Introduction: How I Made a Knife
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About: I am a electrician/fitter that install, commission and test new Escalators. I only have a tiny shed to create my inventions in.
This is a Photo diary of a knife I made today.
This is my first knife and my choice of design was limited to the size of good scrap steel I had in my shed. I will probibly use it in the kitchen for meat and cooking while camping.
The steel is a old 7' saw blade that I had lying around. I t was a bit small so I had to cut the shape out of 2 pieces and weld them together. This is a full tang knife and the timber still needs to be treated.
One mor thing it cost me $0. Just gas and sandpaper that I had the rest is recycled and re-used.
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9 Comments
10 years ago on Introduction
Great knife. I just made one and am about to post an instructable for it.
10 years ago on Introduction
Great effort for a first knife!
I've made a few from scratch (stock removal),
but have been designing them & customizing them for a long time.
Yours is a good functional design.
I'd suggest having a look at Wayne Goddard's book
$50 Knife Shop; it's loaded with great ideas for building forges on the cheap!
Keep up the good work.
11 years ago on Introduction
Nice knife! I make them from old saw blades too, take a look at mine
11 years ago on Introduction
Great Job. If you need supplies or materials for knifemaking try Jantz Supply
knifemaking.com
11 years ago on Introduction
how do you power that forge? is it charcoal, gas or electric? I reallylike your knife, way better then my first one (though it probably doesn't count- the ones I heat-treated don't have/need handles and the one i handled I just shaped a bit... Did you normalize the steel before heat-treating it, or did you anneal the steel before you worked it?
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
My 'forge' is just 3 bricks and a MAPP gas blowtorch and it didnt work real well. Do not try this forging method its crap. There is some real easy forges on here to build and I will make one for the next blade.
The first go I kindof got it red but not hot enough and it cooled slowly while I was readjusting my forge. So I guess that is the normalize step. The second time I got it red hot and dropped it in engine oil blade first.
I didnt feel the need to anneal the steel as I used all power tools and no hand tools when shaping the blade. And it wasnt that hard to start of with.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
yup! that's annealing (bring piece to red hot, let cool), it's important if you've put stress on it during making (used power tools/forged) cos it releases tension and avoids microfractures that weken the structure and can make it crack when quenched
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I almost didn't do the annealing because I thought it was only for ease of shaping the blade. So I guess I was lucky the forge failed on me the first time. Next time I will make sure I do it first. I'm building a kick arse gas forge in a old 9kg propane bottle with fire clay and refractory bricks. The hot chamber will be 120mm x 120mm x 200mm with about 100 to 150mm of insulation all the way round.
That should make the whole heat process much simpler.
Thanks for the advice.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
as far as I can remember right now, the routine is anneal(bring to red hot and let cool in ash/vermiculite), shape, then normalise (heat to red, then let cool overnight (aligned north-south if you feel like it)), quench and temper, then sharpen and put a handle on it ... (please note that this is what I've read and I'm not qualified in any way)