First let me say I'm sorry that the pictures start halfway through the process, I was at a friends house when the idea struck, he's a master carpenter and has all the tools you can imagine for working with wood. I picked up a piece of oak flooring he had laying around and thought ... I could make a couple of cool knives out of this!! I sketched out the designs and he cut them out on a scroll saw for me

Step 1: You Will Need

First off your going to need a couple of things,
A piece of wood flooring (I happened to get oak but any hard floor material like oak,maple or walnut would work)
some files and sandpaper or sanding block
A friend with woodworking tools or a jigsaw or copingsaw

Step 2: Shaping the Pieces

kind of self evident, use files and sandpaper to shape the cut out pieces, round off the handles until they are comfortable and give the blades an edge

Step 3: Almost Finished

The almost finished pieces have a blade thicknessof around .25" so should be strong enough to use to open mail or if like me you don't like having metal detecters rob you off all self defense...

Step 4: Almost Finished2

This one will probably get a lanyard hole and lanyard and both will need some kind of sheath as well as a finish, perhaps a dark stain on the handles and an overall clear coat