because it's so versatile, I don't have to stock 15 different steels. This makes life a whole lot easier. If it's in the shop and it's not marked, I know it's 1095.
8) I just plain love the stuff!

I would say absolutely, a differential heat treat helps make a tougher knife (insofar as oil and water hardening steels are concerned). Knives are a balance of hardness vs toughness, where hardness = brittleness, and toughness = ductility and lack of edge retention. With a differential heat treat, you get a nice hard edge, and a softer, tougher springier spine. Normally I'll just do an edge quench to achieve this, but I have selectively torch hardened blades, and also used clay coating. Wrangling a hot piece of steel and oxy/acetylene torch at the same time is always an adventure. :eek: And then of course, you temper it after hardening. After that, some guys will torch draw the spine of the knife. Some guys just stick with the tempering cycles. I've done both, and not noticed an appreciable difference between the two insofar as toughness or performance is concerned. So I just stick with my tempering cycles.

On those two folders: The first knife is blued. The second knife was taken to final finish, heat treated, and then hit with a wire wheel. I called that a Gunmetal finish. Now I just heat treat and finish everything as normal and then blue as needed. I can get pretty much the same effect as the Gunmetal with just a regular Oxpho blue.

The negatives of 1095? You can't safely get it as hard as some stainless steels and not suffer from chipping or breakage. Also not very stain resistant. This isn't so much of a problem with modern oils and rust inhibitors. And as one of my friends is fond of saying, the samurai did just fine with their swords, and they lived on an island in the Pacific. And if rust is really going to be a big concern for a customer, there are all kinds of wonderful coatings out there as well.

I'd be happy to post up pics of a few of my personal knives that I've used hard (and which I'm not ashamed of), if you'd like to see how 1095 holds up over time.

None of this is to bag on any of the stainless steels out there. In fact, I'm in the process of getting an in-house midtech/production project up and running, and those knives are going to be stainless. CPM S35VN, to be precise. They'll also be V-ground vs my customs, which are only available left or right hand chisel ground. This way I've got something for everybody - whether you like stainless, or not, or chisel grinds or not, or you're willing to wait or you want/need something right now, I got you. :D

DJ,

Thank you for the detailed reponse. I appreciate it.

I'd like to see pics of those used knives.

My pleasure, and will get those posted up for you, buddy.

In the meantime here are some Ti goodies to enjoy, and also the beginnings of my mid-tech project, 206 blades there, which I'm very excited about.

Leozinho: Pics of used blades, as promised. Sorry for the delay. Big chopper, kitchen knife, and the prototype for the Colubris. Big chopper is used for firewood gathering and brush clearing. Kitchen knife has been thrown in the sink and left there, and has cut just about anything you can imagine a kitchen/utility knife would. The Colubris is my primary EDC knife since September, lives IWB appendix when I'm not in shop, and is the first knife I reach for when I need to cut something. Aside from all the scuffs, patina, Kydex rub, and the occasional sharpening, they're all good to go.

Speaking of the Colubris, here's a pic of what the actual mid-tech prototypes are looking like, finish profiled and handles machined. Settled on the large logo handles. Those seem to have just the right level of grip. Blades should be on their way to being ground and heat treated by tomorrow. If they come out as well as they have so far, these are going to be awesome. Really excited about these.

And finally, a pic of one of the big bruisers I finished up a couple of weeks ago. Pretty fond of this one. Blued over satin finish. The revised handles are a vast improvement over the originals. To give you and idea of the size, those things that it's sitting on are two of my Kydex presses, which are each 12" wide. 'Tis a bigun. :D

Hope y'all enjoy these.

DJ-
In pic one "the Big un" looks like a modified bladesport design... does it conform to the class rules for bladesports, because it looks like it could be a winner in competition. IOW, Noice!!!

Thanks, pal. Glad you like it! That's actually my favorite big blade I own. My kukris languish ever since I built it.

It's overall and blade lengths are too long, and the blade itself is too wide at nearly 3", although it does meet all of Bladesport's other requirements.

About the only thing I'd change about the design are handle revisions, which all future versions of this knife will incorporate. Existing handles have more curve to them than they should, which leads to premature hand fatigue when chopping for extended periods of time.

DJ,

Post #58, pic #1, is the square item a stove?

