Knife Making

[Gwion]

Dunno mate but I'll PM you when I have some ready. They will be pretty basic, I'm just after feedback on functionality: sharpness, toughness, edge retention, etc.

[Gamerancher]

Okay, if no-one else wants to, I'll volunteer as a tester too. If bush-butchering for myself and dog meat might be the style of testing you were after.

[bigfellascott]

Lovely job on them G, they came up beautifully mate, one day I'd like to have a crack at making a few, looks like great fun to me. What sort of $$ does it cost to get the equipment needed to make them?

[Gwion]

Lovely job on them G, they came up beautifully mate, one day I'd like to have a crack at making a few, looks like great fun to me. What sort of $$ does it cost to get the equipment needed to make them?

Cheers, BigFella.

Re: cost, i made the first couple with just files and wet/drypaper; although i had made my own little forge and had an anvil that the old man bought me years ago.

Here's where i got the info to make the forge, it cost me around $500 to put mine together with all the odds and ends included: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR4jAT ... No5qv8IewQ

An anvil is hard to come by (a good one anyway). A basic one like mine will set you back $250 or so and a good old one will cost many times more. Plus hammers, etc.

The grinder and linnisher combo set cost me $900+, plus belts.....

I also bought a wet stone grinder for grinding edges, which was another $250 odd.....

I figure, if i can make myself a good set of reliable and quality knives, the gear has paid for itself; especially if you consider that my 10" cooks knife is $300 to replace alone, a good quality small kitchen knife is about $150 to start and decent specialist cutlery all starts around the $200 mark.

Yes, i know you can buy decent, functional knives for a lot less, like the ones i use to bone and butcher stock but cheap and effective is not the point of this excercise; learning to make custom crafted durable cutlery is. My boning knife has buckled... you wont get any of the knives i have made to buckle.

I temper (that is after hardening) depending on the intended use. Most of the knifes have a spring tempered spine but retain a lot more hardness out to the edge. My hardening and tempering still need a lot of work but it seems to be working ok. The edges don't chip, roll or round off but do benefit from a regular visit from the steel; something i am in the habit of doing for all my knives anyway. Once i am more confident and consistent with my grinds and finishing techniques, i will start ordering specific steels for different knives for different tasks and refine the heat treatment. For now i am happy enough but would love some honest feed back from people who use a knife regularly for real work, like field dressing game, etc..

[Noisydad]

I've been avoiding reading this story out of fear of generating another project.

[tom604]

go on...you know you want to,,,,it will be sooo good,,,,no one will know,,,,just try it,,,once,,,one time wont hurt you,,,you could give it up anytime you want..go on just a butter knife,,it's not like it's bowie you will look

[Wobble]

I've been avoiding reading this story out of fear of generating another project.

Go blow something up with black powder, that'll curb the cravings

[darwindingo]

Well

Thanks to this inspirational thread I've got off my a$$ and done some work on the when I get some time to spare, blade.....

PHONE PICS ZTE 199.jpg (294.09 KiB) Viewed 4229 times

Need to start thinking what I'll do the handle from, (it won't be the pine that is there to protect the finish in the mini vice) Perhaps a wood/epoxy resin/with a couple of in bedded spiders or something... ????

BTW.. Noisydad !!!!!!, Tom604 said.... "go on...you know you want to,,,,it will be sooo good,,,,no one will know,,,,just try it,,,once,,,one time wont hurt you,,,you could give it up anytime you want"..... ..... LOL Good one Tom.. .... You sound like a dealer of knife making lol....

Thanks for the Inspiration Guys ....

Note... Edit... Due to replacing image from Photobucketofcrap.. after they revoked their free 3rd party hosting...

Cheers

Jeff

[tom604]

very shiny,, looks great, you will have to put up picks when she's finished

[Noisydad]

go on...you know you want to,,,,it will be sooo good,,,,no one will know,,,,just try it,,,once,,,one time wont hurt you,,,you could give it up anytime you want..go on just a butter knife,,it's not like it's bowie you will look

Well.....I do have a forge and an anvil.......nooooo. Must resist......I have heaps of charcoal........must fight it off......

[Gwion]

Looks good, Dingo!

What steel is it? How did you shape it? How did you polish it? (Mine are no where near that shiny!)

And most of all.... How do you keep a work bench so bloody clean??? Makes me ashamed of the shambles that is me work space!!! :Lol:

[Gwion]

go on...you know you want to,,,,it will be sooo good,,,,no one will know,,,,just try it,,,once,,,one time wont hurt you,,,you could give it up anytime you want..go on just a butter knife,,it's not like it's bowie you will look

Well.....I do have a forge and an anvil.......nooooo. Must resist......I have heaps of charcoal........must fight it off......

You cannot resist the power of the forge, young Skywalker!

[darwindingo]

Looks good, Dingo!

What steel is it? How did you shape it? How did you polish it? (Mine are no where near that shiny!)

And most of all.... How do you keep a work bench so bloody clean??? Makes me ashamed of the shambles that is me work space!!! :Lol:

This one is just made from an old solid Stihl chainsaw bar, roughly shaped it with the angle grinder and then file, file, file....... Then the usual heat treatment and back on the files. After that wet sand for ages by hand then polished with Autosol metal polish (there are better polishes, its just what I had laying around) using a polishing wheel on the drill taking care not to get the blade to hot.

