Knife Making

[Gwion]

If anyone is into making blades, show us all your set up and some of your work. I'm pretty new to it all and teaching myself from good old YouTube and other online resources. Here are some picks of my simple set up and some blades I'm working on.

Home made forge and small anvil.

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Forge fired up to 1/2 for 5 mins.

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[Gwion]

Grinding station.

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Sharpening station with refreshments in the background.

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[Gwion]

I'll update as progress continues on these knives.

Works in progress.

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[Gwion]

Thats cool, I'd love to have a go at making my own knife.

Cheers mate. Still need more gear, like high temp IR laser thermometer so I can control heats for heat treatment and also learn to forge weld, etc.. Plus drill press, band saw.....

[<<Genesis93>>]

Good stuff.... knives are on my list to do ... too...

I liked the damasc'esque' look from the hammering ridges , folding, repeat repeat...love it...theres a good youtube vid is watched some time ago...

Are you folding or just flattening and forming? looks like layering in the photo or is it the flash....

[Gwion]

No folding. My attempts at forge welding have been abject failures so far. Not hot enough and no flux... Experiments have not worked. Trying to find a cheap source of borax.

The lines on the big skinner are reflection of shed roof in the mirror polish... which took ages to do be hand last winter!

[Supaduke]

Good work, got enough hobbies on the go at the moment. Missus would probably have a conniption if I bought a forge home lol.

[Gwion]

Roughing out some brass baulsters.

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[Gwion]

Fitted baulsters after a few minor hassles and the bit of maple to cut scales from.

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[Gwion]

Scale blanks cut.

Fitted now but glue is drying; will update after rough shaping.

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[Supaduke]

That will look very good once completed. Some nice figure in that timber, maple is very pleasing to the eye. Is it Queensland or Canadian maple ?

[Gwion]

Norwegian maple. Commonly called Sychamore Maple. I have hectares of it and am trying to develop a market with stringed instrument & furniture makers.

[Gwion]

Oops.. half the pics are sideways (and pretty crappy)! They looked fine on my phone. I'll fix them later.

So, scales were fitted, rough shaped, tidied up and given a quick coat of clear so the timber doesn't get contaminated when i do the final shaping and sanding.

Rough shaping.

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Brass pins peined out and scales shaped down to baulsters.

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Initial coat of clear...

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So, not really happy with the fit between the scales and the baulsters when the pic is that close up. Might look at putting a bit of blackwood for contrast or find some other fix. Not so noticeable in the hand but i'd like to find a fix for it. Also, i'll use a proper camera next time. These pics are crap.

[tom604]

sh#t you have some skills fella and a lot,and i mean A LOT of patience you must of spent hours and hours and hours polishing the blades and you have pretty much all the gear,,so jealous about the forge and the grinder and the anvil
my forge

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and my anvil is a bit of railway track sorry no pics of that

a few that i have made,forge got a bit hot and started to melt the steel

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[tom604]

mmmm seems like my pic posting could use some work??

[Gwion]

Looks good, Tom. The set up I started with was a fire drum and a piece of track iron that would make you laugh. The only knife I made with it came out more like a hand axe! Your set up is far more sophisticated. I particularly like the cooks knife. I'll try another cooks knife soon; the last one I tried ended up too thin and uneven and kept warping in the quench.

Yeah. That big skinner (and a smaller one I made for a friend) took a VERY long time to make by forging, filing, polishing. With the new gear and more practice, things are speeding up and quality is improving.

The knife on the pics is a carver for a mate who built my forge stand and fringing pedestal for me in barter for some fire wood and a knife.

[Gwion]

Weather is too cactus for work so I'll be back in the workshop with the blades today. Should have at least 2 finished by the end of the day.

[Oldbloke]

I'll update as progress continues on these knives.

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Lookin good

[Gwion]

Lots of pics of progress today but the camera ran out of batteries as I was cutting them for editing.

