electrician's knife carver

[Nomad]

I found this old Imperial electrician’s knife at a flea market for $5 and thought I’d see if I could turn it into a carver. The handle is a nice size, fairly wide for comfort, and the blades are thinner than many other electrician’s knives so it kind of appealed to me. The screwdriver blade is a locker, so another plus for those who do not feel comfortable with only a slip joint lock.



The first thing I did was to cut the blades down with a Dremel to the shape I wanted. Fiber reinforced wheels work great for this. The blue stuff is called Cool Blue Heat Sink Paste and really helps keep the blade cool while cutting.


On the knife blade, I cut the nail nick off, so I used the Dremel to cut a new one.

[Nomad]

Next I shaped the blades using a belt sander. This included grinding down the cutting edge on the screwdriver blade to level it with the wire stripper cutout next to the tang.

Next comes the hard work. I used sandpaper to flatten the bevels. I started with 3M 180grit Premium Automotive sandpaper. This is the purple stuff and it’s pretty good. A good course diamond stone might make things easier though but I save my diamond stones for less extensive work. If you feel comfortable with a belt sander for this, then that will also make the task go quicker. I sharpened both blades with coarse grit until I had a well-defined burr and the bevel was gone from both sides of the knife.
I used the following grits in order: 220, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000. I finished with heavy stropping.


During this process, I discovered the knife blade was too thin at the edge, so I ground the width down quite a bit (well above the sharpening choil), ground a secondary bevel on the edge, then convexed the corner of the secondary bevel, smoothing it into the primary grind.

[Nomad]

Happy to say I’m pleased with the results. Both blades hold their edge well and make nice smooth deep cuts.

Hope you can find something useful in this tutorial.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

You did an excellent job on that old knife! I have one just like it that I got in the Navy...still laying around here somewhere, the years got to it and the handle fell off...maybe I will do some remodling and add some new wood grips....thanks for the show and tell lol

[Nomad]

Thanks David. Glad you like it. The scales are pretty crappy on the knife but I can live with them. If they fall off, I know a guy who can replace them for me (I don't do slipjoint scales ). For $60 though . He does exceptional work though. But for now maybe I'll just do another electrician's knife that has some nice wooden scales already.

[AlArchie]

Terry, that quite a BEAUTIFUL "rescue"! Nice to salvage old tools....don't know if they really feel neglected, but I feel bad when I see tools neglected.

Al

[Nomad]

Thanks Al. I have bought quite a few old slippies off ebay and elsewhere over the years, just to rescue them. Lot of good knives there for not a lot of money. They often just need some TLC and then what you end up with is frequently much better than what you can buy today for 4X the money.

[Tom Ellis]

Terry , That looks like it will be a great knife. Like what you did with the blades. I will have to watch for one of those. Did the screwdriver steel seem tempered the entire blade?

Tom

[Howie]

Love the recycling. Wish I could do that!

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by Tom Ellis

Terry , That looks like it will be a great knife. Like what you did with the blades. I will have to watch for one of those. Did the screwdriver steel seem tempered the entire blade?

Tom

Darn good question Tom. I was a bit worried at first because the edge at the tip crumpled the first time I tried it on wood, but I resharpened it and strop strop stropped it and she's good as gold now, so I think it must be. The way they make these in the factory, I doubt the blade was differentially tempered. I've seen Case knife blades being tempered and they just run them through a furnace and heat up the entire blade. Keep in mind that the screwdriver blade is also a knife blade with a wire stripper edge right at the tang, so it makes sense to temper the entire blade. Rockwells are low enough I doubt they worried about brittleness if the blade was torqued. In those days, 50-55 Rockwell was pretty normal (and still is, truth be told).