D.J.,
Amazing grinds and too cool we get to see them!

When your working with the CPM S35VN that is beyond mid-tech
(I hate that term, sounds like one is only going part way)

That stuff is kind of hi-tech, http://www.crucible.com/PDFs%5CDataS...VNrev12010.pdf

We like it.


edited to add: does that link work?

Disregard. It now works.

Razor: It is indeed. That's my version of the Emberlit firebox style stove. Mikhail, the guy that owns Emberlit (good guy, btw), gave me permission to make them for myself and a small number of friends. Mine has what I consider to be "enhancements," and at 0.073", is a little more than three times thicker than the Emberlit. I can confidently stand on mine. The second one will have a few additional design tweaks.

Bill: Thanks! Always feels good when people I admire and respect think I'm doing good stuff. It's a privilege to be able to share my work here.

I know what you're saying about the mid-tech thing. Only fellow knife dorks know what it means, and it would be easier to just to call them something else less ambiguous and be done with it. Like "Limited Run Semi-Custom Productions."

I am very impressed with the S35. It was a toss up between that and the Elmax for these first knives. It looks good on paper, but what really sold me on it was the CRK Nyala I got at Blade two years ago. I must say, It's been an interesting first foray into the world of stainless "super steels." Maybe I'll build some customs out of it too. Or maybe not. If I did that I'd probably want to learn how to heat treat it in-house. As it is, being the control freak that I am, it's been difficult for me to let go of the processes on these LRSCPs. :o

Link worked fine, thanks! I actually had that data sheet saved already, along with probably half of Crucible's other offerings. :eek:

SF-TX: Dude, that's the story of my life. "Heeeey!!! Wait... Nevermind."

DJ,
I'm pretty burnt out on "steel wars", all the continuing arguments on the internet about what steel is best or what sucks written by many people whose knowledge comes from reading it on the internet and then sticking a finger up to see which way the wind is blowing then jumping on that bandwagon so they can be cool too.

There are many steels that will make good knives. Some of the most valued blades on this planet are of an un-named alloy. Think antique swords from Japan.

Good news you found this steel by using it. :lifter

CPM S35VN is barely stainless by chromium content but holds up against corrosion well.

The term "Stainless Steel" is like saying "cartridge", there are many types of both.

"Stainless Tool Steel" is a category of hardenable steels while many stainless alloys are not.
Some hardenable stainless steels are not "tool steels" like 416 stainless used for some stainless steel firearms barrels,

" Particle Metal Stainless Tool Steel" is another category while
"Particle Metal" tool steels are an entire other group in that some of these do not contain enough chromium to be called stainless.

CPM S35VN is a true tool steel made by the particle metal process with good stainless properties.
It has the unusual alloy of Niobium which also forms a carbide and increases the toughness by a nice measurable amount.

I've found the best steel is the steel in the sharp knife in my pocket or on my belt when I need it - it could be 1095, 440C, S30 or a number of others - but the key is sharp and available.

That's been my experience, also. Argument over which steel is best/most magical/newest is a concern of steel producers and their marketing dept.

As has been discussed in other threads, native Americans made knives out of frickin rocks, which seems to have worked pretty well.

Bill: I'm right there with you. People sure do get themselves bent out of shape. To me, it's simultaneously funny, sad, and ridiculous.

I would never offer a knife in a steel I hadn't used myself. If I hadn't had the positive experience I have with the Nyala, I'd have done the Colubris out of CPM154 instead.

I think S35 is a step in the right direction. Better toughness and wear resistance than S30? If the papers can be believed, I'm there. And based on my experiences with it, it has better corrosion resistance than S30V as well - perhaps on par with CPM154. None of which should make sense - they all have the same amount of chromium, so their corrosion resistance should be about the same at appropriate hardness levels, but it isn't... I seem to rust S30 just by looking at it sideways.

I like the added niobium too - it is my understanding that in addition to creating harder carbides, it also helps reduce and refine grain size, and that's a big plus.

x SF med and Barbarian: Exactly. Before this most recent round of "super steels," I'd owned, used, and carried knives in just about all of the popular steels. While I do have my preferences, steel type has never put me off owning a particular knife. These are the things that are important to me in a knife, in order of importance:

1) It cuts what I need it to cut.
2) Durable and easy to maintain.
3) Ergonomics.
4) Looks cool just sitting there.

