knife build along

[doublearrow]

10. Getting ready to cut bevels. Before cutting bevels you have to mark the center line of your blade. It helps tremendously in keeping things straight and even. First use your marker or dyekem and coat what will be the edge of the knife.


There are a couple ways of doing this. First if you are using 1/8" steel take an 1/8" drill bit and lay it on a flat surface such as the granite plate I use. Next lay the blade flat on the plate and pull the edge along the drill bit point. The point of the blade will scribe a line in the center of the blade or close to it.


Flip the blade over on it's other side and repeat this process. Most likely the steel is a bit oversized and there will be two parallel lines marking the center such as this




Another way of doing this is using a dial caliper. Measure the thickness of the steel with the calipers then divide that number in half, and lock the calipers in at that setting. Then run one leg of the calipers down the side of the blade and the other leg will go down the center of the blade.

[doublearrow]

I don't know why it's gone but here's is the orginial again on graph paper.

[Jesse]

hi Ryan would love to see pics from different angles on your grinder would make things a bunch easier. As many as you can, please. You can post or just send them to my email what ever is easier thanks

jesse@livingwordsa.org

[Burnadell]

doublearrow, awful nice of you to take the time to offer this tutorial. Thanks!

[doublearrow]

No problem Berandel hope at least a few of you enjoy it. I'm trying to make the most detailed or picture oriented tutorial I've seen on the internet.

Jesse I'll get some pictures of the grinder hopefully posted up tomorrow night. I'll let you take a look at them and if you see some spots you'd like close ups of or different angles we'll go from there.

I would also like to mention in the tutorial I'm doing bolsters and gave an example of a knife with bolsters up above. You do not have to have bolsters many user types knives just have a solid wood or micarta handle. If you are not doing bolsters just put another 1/4" hole where the bolsters are shown on my knife. If you do not have a grinder I have a way to do boslters that will keep them square. It is an easy process but can be time consuming. That's something you might take into consideration you might just put a solid handle on instead of bolsters if you don't have alot of time.

I wanted to include a few of my patterns here for ya'll to use or get ideas off from. Some of them are the stick tang like I talked about earlier, but you can make them full tang. Also one of them is a double hollow ground boot knife, your more than welcome to use it. My only advice is we are doing a flat grind and a double ground boot knife rarely looks right without a hollow grind.

[lbbf]

This is great. Now I have to go and get some steel pronto so I start following along.

[LWArchery]

looking good

[doublearrow]

This is great. Now I have to go and get some steel pronto so I start following along.

Sounds good. I'm gonna give it a few days before I post too many more pictures of the tutorial. Kinda give some guys a chance to get their steel and get going in case they have any questions on the first part of the tutorial.



Thanks LWarchery

[Wilson]

.

[Bullydog]

Very nice.......cant wait for the next step...

[Bill]

Jesse here's the grinder I have

http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/kmg-pl.html

Ryan,

You do beautiful work. I looked at the link you posted. As I read the web site, that grinder and motor costs $1,200? Are tools that specialized required to make a knife look as good as yours?

BTW, I'm a believer in buying the best tool you can afford, regardless if hardware, hunting, cooking....

[doublearrow]

Ryan,

You do beautiful work. I looked at the link you posted. As I read the web site, that grinder and motor costs $1,200? Are tools that specialized required to make a knife look as good as yours?

BTW, I'm a believer in buying the best tool you can afford, regardless if hardware, hunting, cooking....

Are they that specialized and great that you need them? Definitley not
Are they there to speed things up and do a few other things? yup, but remember the speed up the knifemaking process which also means they speed up the screwing up a perfectly good process.

That said there is a maker by the name of Tai Goo who uses nothing but files and sandpaper. He even smelts his own steel sometimes if he finds enough ore on his place. The guy is awesome.

In post 5 of this thread I posted some knives they were all built with files, a drill press, sandpaper, and elbow grease. That's what I"m doing with this tutorial is showing how to make a knife with common tools.

You don't have to spend the 1200 I didn't. I bought the base model found a motor cheap and use cheap step pulley's for a poor man's variable speed. THere are now plans to build that grinder at home they are pretty simple in construction. In fact I've seen pictures of one built out of 2x4's. Guys that have the time and want to can build grinders for next to nothing.


THere are a few reasons I bought the grinder. At the time I didn't have a place to build the grinder or the welder and saws to do so. I also didn't have the time I wanted to build knives not tools. The maker of the grinder put a lot of thought into what knifemaker's wanted and built to that. He is constantly coming up with new ideas for the grinder some work some don't. He has top notch customer service and even modifies some grinders for makers. Those are some other reasons I bought from him, he did the research. The biggest reason was it sped my knifemaking up. This is something I'd like to be doing full time in a few years and if I just kept using files with my limited shop time I wouldn't be able to get enough done to get my name out there in the knife world.

I know it's a long answer to your question, but no you don't need to have tools this specialized to make a good looking knives. Knives are one of man's oldest tools and there were good looking knives built long before electricity came around. The grinder I bought was considered high end but that goes back to the best tool for the job. It's good quaility and nice to know if a nuclear bomb went off in my neighborhood there'd be two things left standing, my knifemaking mess and my knifegrinder.

[airehead]

I have one of these knives that Ryan made it has an edge on it that is un believeably sharp very well made I love it and will have him make more some time when funds permit!!!!

Thank You

Ron

[Bill]

Ryan, thanks for the great answer. It's like most anything else, if you really get into it as a hobby and passion, the cost is not an issue, and never forget, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than golfing!

I have 2 custom knives, 1 built by a fellow I elk hunt with and the second built by a member of my archery club. Both are works of art, and both hold tremendous edges. I posted pictures on this TBH thread in the past. Take a look at the second one, a skinner. I've not seen another like that, with the hollow-ground blade it's like sharpening and using a straight razor. Handle color is a little funky, but it works like a charm.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30852

[Txag96]

I have done several knives with Damascas steel, but I have ordered the steel blank already shaped and sharpened (a little). I might have to try this with just the blank flat and cut out the rest. I don't have a drill press or a metal band saw, but I might try this none the less.

Thanks for the info