Homemade Steel Knife with Carved Handle

Of all the "made" knives have seen on this site yours is so far the only real knife that was made out of real scrap steel. All the other knives were mostly some kind of x-acto blades put on some kind of handle or retractable blades used the same way. Knife blades out of sawz all blades are a tad toooooo flimsy for my taste. If that is all you had to work with and you keep the blades short then it will do in a pinch, but I cannot see them with stand a lot of heavy use.

Your blade I assume was just re-ground out of the mower blade, and as long as you did not ruin the temper it should work very well and it is a thick enough blade that it will with stand a lot of heavy use. You made a nice looking knife, keep up the excellent work!!!

If you can obtain a copy of Percey W. Blandford's book "How to Make Your Own Knives ...Etc" He goes into forging and heat treating a knife, and he has many patterns for making many different type of knive, be they wood carving to chef's knifes. Also Blandford's Practical Blacksmithing and Metalworking is a good basic blacksmithing book. An outstanding introductory book on blacksmithing/metalworking is Alexander Weygers book on Blacksmithing. .Weygers likes to use re-cycle steel from truck springs, mower blades, coiled car springs and so forth to make a cornucopia of tools/blades. He was a master black/metal smith and an excellent illustrator and artist, and he profusely illustrated his book. It is well written and illustrated with lots of illustrations so there is no mistake in what he is showing you and how to do what he knows. Get these 3 books and you will have an outstanding beginning library on metal working, blaksmithing and knife making....!

Keep up the excellent work, and I hope you continue to show us your next creations. Haveing good books to lean from is one thing, but also get some begging and advance training in blacksmith and metal work as well from good teachers to improve your skills as well.

Take care!!!

Hows the hardness of the lawn mower blade been over time, I'm going to make a knife for a school backbacking trip but I want the hardest spring steel I can get, and cutting isn't an issue, I've got an Oxy-acetylene torch and a wood shop to use!

nice job dude like it the numbers are kool looking gives it a outback slasher look
if you are into the survivor thing thanks for your efforts

Try doing paracord handles on your next one! They're by far my favorite

Leave the numbers, it looks more bushcrafty. Great job. Keep it up.

clip your nails.

Wow that looks amazing! have you made a sheath for that or is it a sheath-less kind of knife?

Incredible work, very neat, sharp and strong!
Well done, sir

that is a very nice looking knife. im not sure if it was on purpose but the speckled black on the blade looks amazing. the handle looks very strng and well built. if you could, i am very interested in how you cut the blade.

awesome!

Cool. I like the pitted look too.  I use antler or bone on my knives because you can shape it with a grinder too. (it just stinks real bad).  I think the serial numbers give it caracter.  I have an old knike made from Russian tank armor, I never would have known its origin if the serial number and Russian writting wasn't there.  It gives the knife a story.  I got it at a gun and knife show.( I live in Texas, these shows are the greatest).

Knife looks good.  I'm working on my own but am waiting to heat treat it.

   Next time maybe check out some heat treating ideas and give that a try.  It would help keep the knife useful in the way of keeping it's edge and also give you the best of hardness and flexability

Nice work.  What did you use to cut the blank profile from the lawnmower blade?

Awesome work dude, looks very realistic !