Well its been a while since I've posted any progress on the X-Fire! That's the problem when you can cook on it......taking it out of service to work on it is not easy.
However.......the boy and I have been working on some accessories for the X-Fire! The boy is working on his senior project where a family member can't mentor him like the civil learning project like the X-Fire....so he decided he wanted to learn how to make a knife......so Dad HAD to tag along......Come to find out the blade smith that is mentoring him was on Forged in Fire (He made the second round)! As a metal fabricator hobbyist, I can say it is absolutely fascinating learning blade smithing!!!!!
So here is my knife..........It just finished heat treatment and tempering and is ready for finish grinding.....My knife will be finished with a flat grind, satin polish, and a green canvas Micarta handle with brass pins. I have done all the work including the knife edge grind.
Here is the Boy's, it has been finished ground and satin polished. The Boy free-hand sketch his design and it will be finished with a African Blackwood handle and silver pins. He has done everything but the detail hollow grind on the blade.
It is going to be a very nice knife!......What can I say, I'm a proud Dad!!
The Boy and I are also in the progress of making a forge to build knifes at home and we are going to build a BBQ knife set to go with the X-Fire....
Just a few more cool pics of the Boys knife:
The Quench: ....
good old fashioned peanut oil! Oh and you hold it in the oil for a whole minute and don't pull it out to flame up like the show......LOL TV is TV!
The polishing
FYI, Watching Forged in Fire I always wondered why none of them used a glove to grind......well turns out if you grind too hard and cause heat you ruin your heat treat and knife....ie so no glove so you can feel the heat....so the lesson is you grind very carefully!
