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    knife build along

    With all the interest in knives lately I decided to do a build along. It will be spread out over time to give everyone who wants to try a chance to try the step then ask questions if need be.
    When I first started making knives I used a file, sandpaper, and a drill press. Now i've upgraded my equipment to include a 2"x72" belt grinder specifically made for grinding knives. Knifemaking is a part time job to me that I hope to one day make into full time. I'm going to show you how to do with minimal hand tools, but I'm going to cheat and use my grinder.
    I'm going to offer suggestions on what steels to use and my opinions and that's exactly what they are opinions. You can ask 4 knifemakers a way to do one thing and get 9 answers, we're an opinionated group of folks .

    First off steel selections. Most people I know myself included have tried making knives out of old files, mower blades, planer blades ect. Nothing wrong with that if you know a few things.
    1. Heat treat. heat treat is the process where the steel is heated to critical temp which is different for every alloy of steel. Then quenched in something, for most carbon steels it's some type of oil, for most stainless steels it is air. Most not all. That makes the steel as hard as it will get from there it is tempered at say 300 degrees for an hour. This brings the rockwell hardness back down to softer level. In the knife world anywhere from 58 to 64 depending on the steel is desirable. This is the happy medium of easiest to sharpen and holding the edge the longest.
    2. Grinding the old files and mower blades and getting them too hot can in fact ruin the temper and heat treat process. So you have a soft steel that doesn't hold an edge well.
    3. They are not always a known steel. Even with the same file the batches can be different as to what metal was put into the file. It's just nice buying a piece of steel knowing exactly what it is.
    This is a simple explanation. I'm not going to go into it too much further I have spent years reading over the stuff and could go into specifics which would cause you years worth of reading.
    For this project we are going to use stainless steel for a couple of reasons.
    1. Until I get my heat treat oven built or bought I send my knives off to be professionally heat treated by Paul Bos of Buck knives. Every knife is tested before it leaves his shop for the right hardness. Paul is well known as "The Man" when it comes to heat treating air hardening steels. He does not do oil hardening or what most people know as carbon steels. There several that cross over but you'll have to research that.
    2. Unless you are making a presentation grade knife for the most part the knife gets thrown in the sheath and thrown in a drawer until next year. If it was carbon it would most likely rust in the sheath. Stainless can and will rust also but at a much slower pace.

    For this exact project I will be using CPM-154 which I really like. Other suggestions are 440C, ats-34 and just CM-154.

    Here's a list of suppliers to find stuff using in knifemaking

    www.texasknife.com and http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/ who I highly reccomend. There are dozens more but I have used these guys many times.

    For the steel I recommend a stainless from the list above in 1/8" thick for an average size hunter. For bolster material the I recommend 416 stainless barstock and 1/8" rod to peen it on. For handles I recommend some sort of wood just cause I like the natural materials. Look through their list and find something you like. Most natural materials need to be stabilized (process where they are put into a vacuumm chamber and resins are pulled through them to help prevent drying out and moving). Now onto the the knife building.

    #2
    For the first few steps I will be putting my pattern on mild steel which isn't worth a crap as a knife steel. I have had several request for this pattern so it will be used again and again and I will have a hard pattern to come back to. When you order your steel make sure it is annealed. This is a point at which the steel is relatively "soft". It will let you file, cut, and drill without too much trouble. Most knife supply houses sell it in the annealed state.

    1. Design your knife. Mine will be a full tang knife (handle slabs glued onto both sides of the metal handle. Other forms are stick tang where a hole is drill through wood or antler and the blade has a "stick" coming off of it that is placed through the antler. I usually draw mine out on graph paper measured off in the same size as the steel I ordered. This blade is a little longer than most hunters so I'm using a tad thicker piece. As I said before 1/8" is just right for an average skinning/hunting knife.


    2. I don't like using thin paper to trace around on the steel so I use photopaper placed under the orginal drawing. From here I will retrace the original drawing with a pen that leaves an easy to see impression in the photopaper. I'll take the photopaper out and draw over the pattern with the pen. At this point I'll cut it out and have a sturdy pattern to trace around.



    3. From here color your steel. I use dykem but you can also use a marker. I think red and blue show the lines the best, but black will work.


    4. Trace around your pattern using a scribe, sharp nail, small drill bit, or something else that will scratch a pattern on the steel. You can see a couple of lines in my scribe. The reason is because one is larger than the other. I will cut to the oustide scribe see how it feels and if I think it needs to take more off I'll have another line to go to. It's amazing how much even taking a 1/16" off will feel.


    5. Cut out your pattern. I will use my metal cutting bandsaw. Do not use a fast turning wood band saw. This will heat the metal up and in turn "work harden" the metal to where it is hard to cut, file, and drill. If you don't have a metal cutting bandsaw you can drill holes all the way around the pattern like so

    Go all the way around the pattern and use a hack saw to play connect the dots.

    Comment


      #3
      wow this is cool cant wait to see a finished product

      Comment


        #4
        6. If using a metal cutting band saw here's a tip for cutting tight curves. Cut it like so

        Use a flat head screwdriver to break off the tabs. This lets you get close to the line so you don't have to do much filing later on.

        7. Here it is rough cut.



        I'm going to use my grinder you can use a belt sander or something else you think might work to get the profile all the way to the line. If all you have is files here's what you do. Use a single cut file and hold the file handle in your left hand and the other end of the file in your right. Place the file perpindicular to the work and pull towards you. This will move an amazing amount of steel in a short time. This will be the same process you use to cut bevels with if you don't have a grinder.



        go all the way around the profile. I use a half round file to do the finger cut outs I have on some of my designs.

