Making a knife

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Making a knife

Post by alan j » 28 Dec 2016, 2:44 pm

Guys that have made their own knife. Can you give us a few tips on things like - where and what steel to buy, How to shape it and with what tools, How to treat the steel (heat wise etc). How to temper the steel and what oil to use etc.
Thinking of making my own, but don't know where to start. Thanks.
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Re: Making a knife

Post by Gwion » 28 Dec 2016, 3:43 pm

Look at you tube. Walter Sorrels is a good place to start; I got a lot of tips from him.

You could start with a small file, like one that you get to file the rakers on a chainsaw. Build a fire and put the file in the middle get it hot and keep it hot for hours, then let it cool overnight as the fire dies. This will anneal the file. Then you can use grinders or files to shape it to desired shape. Get it as close to finished. Reheat it to the point where it loses magnetic properties, allow it to cool in air, repeat 3 times. This is normalisation that will relieve any stress. Heat it again to decolesence ans quench in peanut oil that has been warmed up to the point where you can only just keep your hand on/in it. This can be done a number of times to refine grain but once is enough for first timers; you can probably skip normalisation if you haven't forged the blade too but I like to do it anyway.

Now clean the blade up with sand paper or grinders. Use water to keep it cool. Do NOT get it hot or draw colour out of the steel. Once shiny, bang it in the oven for one hour at 200-220C for two hours. It should come out a 'light straw' colour. You can now fit a handle and polish/ sharpen the blade but due to the type of steel and hardening process it will be quite brittle with little give in the blade. At this stage I carefully draw the spine and tang out to a deep blue colour with a low torch. Be careful or you'll screw the temper of the edge and make it lose hardness and edge holding. You want it hard enough that it won't roll the edge but soft enough that it won't chip. This is in the 'straw colour' range, so long as your quenching has hardened the steel properly; check you quench with a file, it should not bit into the blade significantly. The blue colour on the spine is 'Spring' colour to add toughness to the over all blade.

That's it in a nut shell. You tube will give you more detail. The first two knives I made where completely by hand. Forged, annealed, filed, polished with sandpaper, hardened, filed and sanded, tempered, sanded...... Took a full week of work each.

Below is the second one.
image.jpeg
image.jpeg (1.58 MiB) Viewed 2641 times


The one below took 5 hours with a belt grinder.
image.jpeg
image.jpeg (1.19 MiB) Viewed 2641 times
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Re: Making a knife

Post by alan j » 28 Dec 2016, 4:39 pm

Thanks gwion, I may have to have a go at it, Certainly would be satisfying to make one. I recently wet moulded some leather and hand sowed a sheath for a folder, it came up well.
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Re: Making a knife

Post by Gwion » 28 Dec 2016, 5:07 pm

No worries, Allan. Good luck and have fun! :)
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Re: Making a knife

Post by Bent Arrow » 28 Dec 2016, 8:12 pm

There's a few blacksmith and knife makers groups including at least one dedicated to making knives from repurposed steel on FB. There's also a number of knife makers that run 1-2 day beginner courses which could dramatically shorten the learning curve for you
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Re: Making a knife

Post by samf » 17 Feb 2017, 12:12 pm

Really like the handle on the first one.

When is knife 3 coming :D
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Re: Making a knife

Post by happyhunter » 17 Feb 2017, 7:40 pm

Came across this a couple years ago and it's a really cheap and basic way to get started.
https://murdercube.com/files/Knifemakin ... 0Jones.pdf
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Re: Making a knife

Post by Gwion » 22 Feb 2017, 12:24 pm

It can be done but it will take a LOT longer than you anticipate!!!

My first 2 knives where entirely made by hand. Forged, files, wet'n'dry...... Took about a week each knife, putting in around 3-4 hrs a day. Filing and sanding out all the forge texture and polishing out to 1200, then 0000 steel wool..... Good experience but i really don't want to do it again! :lol:
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Re: Making a knife

Post by twoforty » 28 Feb 2017, 2:31 pm

Done it now so you have your bragging rights :lol:
.243 Win Savage Axis Stainless
Burris Fullfield 4.5-14x42
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