How to make a 6 cent Pocket Knife

Step 4: Blueing and Finished Product!

If you choose to use a post 1982 penny get your blueing agent and blue the handle.
I like to dip a Q-Tip into it and use it as a paintbrush.

And now, you have your finished product!
A cheap, cool looking, easy to make, pocket knife!

If you have any questions to be afraid to ask

Comments

[I died with my head in a washing machine]

its not even a knife its a sharp sort of round thing

[x3n0c1dal]

If you think about it, that's what a knife is, more or less.

[seabee890]

actually that looks about the right size for a mouse slasher movie.. or mabye to skin a hamster with.

[safety dance]

YYAAYYYY A NEW PRISON SHANK!! =P

[wolf996]

Remind Me To Never Ever Go To Prison With You. Or We Could Shank Random People.

[seabee890]

You, have caused my mind to start winding up.... the change jar will be ruined..  hehe, i was just thinking how about a "silver"dollar coin for the blade and a mexican 100peso coin for the handle, that would give you a bigger knife. I am also trying to remember if you can you some flux and silver solder to fold your nickel in half and draw it out to make a longer blade. cool instructable though. enjoyable

[handidad]

About the penny pressing machines: this summer while in Quebec City I stopped by one machine that said to not use Canadian pennies. The notice said that there were American pennies available at the desk. There are some machines that how supply brass blanks automatically.

[bmlbytes]

I saw the same thing while we were visiting Canada. The reason for this, I believe, is that American coins are made of a different material than Canadian coins. If you ever hold a Canadian coin and an American coin, you will notice that the Canadian coin is much lighter (quarters are the easiest to tell the difference). On our way back to the USA, we saw one of those machines that supply the brass automatically, only the "blanks" were a bunch of US pennies.

[klingonprins]

canadian coins are iron with copper finish. they will respond to magnets. this is another sign of proof that the gov't is wasting all of out $ on purpose. did you know that a penny is worth 18cents when melted down? ouch

[zazukain]

Not anymore, pennies after about 1970 have a copper finish.

[klingonprins]

yeah, i meant that...
no i meant really the amount of copper in the shape and size of a penny would be.

[handidad]

Your comment is only partly true. I dug out a handful of change, all Canadaian.. Althoug they are mgnetic, I doubt if the copper is simply a finish, more likely an alloy of some sort. 4 pennies: 2007, 2005, 1977, all non-magneric. Only the 2008 was magnetic. The nickels, dimes quarters, loonies, and the outside part of the toonie were all magnetic. Probably 50 year old coins would have a different composition.

[jeffconnelly]

yeah, I found pretty much the same thing, but my 2005's were also magnetic

[Father Christmas]

the best way to tell for that is put em near a magnet, Canadian coins(the silver ones) are magnetically responsive.

[handidad]

It is quite possible that a brass blank would cost more than a penny. I have used Canadian pennies in these machines.

[scafool]

Actually the problem is with the newer Canadian pennies. The older copper pennies are fine, but all the newer ones are just copper plated. I think they changed them in 2000 to this 94% steel, 1.5% nickel core and 4.5% copper plated zinc, with the copper plated zinc being what you see. There seems to be some that are cored with an odd white metal that is not magnetic and the melt really easily. You can actually nick them and dissolve the core of them out in an acid. You end up with a copper foil penny. Needless to say, new Canadian pennies are no good in one of those roller machines

[handidad]

I just answered a couple of posts previous. A 2007 penny was non m-magnetic, but the 2008 was magnetic. Do you know how thick the copper platig is? It sure would look strange to have a hollow penny..

[scafool]

I just checked and I found the 2008 penny was magnetic. When I cut it open it was the same steel core as a 2007 penny. The copper layer is not very thick, but I don't have a measurement for it. The USA pennies use the zinc core and if they are nicked on the edge you can throw them into a medium to weak strength hydrochloric acid bath to dissolve the zinc out of them. They will float to the top of the acid when done. Be careful with the hydrochloric acid. It will eat most metals and will burn skin. Use a baking soda bath to neutralize the acid after and the follow that with a water bath and dry the penny off. You should end up with a copper foil penny that weighs about 0.15g instead of the normal 2.5g. So far I have only tried it out on USA pennies. I suppose an acid that eats iron instead of copper would work on a Canadian penny. I guess I will try it with the Hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid can be bought easily as Muriatic acid. It is sold in building supply stores for cleaning concrete cement and grout from tiles. If you try this be sure to wear gloves and keep safety in mind. Please read the MSDS on Hydrochloric acid before thinking about doing this stunt, it is nasty stuff if you are not careful with it. I don't even like having it around the house.

[scafool]

Sorry, I should have added that all the Canadian pennies I have from 2001 on are magnetic.

[scafool]

OH, OK. Let me correct myself. I just checked a handful of pennies with my magnet. I found and destroyed a zinc core 2003 Canadian penny. It was not magnetic, yet in the same handful were two other 2003 pennies and they are strongly magnetic. When I held it with a set of forceps in the flame of a propane torch it promply melted into a blob of zinc (I assume) with a bit of burnt copper foil. So the Canadian zinc cored pennies do exist, but I am not sure which mint produced them. They would certainly be candidates for the acid bath. The copper layer is very thin on them.

[stopanator]

how about for the machines the money

[tevers94]

That's one good lookin knife

[rathat48]

You Cant use Canadian pennies because that's illegal to deface the queen or something like that. we can mess with us coins because its only illegal if you do it for fraud

[sephiroth9393]

Good thing canada likes to avoid confrontation and won't say anything.

[Phoghat]

God Save The Queen!

[PKTraceur]

Queen across the water! (anti-)

[blugyblug]

And how are they going to catch ya

[Merluxia]

by publishing your knowledge of coin mutilation on the internet, perhaps? cool idea tho!

[Exjordanary]

way to teach that stuff... now air ports and crap are going to look for this!

[burpreynolds]

Dude, you'd be a terrifying cellmate.

[timothybena]

Not a wicked instructable, i guess maybe the guys on the range might wanna hear how you used it to shiv yer cellie...

[timothybena]

Actually, i could make that knife with a rock and a stone floor, which is how anyone who needs to make a shiv manages to accomplish this.

[rawstock]

OH GREAT! Now we won't be able to bring change onto an airplane. What will the NTSA do with all that change they collect at the entrance to security? Maybe they could set up a jet fuel fund for the public before coach flights from SF to LA get to $1000!

[ZanderArch]

What about those Souvenir Penny-Press Machines? They're all over various tourist spots and they deface currency every day, and it's a whole company devoted to it.

http://www.rockyrockholt.com/

[AllanButton]

IT'S LEGAL! U.S. Title 18, Chapter 17, Section 331: Prohibits among other things, fraudulent alteration and mutilation of coins. This statue does not, however, prohibit the mutilation of coins if done without fraudulent intent if the mutilated coins are not used fraudulently.

[iMac]

Thank you for that link.