Y.U.R.T. - Yellow Ugly Rescue Tool ;-)
I wanted to call this Instructable "Make a heavy duty survival knife from an rusty file for less then 15 dollar in less then 2 hours with only basic tools", but sometimes less is simply more...
Survival. Again. I'm doing this - this what? this sport? this spirit? this way of life? I like the last one! - for many years and every survivalist comes to The Moment of asking the only question that counts: 'which knife???'
On the net you'll find thousands of 'survival knives' and a few brands offer really good stuff.
Instead of buying one, as a survivalist I prefered making one.
Making your own survival knife is going back to basics of survival: be inventive or die, or so.
Untill now I always used a customized tactical knife (my custom Muela Tornado 'Black Betty' - see picture). No need to spend an Instructable on this: take the knife, take a grinder, take a sander and you're done!
A few months ago I decided to make a survival knife from a file with only some basic tools. That evening project resulted in Y.U.R.T, I agree, the most ugly knife you've ever seen. But one that does the job!
YURT exceeded my best expectations. It's 200% yak-proof and a lot more reliable than a lot of the so-called 'survival' stuff you'll find on the net - with all my respect for those brands that matter.
Why a file? Because it's very hard steel, easy to find, and cheap.
All you need:
I wanted to call this Instructable "Make a heavy duty survival knife from an rusty file for less then 15 dollar in less then 2 hours with only basic tools", but sometimes less is simply more...
Survival. Again. I'm doing this - this what? this sport? this spirit? this way of life? I like the last one! - for many years and every survivalist comes to The Moment of asking the only question that counts: 'which knife???'
On the net you'll find thousands of 'survival knives' and a few brands offer really good stuff.
Instead of buying one, as a survivalist I prefered making one.
Making your own survival knife is going back to basics of survival: be inventive or die, or so.
Untill now I always used a customized tactical knife (my custom Muela Tornado 'Black Betty' - see picture). No need to spend an Instructable on this: take the knife, take a grinder, take a sander and you're done!
A few months ago I decided to make a survival knife from a file with only some basic tools. That evening project resulted in Y.U.R.T, I agree, the most ugly knife you've ever seen. But one that does the job!
YURT exceeded my best expectations. It's 200% yak-proof and a lot more reliable than a lot of the so-called 'survival' stuff you'll find on the net - with all my respect for those brands that matter.
Why a file? Because it's very hard steel, easy to find, and cheap.
All you need:
- a big grandpa's file
- a big hammer handle
- chemical anchor
- angle grinder
- sander
- drill
- safety gear
- weight: 272 gram - almost 10 oz
- overall length: 26.5 cm - a bit more than 10 inches
- blade length: 11.5 cm - 4.5 inches
- blade width: 3.5 cm - 1.4 inch
- maximal blade thickness: 0.7 cm - 0.27 inch
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Signing UpStep 1: Preparing the blade
First of all you've got to find an old file. I found mine in a scrap yard and had it for 1 euro. Design rawly the blade you want to cut and start grinding.
Notes:
For me, a survival knife needs four major functions:
Use sander to finalize.
Notes:
- the tang aka 'root' has the same length as the blade!
- cut some grooves in the root so that the anchor will have more grip
For me, a survival knife needs four major functions:
- digging
- cutting
- splitting
- bushcraft
- pointed for digging and carving
- an axe-styled upperpart for splitting
- a hollow shaped underpart for bushcraft and potato peeling
Use sander to finalize.
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I want all my survival situations to be like those of Bear Grylls.
-With a fully loaded RV just off camera.
Nice knife.
This isn't a criticism, but I always grind off the striations of the file before I make a knife out of one. I worry about the striation creating a weak point where the blade could break - I could be way off base with this though.
This knife is for the Bear Grylls's among us.
Do me a fovour, don't use the knives he's promoting...
Usually when you repurpouse an old file into a knife you need to take away the temper form it first, and then putting it back by hardening, quenching and tempering. Heat threat is the very HEART of knifemaking
Also the connection between the tang (the part you refer to as "root") and the blade should not be a straight 90° angle but a large curve, otherwise you put a weak spot in the knife "by design" (it is still unlikelly to break, put if it does it will break right there or chip the point)
With such a file you could have made a longer knife, or a full tang
Keep up the good job
Thanx for the suggestions mate! You're not the first one who pushes me on the forgery way and know that I agree with you and with all of you!
