Full hard M2 high speed steel knife

kwakster · **on:** January 29, 2014, 10:38:56 PM

Currently busy making a knife out of a old piece of Sandvik M2 high speed steel machine saw (about 65-66 HRC) with the help of my Tormek T7 wet grinder.
Since i had a couple of old G10 grips from a Strider DB-L the overall shape was an easy choice, but in the process i added a little belly to the edge.
The main edge measures 22.5 degrees with a mini-bevel, while the slanted portion measures 25 degrees inclusive with a zero edge.

RamoN · **Reply #1 on:** January 29, 2014, 11:03:59 PM

Very nice, the belly you added to that tanto shape gives a nice character to it. Also i imagine it makes it more useful for slicing than the traditional tanto flat edge.

Sparky415 · **Reply #2 on:** January 29, 2014, 11:11:06 PM

Wow

nice work Kwakster

ducttapetech · **Reply #3 on:** January 30, 2014, 02:49:16 AM

I'm liking that so far. Nice job!

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kwakster · **Reply #4 on:** January 30, 2014, 10:55:33 AM

Next step is to try to drill the holes for the G-10 grips with these speciality drills:

Smitty44 · **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2014, 06:29:58 AM

Very impressive drill bits,good luck on the knife handle,great looking blade.

enki_ck · **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2014, 02:05:40 PM

Quote from: Smitty44 on February 02, 2014, 06:29:58 AM

Very impressive drill bits,good luck on the knife handle,great looking blade.

Agreed. Quite impressive.

Looking forward to updates on the project.

kwakster · **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2014, 07:42:42 PM

The 6 mm Artu drill bits arrived, so it was time to try them on the M2 steel.
The instruction paper said that when the drill bits are to be used on hardened steel to use a drill press with 2000 r.p.m, but since i don't own one (yet) i just tried one in a hand held drill.
I put the knife in a vise with a piece of wood behind it and started drilling; the deeper "dent" is the result of about 15 minutes drilling it this way.

As you can see i still didn't get through, but the Artu drill bit still did many times better than an average (re-sharpened) masonry drill bit that only managed to make a shiny spot on the M2 steel and go blunt right away in the process.
Seen with the naked eye the Artu drill bit shows no signs of blunting whatsoever.
I'm going to tinker with this drill bit some more in the coming days (and maybe look around for a reasonably priced drill press)

Gareth · **Reply #8 on:** February 02, 2014, 09:31:37 PM

Love that bellied tanto blade shape.

kwakster · **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2014, 06:32:33 PM

Job done with the help of the Artu drill bit and the drill press of a very helpful Dutch knifemaker.
The process worked exactly as i was told by an Australian knifemaker with experience in using these Artu's: at first nothing seem to happen until the material warms up a bit, then suddenly the drill bit starts to produce a nice blue burr and drills the hole in a few seconds.
Afterwards we inspected the drill bit itself, and except for some discoloration of the shaft it was completely unaffected.

The pics:

At first the grip screws didn't fit the holes exactly, but after i enlarged one of the holes with the help of a Dremel & a diamond cutter they did.
Then i shortened the screws (the M2 blade is of course much thinner than the original S30V Strider blade), put on the G-10 grips, and removed the "meat" around the grips for a good fit.
(except for the finger choil where i kept that little extra steel, since M2 isn't known for it's toughness according to the specs)

Both the long edge and the short edge now have a mini-bevel finished up to 6 micron diamond compound.
In the coming weeks i hope to find out how the edge holds up.

Sparky415 · **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2014, 06:59:01 PM

That looks great Kwakster

David · **Reply #11 on:** February 11, 2014, 09:23:51 AM

Good lookin knife Robert!

ducttapetech · **Reply #12 on:** February 11, 2014, 01:12:43 PM

That's a sweet knife. Good job!

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BlueDot · **Reply #13 on:** February 15, 2014, 04:33:48 AM

Excellent job!

kwakster · **Reply #14 on:** June 07, 2016, 02:42:22 PM

A follow-up took some time, but here it is.
After some cutting tests with this M2 knife i arrived at a measured edge angle between 22.5 and 25 degrees inclusive, as this seems to be right at the balance point between as thin as possible, yet thick enough.
This edge survives multiple full force cuts into my wooden testblock (a piece of laminated desktop) without chipping or noticeable loss of sharpness.
Afterwards the knife could also still pushcut through this paperback.