Homemade knives on eBay?

bcarvings · #1 10-04-2004, 07:10 PM

Hi,
I have found a seller on eBay selling homemade knives. He has a lot of good positive feedback about the knives. Bellow is his description about them. Can anyone tell me when that rockwell hardness means? Is that blade made out of a good steel??? 'New handmade Ferguson wood carving knife my knives are made by me one at a time this is my model A-3 This handcrafted woodcarving knife has a pre-sharpened tool steel detail blade 1 1/2' long that has been heat treated to a rockwell hardness RC 60. And comes with a beautiful Honduras rosewood handle.' Also when sharpening a small 3/4 inch blade that needs more than a leather strop, what kind of stone do you use to sharpen it within sharpening it to nothing? Sorry I posted this as a new topic but I thought that some other people might be wondering if they should get the knives on eBay. The seller's I.D. is 500hpdodge. Please help thanks

FK · #2 10-04-2004, 07:58 PM

bcarvings,
If these are the knives by Lee Ferguson, they are excellent quality with nice rosewood handles and D2 steel blades. I have two and they are fantastic.

Rockwell hardness is a measurement of resistance to deformation, the hardness number is on a scale indicating the relative hardness compared to other steels and heat treatments. For wood carving the Rockwell hardness should be between Rc 58-61. In that area the knife will hold a good edge for extended carving time and not be too soft or too brittle.

More important than the Rc number is the edge geometry.

Lee Ferguson does make his knives with a small secondary bevel, this I had to remove with honing to modify the edge as I personally prefer. It took about 10 minutes on a medium diamond hone and then strop to polish.

Ref for more information on Lee Ferguson:

http://www.knifeart.com/fergusonknives.html

http://www.angelfire.com/pro/knifemaker/

Regards,
Fred Krow

bcarvings · #3 10-04-2004, 08:36 PM

? Hi,
Is D-2 steel worse or better than high-carbon steel? Thanks for the info. and yes the knives are by Lee Ferguson.

AlArchie · #4 10-04-2004, 09:12 PM

D-2 is a high chromium, high carbon steel, a 'semi-stainless' steel, and a good compromise between carbon steel and stainless for carving blades.

It is most likely debatable whether it is 'better' than high carbon steel for blades, but it makes a darn good blade. Â*You will get a lot of debate about what is the best steel for blades. There are air hardening, water hardening, oil hardening and a few few laminated steels that ALL are in the good to excellent range. Â*A good O-2 high carbon steel blade will serve you well and is fairly easy to sharpen. Â*The higher the Rockwell Â*(Rc) number, the harder the steel is, and the harder it will be to sharpen, but the longer it will hold it's edge, before resharpening is needed. If you are going to depend on the rockwell number be sure you are getting an Rc number and not a Rb number. Â*The rockwell B scale is used to grade softer steels. You shoul, in all probability never run into a blade graded on the B scale, though, unless it's really junk!

Check here for some good info on the various types of steel and their uses, advantages and disadvantages. Â*

http://www.bladegallery.com/information/info_steel.asp

I may be of base a bit here, but I believe most tool steels can be hardened into the 58 to 62 Rc range, depending on the heat treartment used. Some are more brittle than others when raised to the higher numbers, and require a bit more care. If you'd care to contact Rick Ferry (sorry to keep pawning off the hard questions to you, Rick) he may be able to help you out as he makes some of his own knives and I beieve his son-in-law is a knife maker (professional).

Al

#5 10-04-2004, 09:13 PM

Lee makes a good knife.

Hardness above 60 will normally mean a blade will break or chip more easily.
Hardness below 58 will normally mean the blade will not hold an edge well.

I add the word normally because there are so many variables in steel alloys.

D2 is a good choice for carving knives; how it compares to high-carbon steel depends on which high-carbon steel and how it is treated.

FK · #6 10-04-2004, 10:28 PM

Chipping can be a real issue depending upon how you use the knife.

Some carvers like to take a cut and pop loose the piece of wood,,,,this is a high stress on the thin steel edge and may lead to chipping.

