12" chopper finished

[paintman]

finished finally.this one kicked my butt.heat treated before drilling was a huge mistake.took for ever to drill

[paintman]

[TexAg2002]

I really like that design, where did it come from?

[paintman]

customer sent me a picture and I made it similar to what he wanted

[live2hunt65]

Nice

[Foot Patrol]

Paintman I had this problem with a knife I made and it was easy to fix. If you get a propane torch and heat the handle below where you want to drill the holes your can anneal it making it far easier to drill.

As the steel heats watch the color change and keep the blue line just above where you want soften up the metal.

[Foot Patrol]

duplicate post

[Bjankowski]

Terry next time you do that use a carbide bit; We've all done it. ...

The last thing I forgot was to stamp my makers mark on one... I just had to re-heat treat again. I was going to just use a stencil but been using a stamp for so long I want to keep all my knives consistent. I haven't used a stencil for 12 years.

[paintman]

my understanding is to aneal(soften high carbon steel)"you have to heat to non magnetic state and then cool very slowly.heating with a torch and letting air cool shouldn't work and hasn't in the past for me,what am I missing?

[Foot Patrol]

I did this with a heat treated knife made from 1084 and the heat was placed only in the area I needed to drill for the pin. Hit it with a torch and slow cooled. Worked like a champ.

[paintman]

how did you slow cool it?? I have a fourth

[paintman]

torch

[SamHarper]

You could stick it in a 5 gallon bucket of ashes.

If you heat it until it's blue, it won't technically be annealed, but it'll be softer than it would be if you had only tempered it to a yellow colour, so it'll be easier to drill.

[papabearclif]

I like this one!