How I made a carbide folding knife (part 1)

Bought a piece of solid C2 carbide to make folding knives. The piece is 1/8" X 1" X 6". Gonna be 2 times 2" blades, dont want to make them longer because carbide is brittle.

First drew a sketch of the blade.

..Then cutted off the sketch to "fold it"

drew the blade again then rotated where the mechanism would push it closed, than drew a handle shape that fits well.

Will kepp the blade shape to draw it on the flat bar.

forgot to take pictures of grinding the shape, did it with a silicon carbide grinding wheel on my bench grinder. Lot of dust and eated 1/4" off the wheel but worked fine. Whearing a cartridges dust mask is a must by the way! The picture shows the fortune set-up i made for the diamond cup-wheel I used to grind the bevels. And the difference between silicon carbide and diamond disc is incredible! The diamond disc eats the carbide like butter! ..well like butter that you just took from the freezer to put on your toast but still butter compared with silicon carbide that is the second most strong abrasive I know..

First side didn't whent that well, I built that vise on rails to be right on it but I usually make the bevels free- handed so I didn't understood quite well the angle mathematics that would have made the attempt succesfull...

But the result is not that bad, made the other side like the first one, finally finished free-handed on the cup-disc to erase my previous mistakes, time for the second side/attempt!

All-right! Did a way better job on that one! We can easily see witch one is the second try.

Piercing the holes was easier than I thought. Always use coolant like wather with diamond, it stretches the life f the tools drastically.

almost prefect 1/4" hole.

That's what it looked like after I grinded around the hooks of the blades, the dust is amost only silicone carbide.

Almost finished shaping the hooks with the #%#$ expensive diamond cutting disk that turned out to be surprisingly durable, didn't even saw a difference before and after the job. It's a shame that I bought two...

Finished shaping the hooks with the silicon carbide wheel and finished with a diamond disk.
Tada! Next step : The mecanism and the handle

Have to pass-by that shop that have diamond polishing coumpound to give a nice shine to those bevels though. See you soon for the part two: The mechanism!

...Oh and sorry for the mistakes english is not my first language.

dog tax

Meet Chino, the dog they said looks like me, with the glasses well maybe..