If the knife has all of that, then for me, it's a good value for my hard earned dollar. If it's a knife I'm designing or building, what I strive for is the perfect balance of those attributes.

I am grateful major tool steel companies have used significant resources to design, refine and manufacture alloys specifically for the knifemaking market. They have a right to market this because it helps pay for the investment they have made.
Crucible Steel has gone above and beyond over the many years when other steel companies would not give knifemakers the time of day. This is historic fact, not an opinion.

All stone tool using cultures migrated quickly to metals when that technology became available to them.
Thin properly knapped rocks might cut well but don't have the toughness of metals (bronze, iron and steel) and also represented major costs in time and travel to sources of good stone.

I'm not a knife kind of guy but I'm liking the lock picks and Schims.

Attachment 21240

I mispoke. What I should have said, was: Now that knife steel is a major market interest, and steel manufactures are in heated competition to design better steels, internet armchair-commandos are quick to declare any but the newest steels obsolete, reguardless of personal experience (or lack thereof.)

Edited to add:
I'm very thankful tool steel manufacturers like Crucible work with knifemakers nowadays. I would have a much more difficult time learning knifemaking were it not for the increased availability of suitable blade steels.

Ask the Harsey about how sharp a flint knife can be... or plastic, or cardboard, or obsidian... not that he has any experience on the cutting side of any of those materials or anything. (cough, cough... paper towels and duct tape, band aids, krazy glue) :rolleyes:

OKC is in April... I'm soooooo gonna get crushed......

Bill: I concur. And honestly, I don't see much "marketing hype" as it were out of any of them. Usually it's just a one or two page technical paper.

alelks: Stuff like this is what happens when knifemakers have a little time to screw around. All of those picks and shims are out of 0.030" Ti, and they've been tumbled to knock all the edges off. I'm not very good with them yet, it has taken me up to 10 minutes to open a lock. But sometimes I get one open in 30 seconds, and then it feels like magic. :D The ones with the handles are designed off of Romstar pick templates, and the little ones are modeled after Bogota picks. Seems like just those two little Bogotas will do everything that full set will, although I may need to tweak the design of their business ends a bit.

Barbarian: I don't know that I'd consider cutlery steel to be a major market interest. It might seem like it is, but we're really more like a small niche compared to the rest of the stuff that steel companies produce. Which is what makes it impressive when a company like Crucible listens to us. And insofar as suitable blade steel availability goes, if all else fails, all you have to do is go down to your local junkyard and yank some leaf springs. Cheap, plentiful, tough as hell. :D

x SF med: Don't forget about tin can lids. :cool:


And now for your viewing pleasure, a few more big 'uns that I finished up this week.

Gorgeous looking blades! Very impressive!

DJ: Those are some slick blades, brother. I especially like the three big ones on the left. They remind me of the Greek kopis.

x SF med: Cardboard?

Glad you guys dig those bigguns. Got some more on tap. But in the meantime, here's the result of the last three months of stress, work, stress, and constant work related stress: The Colubris mid-tech/semi-production knife. A little more practical for most guys than a Tacopis. :D

A huge departure for me, and a huge learning experience. You build knives for six years and you start to think you know a little about manufacturing, and then you do something like this and you realize you DON'T!!!

These have flat V-ground bevels, CPM-S35VN, hardened at 58-60, tumbled finish. Handles are G10. 100% USA made out of USA made materials. 9" OAL, 4" of blade, 0.187" thick. Weight is 8.3oz.

I didn't cherry pick the best three, I just reached in, grabbed up three sets of parts, and ripped these first three out as fast as I could.

I'm really happy with how this project came together, and the knives will shave packing peanuts. Hope you guys like 'em, and thanks for all of your support and patience. Greatly appreciated.

Those look awesome - where can I purchase and do they come with a sheath?

:lifter

ETA: I found your web page address/link in your profile - very nice work.

Very nice work indeed!

tonyz: You can send me a private message here and I'll get you taken care of.

TS: Glad you like! Goal with this was to create an everyman's knife. Something that could be carried all the time, that would be equally at home in the kitchen, around the house, in the woods, on the street, or on the battlefield.