Knife Making Materials

Knife making is a intricate and sometimes hard process, good craftsmanship is essential. Many knifes today are not good quality. Especially sheath knifes, and too get good quality the big businesses charge too much (btw**dont buy a sheath knife if it isn't full tang). Many people do not care about the quality though. If you do keep reading, in this instructable I will show you the best materials for knife making without a forge (I mean seriously how many people have a forge). Forging is rather expensive due to coal prices and equipment costs.
So if you are the kind of person who is interested in things of this nature read on, if your not well CYA.

Step 1: Lawnmower Blades

Lawnmower blades are very useful. They are made out of industrial steel and already thin with little curves at the edge, that can be flattened with minimal effort. The only draw back is the width of the blade. It will need to be grinded down with a grinding wheel or angle grinder unless you want a flipping big knife, or machete.

Step 2: Scrap Metal

Scrap metal can some times be the only thing you can get, but be careful not to get copper or aluminum. Aluminums is lightweight, but it bends far to easily which is not good for a sturdy knife, and it does not sharpen well, the same goes for copper exept for the weight it is rather heavy.

Step 3: In a Smiths Case

If you do want to forge, car shocks are excellent. They are pure industrial steel, because they have to absorb the shock from jolts and bumps the car experiences during driving. Sorry couldn't find a good pic.

Step 4: Thats It

Thats all I hope this has been helpful, please comment if you have any other materials for knife making,thx. :)

Comments

[grimcat27]

Coal is well under a dollar a lbs and propaine is about 15 a tank. There's not many goor reasons not to build one. I've used 2x4s as fule any decent wood works. A pile of fire brick and a torch costs about $30 or a 55 galon drum a break rotor and some 2" pipe if you want to use solid fule.

[MandalorianMaker]

yes but if you are going to forge a lot you need quantity you can't order 500 pounds of coal( you will use about 20 pounds a day) you have two order 1 to 2 tons or go in with sombody.

[utch]

How would I go about making a knife out of a lawn mower blade?

[hawcrofta]

I made a knife from a lawnmower blade and I can give you a few pointers. The first thing you should do is flatten it. It is relatively simple to do. Just build a fire in some sort of container, ie. an old grill or something similar then hammer it flat on something metal. Then after you decide on a shape cutting it out is lots of fun. Lawnmower blades are hard and will eat up hack saw blades in a hurry, so have plenty on hand if that is what your using. It also helps to have a bench grinder and an angle grinder, which I didn't.

[blkhawk]

There are many ways to skin a cat, with your own knife of course! Check these out: Bench made knives.

[MandalorianMaker]

thx blkhawk cool knifes

[MandalorianMaker]

thanks for the constructive criticism

[BARKing]

There is a lot of different sources of metal but you need to use a high carbon steel if you want to have a knife that will hold an edge. After you have shaped a blade you may still have a piece of garbage if you don't temper it properly.
An old hand saw blade makes a nice thin blade or a table saw blade for something thicker. If you don't know how to temper it properly, make sure you cut it out and shape it with out getting it too hot. Heat changes the temper and saw blades will already have a good temper.

[Paracord-Minecraft-Pizza]

this is Awesome!!!!!!!!

[MandalorianMaker]

beat the crap out of it til the edges are flat then shape and sharpen with a grinder