This method is not quite as enjoyable as pounding one out of a leaf spring, but it does demonstrate that its possible produce a reasonable knife using basic tools that most people have in the shed (good method for anyone that doesn't have an anvil). Also, this way you don't get the stare of death from the neighbors

Btw.. Gwion don't feel bad about the work bench, that pic was taken on the kitchen bench when the misses wasn't looking



Jeff

[Gwion]

Sounds familiar.
That big skinner, or as i call it, 'the Flayer' took about a week to polish by hand. Took a mirror finish but has dulled off a bit over a year.

Forged
Annealed
Filed
Hardened
Tempered
Scale filed off and finish shaping
Wet'n'dry from 80-120-240-400-600-800-1200
0000 steel wool with cut'n'polish
flesh side of leather with cut'n'polish
micro fibre with cut'n'polish....


Then i saved up for some power equipment!

[AusTac]

Not into making but very much into knives, what grinds are you doing at the moment mate? Also have an idea of rockwell hardness?

Looks like you'll be in the makers guild community in no time

[Gwion]

Thanks mate.
Doing full flat grinds, mainly and playing with sabre grinds on a couple.

No idea about RC rating. Not sure if there are any home tests that would give an indication. All I can say is that I have tested the skinners out on sheep and cattle and they hold up to it as long as you keep the steel up to them. A couple of passes every so often and they still take hair off.

Edge holding is important but to my mind, depending on the task, other characteristics are more important. Nothing worse than a knife that will snap or bend or an edge that chips and can't be honed easily by hand! That's why I aim for differential tempering. I probably sacrifice a little in edge hardness for that but I can address these things when I start buying specific steels.

[Gwion]

By the way. Got a new knife today.

My old Benchmade (bought in early '97) needed some repairs in the pivot but they haven't made that knife since 1998 and didn't have parts to fix it so they very generously offered my a BIG discount on s new knife.

Very happy camper!!!

I did a pretty bad job of peining a brass rod in the old one to fix it this morning. Looks like crap but is solid again... for now.....

Love my new folder!

The old and the new!

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Edit: knocked up a belt pouch for it last night.

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[AusTac]

I tried hacking open a coconut with a scandi grind knife once, rolled the crap out of the edge and ended up just being a cave man and smashing it with pointy rocks lol so i know what you mean with a busted knife and stupidity/experimentation on my part.

Although i'm partial to a scandi/convex edge ffg is really what you want on a hunter, so whens are you taking orders? :p

[Gwion]

Here are a couple that I should have upto polishing stage by the end of the day.

I have to re-heat treat the one on the right because it developed a warp while I was tempering the spine to a spring blue. Tempering worked great but I heated one side too fast and it took a woop...

Blade length on the right is 5". Not convinced I like the handle shape on either one so I might tweak that as well.

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[darwindingo]

Looking good mate !

Gee, you don't mess around. I like the finger grips on the skinner, really looks like it would have a nice feel to it.



Jeff

[Gwion]

Didn't quite get to polishing stage. They are in the oven tempering now. I couldn't get all the woop out of the 'bush knife, so i ground it out. It has turned into a full flat grind that is looking more like a cooks knife than anything else. The skinning knife is coming up nice too! That is a lost stock knife. I got some "spring steel" from a local engineering shop. The bloke said it had been on the shelf for 15-20 years! Anyhoo... he doesn't know exactly what steel it is so the heat treatment took a bit of experimenting. I think i have it down ok. I just bought a short length that has made two knives. I might get some more if it stands up to some testing.

Will post some pics later.

[darwindingo]

Looking forward to seeing the pics mate, as always..

Jeff

[Gwion]

Bah!!!!

I only have a combustion stove and the oven is ******....

Put the knives in to temper at what said 220C for 2hrs... Should have come out light straw yellow.... Came out Spring blue, which means it was WAY hotter than 220C!!! Will be too soft for a good edge so I have to go through the whole heat treat again!!!

NOT HAPPY JAN!!!

[darwindingo]

Bugger ! Looking good otherwise mate..

[Noisydad]

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go on...you know you want to,,,,it will be sooo good,,,,no one will know,,,,just try it,,,once,,,one time wont hurt you,,,you could give it up anytime you want..go on just a butter knife,,it's not like it's bowie you will look
.....

Well.....I do have a forge and an anvil.......nooooo. Must resist......I have heaps of charcoal........must fight it off......

You cannot resist the power of the forge, young Skywalker!

....in my most angst ridden, over acted Charlton Heston face.....Damn you Gwion....DAMN YOU TO HELL!

[darwindingo]

That's going to be a beauty, can't wait to see it in action.

How are you going to do the tracking adjustment ?

[tom604]

and so it begins,

[Noisydad]

That's going to be a beauty, can't wait to see it in action.

How are you going to do the tracking adjustment ?

the idler wheel will swing a little with screw adjustment.

[darwindingo]

, I'm paying close attention as I want to make one up.

Jeff

[Gwion]

Bah...hahahaha!!!

Good stuff, Noisy. Make sure you set it at a good height for yourself and give yourself a slack belt option as well as a platen.

Wish i had the welding skills, mechanical know how or the cash you build/buy a proper belt grinder. The way mine is set up it already showing limitations.