Here is where the knives are up to taken on my phone. Will load other pics later.

These ones just need more coats of finish and and edge grind.

Carving knife. Blackwood shims to tidy up the fit.

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Brisket knife with Blackwood handle cut from an old fence dropper.

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[Mongrel]

Your one talented man

Love your work...

[Gwion]

Thanks mate. You're too kind.

[tom604]

like the incorporated bolster in the second knife, that would off given you some grey hairs to shape and the pale skinner could do double duty as a heavy duty fillet knife she's a big one by the looks of it

[Oldbloke]

Veery nice G, very nice indeed

[Gwion]

Thanks OB!

So, it's apparent that i cant take a photo to save myself at the moment, but the following will give some idea of the process I follow for fitting scales.

First thing i did for the day was fit some blackwood shims to fix the dodgy fit between maple scales and the baulsters on this carving knife.

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While the glue set, i went on fitting the blackwood scales to the brisket knife.

Marking out the black wood billet that is cut from an old fence dropper. Tasmania, the land where premium timber is used to fence in sheep.....

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And this is why i need a band saw. Cutting blackwood for scales is slow by hand but i have also wasted quite a few pieces of antler trying to cut it by hand. Luckily i am friendly with the local deer farmers, so antlers aren't hard to come by.

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Then the front of the scales are shaped as close to finished as possible and the pins are drilled for fit. This is why i need a drill press or mill, because things can and do go annoyingly wrong when doing this bit by hand.

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[Gwion]

con't...

Then the scales are roughed out to a basic outline...

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and glued and pinned.

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while glue (5min epoxy lightly clamped & left in side next to wood stove for post heat) set on the blackwood scales, i finished the maple handle by hand down to 220 grit and gave it a light coat of finish.

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After peining the pins, scales are ground down to fit the handle. Careful not to get too hot & burn the timber or effect the epoxy. Brass heats up very quickly!

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Then the scales are shaped using a combination of belt, disk and hand tools down to 220grit.

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And finally, the scales get their initial 'egg shell' coat of finish... they will probably get about 5 coats before i call it done.

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When both knives are propery completed and edge ground, i will put some proper pretty pics up. You saw the basic idea above.

The weather is again not conducive to swinging a chainsaw for 6hrs, so i will get back in the shed and start fitting baulsters and scales to the remaining two near completed blades.

[tom604]

what do you use to quench? i just use old sump oil i know some use canola oil (new! )

im trying to make a railway spike knife at the moment ive made it a few inches longer but she's still got a fair bit off thickness,like 1/2 an inch!!
so i will have to spend a bit of time on the hammer just to get her close might end up as a short sword

[Gwion]

Been using either peanut oil or water; depending on steel and thickness/size of blade.

Those spikes would take a fair bit of work with the hammer. Just started forging a farriers' rasp, I think it may end up a beast!

[Diesel]

what do you use to quench? i just use old sump oil i know some use canola oil (new! )

im trying to make a railway spike knife at the moment ive made it a few inches longer but she's still got a fair bit off thickness,like 1/2 an inch!!
so i will have to spend a bit of time on the hammer just to get her close might end up as a short sword

Usually very good steel, over the years I have made plenty of cold chisels, knives etc out of them. Hammering out old case hardened timco outer bearing races is a better bet, if you can get big ones. But if all you can do is cold grind then truck springs are your friend.

Proper tempering and hardening is always necessary.

[darwindingo]

Beautiful work Gwion and Tom, Really impressive stuff..



Jeff

[Gwion]

So, I finally got around to taking a better pic. The carving knife has already gone to it's new home.

Over a few beers, whiskys and a lot of bulls@*t, a mate and i drew up what we thought would make a pair of good knives for home meat processing for sheep, pigs, cattle. This is the result.

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And below makes the trio. This one is for skinning and fleshing large hides. I made this one entirely by hand... no machinery... then i bought a belt grinder!

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