        Another tip. If the harmonics hit just right while you are filing the noise will be unbearable. To stop this I place a spring clamp or c clamp on the end of the knife which changes the harmonics in turn stopping the loud ringing sounds. Here's an example.


        If you don't have a vice to hold your knife in you can use a 1X 2 or other piece of wood clamped to a table with the blade c clamped to that wood. I've done several knives this way.

        8. Get your knife completely profiled out


        It might be a few days but I'll keep updating with pictures as this progresses. I'm working on several knives right now so I'll try to only take pictures of this knife as not to confuse anyone. Anyone who has questions feel free to post here, pm, or email me at goin2fast99@hotmail.com

        edited to add my work bench really isn't dirty I just added a bunch of crap to make ya'll think I actually do something....

        Comment


          #5
          Just so you know here's a couple of knives I built with nothing but files these are some of my early knives and I've refined my skills, but you can make a good knife with nothing but files. jeremy360 also said he might chime in if help is needed. I pmed him a couple of weeks ago before I started this thread.




          This mesquite handle is a standard model from me and this one I built using files and sandpaper but I do them on the grinder now.




          These are some of the only folders I've made. They were made using files and a drill press. I've got several in the works now that I have my pivots working like I want.
          Last edited by doublearrow; 04-26-2008, 01:19 PM.

          Comment


            #6
            I am also working on building some knifes as a hobby, can you post some good pictures of your 2x72 grinder? looking on making one to help in these projects
            thanks

            Comment


              #7
              Jesse here's the grinder I have


              I also have the 8 inch wheel for hollow grinding. If you need some close up pictures let me know and I'll get them. When I bought the grinder I wasn't in a position to build one so I called up Rob to buy this one. They are pretty much indestructible. Now here's a company that supplies "no weld grinder" plans. This guy has some kmg's and came up with a set of plans to build a clone that doesn't have to be welded, it can be but it's not in the plans.

              Comment


                #8
                what metal do you make your knives out of?

                Comment


                  #9
                  fulldraw I use the cpm-154. It's a newer stainless steel geared towards knifemakers (It does have other applications, I'm not exactly sure what they are though). I've been really happy as far as edge retention goes. The only thing I don't like about it is it does not take a hand rubbed mirror polish as easily as some of the others.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    knife making is something I'd like to get into, my cousin makes some, but it looks extremely complicated

                    Comment


                      #11
                      It can be very simple or very complicated depending on the knife. I'm trying to include a picture of almost anything I do even if it is something relatively small. Buy ya some steel and do the build along and you'll realize it ain't that bad. Doing it all with hand tools can take a while but I'm going to try and include small tips and tricks I've picked up to make things run a little more smoothly. If you've got questions post em up or if you've got designs you want to show post em up.
                      If you can run a file, hacksaw, and drill press you can do this build along.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        well I've got all those tools, I guess I just don't understand the whole heating process, I certainly don't have any way to heat the metal nor do I know anyone who does. I've got some old lawn mower blades I could practice on I guess. I'm printing out everything on here so I can try it out

                        Comment


                          #13
                          That's the beauty of this project you don't have to do any of the heating if you buy one of the stainless steels mentioned. It can't just be any stainless steel it has to be a certain type. When we get to that point in the tutorial I'll post some links to some professional services who take care of the heating for us. If you use an old mower blade you'll have to do the whole heat treat process yourself making things more complicated. With this tutorial you won't worry about breaking the temper or what not it's all steel in the soft or annealed state. You just shape, drill, and file till you get what you want then send it off for heat treat. You get it back put handles on it and shape them till they are where you want.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            well I'm looking forward to the rest of the tutorial, and when it's all said and done I'll ask my questions then

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Well as I said earlier the steel I was using was mild steel which was not good for a blade. I was just making a hard pattern. This afternoon I went out and cut, profiled, and drill the actual knife. From here on out the blade you will be seeing will be the actual knife unless I say otherwise.


                              9. Marking holes in the handle. This particular knife will have bolsters and example of bolsters are in this picture. Bolsters are the metal pieces on the handle in front of the ram horn. This is my personal knife I made to carry every day.


                              Here is the knife blank with the bolsters scribed in the marker along with the holes I want drilled for the handle. In the bolster area you can see 3 marks for the 1/8" 416 stainless steel rod and in the handle area you can see 2 holes marked for 1/4" 416 stainless steel rod.



                              In the next picture you can see where I drilled the 1/4" handle holes. I put one up in the far corner for a lanyard hole and added a few extra because I got ahead of myself.


                              In this next picture I have drilled several more 1/4" holes, but noticed I stopped before I got the bolster area. You can go into this area, but I always tend to drill into where I need 1/8" holes so I always stop there. I've also drilled 3 bolster pin holes. On most knives I will only use 2, but with this being a bigger knife than most I used three. Try to put them straight in case they show after peening (we'll get to peening later).


                              In this last picture you can see that I added several more 1/4" holes. These other holes serve two purposes. One is to reduce weight in the handle moving the balance point forward towards the bolster area. It also gives the epoxy or acraglas like I use more to bond to when applying handles. Another way of making the handle weigh less is a tapered tang. I don't know how to do it with files but I will show how to do it later on with a grinder. It's not a neccesity by any means but adds a nice touch.

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