I like the higher hardness Rc 60-61 and make it a point to complete a cut and not pop the chip loose. I will however, sometimes rotate a knife blade to make a concave cut and on occasion will get very small chips on the edge. The wood will make a different noise when this happens and warn me not to push too hard.

D2 has a reputation for better edge holding (wear resistance) than the high carbon steels like 0-1 and W-1. Again it is very dependent upon edge geometry and how you use the knife,,,,your style of cutting.

My all time favorite kinves are O-1 by Herb Dunkle and W-1 by Cape Forge.

Regards,
Fred Krow

bcarvings · #7 10-05-2004, 01:53 PM

Hi,
In your opinoin, and also which knives are better the ones made by capeforge, or the ones on eBay that guy is selling? The knives at capeforge are like $12 more so I would expect them to be $12 better...

AlArchie · #8 10-05-2004, 02:43 PM

OK, in my opinion.........Murphy knives are as good as you are going to get, for carving. As are Flexcut, Denny, Whittlin Jack, Diobsud, Cape Forge......well the list just goes on. Any and all of these, and a whole lot of others that I didn't mention, are the 'favorite' of somebody. Price does NOT make 'better'. Functionality does. A well designed and made blade in a well designed handle are the main criteria you should be looking at. That well designed handle for Nancy's small hand is NOT going to be a well designed handle for my oversized meathook!

You will probably purchase several 'best' knives before you find the one that suits YOU best. I carved with a Camillus folding whittler untill my brother gave me a Whittlin Jack. I liked it so much I bought several more and finally a set of ten.
The handles are large, not well finished and the blades are stainless which is hard to sharpen......I like 'em!

I also like my Flexcut roughing knife, even if it's nipped my finger a couple times. That's a problem with the handle being too tapered for my large hand. They look a heck of a lot better than my Whittlin' Jacks, but they don't WORK any better. My WJ's and several of my handmade knives are just plain but-ugly, but the unfinished handles give me a good grip, and if my palms get sweaty, they don't slip on a finely finished handle.

I'd suggest that you pick a knife that looks like it will work well for you, whether that be because of appearance, size, blade shape, etc., and give it a try. You'll be out less than 30 bucks in most cases, and I'd bet that even if you fall in love with that knife, sooner or later you will look at another with lust in your eye!

Kinda like buying fishing lures.....most are purchased because the fisherman, not the fish, likes the looks of it!

Hope I didn't come off sounding too sarcastic, but there is a lot of personal preference in purchasing a knife. 'Best' is a pretty relative and subjective term.

Al

bcarvings · #9 10-05-2004, 04:24 PM

Hi,
No you didn't sound sarcastic at all in fact I really appreaciate your opinion. Though most of the more expensive knives I think maight have better steel, or have a better made blade. I am just asking between the capeforge, and the one on eBay, which is easier to use, stays very sharp for veryy long, and is overall better? Also I heard someone say that the one on eBay has 2 bevells. Does 2 bevells make it harder to carve? Also if I'd be to afraid to sharpen a bevell away for fear of ruining the blade. Even though I don't mind taking an hour to sharpen it as long as its sharp!

#10 10-05-2004, 05:33 PM

bcarvings,

I applaude your determination to get the best quality for your money. However, as several have already said, when it comes to carving tools 'quality is in the eye of the beholder'. Each carver tends to prefer handle shapes, blade shapes and lengths, and price range that most suits their own carving style, needs, and pocketbook.

While the old adage 'you get what you pay for' is usually right there are many carvers who have bought +$30 knives only to find them laying in their tool kit as they carve away with an old, reliable Murphy, Solingen, or other 'generic bench knife'.

The price difference for carving knives seems to me to be based more on 'name recognition' and the level of hand labor involved in the manufacture instead of showing a difference in blade, steel, or handle quality. Sure, handles made from rosewood or other exotics are beautiful and more expensive but they don't make a difference in the suitability of the knife for carving and even 'cheap', 'mass produced' knives like the Murphy use high carbon tool steel for the blades.

What we are all trying to say is that we can't tell you which knife is 'best' for you. This is something you need to find for yourself by trying different knives and seeing which one works best for your style of carving. Buy the one that looks 'better' to you and carve away. Â*