I'm gonna build my forge, for sure, and know that I can't wait to heat my first DARC, to forge my first Bhai and to improve the YURT. Burnin' feelin'!
I made this I'ble in the first place for all of those who don't have the advanced equipment of you knife-makers. I wanted to show that with a minimum of equipment, effort and investment you can make something that's knifable.
No need no forge, no need no drill press (in case of a full-tang design with love-less bolts or whatever), no need no craftmanship. With a cheap angle-grinder of 20$, a drill of 25$, some discs of all together 10$, an old file, a handle and some anchor of all together 20$ you can have a lot of fun. And survive in a lot of wildernesses, if you like ;-)
I'll post some pics once the forge is burning!
I did remove the temper first with my oven in my kitchen - I heated the metal (I used a leaf spring) to 500F and then left it in the oven to cool overnight. This removed the temper.
I then drilled holes around the shape I wanted for my knife and used the hacksaw to connect them. I smoothed and formed the shape with my file and made it prettier with the sandpaper.
Then using a coffee can filled with charcoal briquettes and a desk fan in place of a bellows I heated the blade edge until it was white hot and quenched it in old engine oil.
I made a handle out of a split apple wood branch that I formed with the same file and sandpaper I'd used on the blade. I attached it to the full tang with a pair of bolts and nuts.
I still use this knife.
I did remove the temper first with my oven in my kitchen - I heated the metal (I used a leaf spring) to 500F and then left it in the oven to cool overnight. This removed the temper.
I then drilled holes around the shape I wanted for my knife and used the hacksaw to connect them. I smoothed and formed the shape with my file and made it prettier with the sandpaper.
Then using a coffee can filled with charcoal briquettes and a desk fan in place of a bellows I heated the blade edge until it was white hot and quenched it in old engine oil.
I made a handle out of a split apple wood branch that I formed with the same file and sandpaper I'd used on the blade. I attached it to the full tang with a pair of bolts and nuts.
I still use this knife.
I did remove the temper first with my oven in my kitchen - I heated the metal (I used a leaf spring) to 500F and then left it in the oven to cool overnight. This removed the temper.
I then drilled holes around the shape I wanted for my knife and used the hacksaw to connect them. I smoothed and formed the shape with my file and made it prettier with the sandpaper.
Then using a coffee can filled with charcoal briquettes and a desk fan in place of a bellows I heated the blade edge until it was white hot and quenched it in old engine oil.
I made a handle out of a split apple wood branch that I formed with the same file and sandpaper I'd used on the blade. I attached it to the full tang with a pair of bolts and nuts.
I still use this knife.
Taught me a huge amount and it might just turn your future projects into something that meets the potential of this one. All the best and good luck with future projects, it would be great to get the word out that Ht doesn't have to be complicated or expensive!!
I agree, HT would surely improve the whole thing.
But: why should we heat the file untill it looses it magnetism, cool it down to make it soft, do what we have to do, reheat it again, quench it in oil to rehard it, and bake it in an oven for an hour to give it the right hardness (sorry if I simplified), IF IT WITHSTANDS AN HOUR OF ROUGH WORK (see The Big Test in step 4) WITHOUT IT?
In survival only the result counts, skip the details ;-)
I don't know what that means, but it's my new favorite saying.
You crazy non-Americans.
But' it's not only that: the hard work requires stronger "energy" on the blade that means more heat produced while working.
If you heat the blade and make it dark yellow in color the temper il gone anyway and you can't just "take away the yello spot"... the metal is weakened inside already.
Then you need to re-temper it anyway.
doing "the long way" is easier and helps getting a better result
Shape the file into the shape you need and sharpen to the sharpness of a butter knife.
Bring the knife up to red hot temp again and quench in used motor oil.(be careful there will be flames). The Heavy carbon saturated oil will darken the blade and case harden the blade. Do this 2 times for best results.
P.S. Use a bench grinder for best results. Now use wet stones to sharpen the blade to make a purdy finish! I love to make knives, just never have posted any of them yet.
I found a lot of good info on that from the book " the complete modern blacksmith"
by alexander weygers.
You might even try to use a pin to lock the handle and thin inner part of the file