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Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011
Knife-making. Fellow goon Slung Blade demanded, that I started a thread about this a couple of years ago. Serious pressure like that is enough to do it ...within a couple of years.

Q: What is knife-making?
A: It's not blacksmithing, but it can be. It's not grinding, hack-sawing and dirty work, but skills like that will surely benefit you. It's not leather- and/or skin-work, but that can be involved. It's not wood-working as much as working with all other materials such as bone, stones, fossils, and metals.

Q: Is it a difficult skill?
A: No it's not, but it can be. Knife-making is probably one of the oldest skills known to mankind, only trumped by prostitution. If you're Homo Sapiens or at least Homo Erectus, you'll probably agree that a knife is your most important tool – if you're a Neandertal get out; we respect your spears and clubs.

Q: Provide us examples, asstard!
A: Will do. Fellow goon and son, SirPukesAlot needs a knife. He just turned 14 and will soon be able to get a hunters license. He needs a solid blade. Bonus points for making it unique.

Let's start: Ordered a blade from http://www.thegoodstuffshop.dk/ . Not because I'm unable to smith or grind a blade myself, but mostly because I wanted it to be a last-a-lifetime-and-some-knife. I'm a mechanical engineer by education, but I have no means of making the superior steel I wanted for SirPukesAlots knife. By “superior steel” I obviously mean RWL 34 steel. Steel-spergers might disagree, but in my educated opinion RWL 34 provides the absolutely best steel for holding an edge. Well, VG10 is close, but let's not dwell in details. This opinion is very debatable. Highest edge strength depends on what you cut and in what environment you use it. For use in a hunting situation in my country, RWL 34 is superior in my opinion. If you're a salt-water diver get some cheap SAE 420 or 440A/B steel instead.

Anyway. Ordered a blade from the Danish blacksmith Brian Sørensen. He's kind of known as the grinding wizard of RWL 34. Sadly he's dropped the trade, but there's a few blades left here: http://www.thegoodstuffshop.dk/group.asp?group=3079

Whatever, here's what I ordered:

A RWL 34 140mm. blade with a BS stamp - a very unique blade, some leather not shown, some wood (Elmburl AAA Special), a few slices of camel bone, some "nickel silver" I didn't use for this job and a few plates of colored resin glass-fiber.

Planning and some bone-work:


Goon SirPukesAlots grinding and generally making GBS threads around?



More planning and loving around:


Here's some knife:




Goal for this thread: Let's discuss all aspects of knife-making, show us your stuff and ask/tell about it?

Blacksmiths, grinders, wood-workers, leather-workers and murderers are all equally welcome in this thread. Also please link sources for materials. For working with leather in northern Europe/Scandinavia this shop is the tits: http://dansk-laederforsyning.dk/

Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Sep 15, 2013

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Uncle Enzo
Apr 28, 2008

I always wanted to be a Wizard
Thanks for the thread! Have you ever made a knife out of a railroad spike? How do they hold up? Of course they're not going to be as good as a modern special-purpose alloy, but can you make a passable knife out of one? I forged a couple of blanks and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. I'm working on getting a large belt sander/grinder in business, which should help a lot with honing and such.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Uncle Enzo posted:

Thanks for the thread! Have you ever made a knife out of a railroad spike? How do they hold up? Of course they're not going to be as good as a modern special-purpose alloy, but can you make a passable knife out of one? I forged a couple of blanks and I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. I'm working on getting a large belt sander/grinder in business, which should help a lot with honing and such.

Yes, I have made knives of everything from deformation hardened nails to forged railroad spikes. Railroad spikes are typically at 25 to 28 points of carbon, and that's enough carbon to harden the steel pretty good for a general purpose knife. Railroad spikes, even though some of them are marked HC, aren't really high carbon steel. They are meant to bend instead of breaking under stress and strain. They have serious limitations used as knife steel, but they'll do for practice. If you keep them clean and dry, don't use them as pry-bars and sharpen them a lot, railroad spike knifes are great.

Also post pictures of your blanks, rear end in a top hat :)

MRC48B
Apr 2, 2012

Cool thread. What's a good source for steel blanks in various grades here in the US?

I've got a few decent files and some light metalworking crap, so I thought I might get into this.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

MRC48B posted:

Cool thread. What's a good source for steel blanks in various grades here in the US?

I've got a few decent files and some light metalworking crap, so I thought I might get into this.

I'm not from the US but I've heard only good things about http://www.knifekits.com/

This is a pretty good site for finding suppliers: http://www.knifelinksportal.com/

If you're able to filter insanely stab-happy rednecks from really skilled knifemakers, you might want to investigate http://www.bladeforums.com

There's no real acceptable reason for not making knives. Get started and post pictures ;)

Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Sep 15, 2013

jzilla
Apr 13, 2007

http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Christ, that's cheap CPM 154CM blanks. Thanks a lot.

Soylent Yellow
Nov 5, 2010

yospos


I suppose this counts as a very big knife. I posted the unfinished picture in the general metalwork thread a few days ago. I ground it out of a 1m x 40mm x 4mm piece of spring steel bar (not entirely sure about the grade). I've made a number of knives before, but nothing on quite this scale. Overall, it turned out rather well, if rather heavier than intended at 4lbs 8oz. It could have done with more polishing work, but I'm somewhat short of patience where that is concerned.

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
I've used NJSB before and got my steel just fine, ordered some again recently too. I'm taking a blacksmithing class currently and I'm about to start working on some simple herb choppers from 1084. I'll be sure to post results here.

LeeJam
Nov 24, 2009
I made a knife recently, L6 and Curly Mulga.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

LeeJam posted:

I made a knife recently, L6 and Curly Mulga.



That's a really neat knife. I like the shape and the Curly Mulga really suits it. Do you use it as a skinner?
L6 is a nice tool steel, but very difficult to heat treat correctly. How does it work for you?

Do you plan making a sheath for it?

Soylent Yellow posted:



I suppose this counts as a very big knife. I posted the unfinished picture in the general metalwork thread a few days ago. I ground it out of a 1m x 40mm x 4mm piece of spring steel bar (not entirely sure about the grade). I've made a number of knives before, but nothing on quite this scale. Overall, it turned out rather well, if rather heavier than intended at 4lbs 8oz. It could have done with more polishing work, but I'm somewhat short of patience where that is concerned.

Nice! You could try lightening it a bit by grinding a fuller, if you dare. However a cutlass should be slightly heavier than other swords, since you use it to swipe your opponents blades away as you board the scallywags swaggy and wave your flintlock around with the other hand while loadeded to the gunwales. Yo-ho-ho!

Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Sep 21, 2013

cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

My brothers a woodsmith (he hates that term :v: ) so I was thinking of recommending he fit up some cheap knives as practice, any recommendations in the UK for finished blades that just need handles?

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Cakefool posted:

My brothers a woodsmith (he hates that term :v: ) so I was thinking of recommending he fit up some cheap knives as practice, any recommendations in the UK for finished blades that just need handles?

If you're looking for cheap starter blanks of reasonable quality, I can't recommend Mora blades enough. They heat treat 12C27 really well. Shop around for them. Found this site to start with http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/knife-blades-163-c.asp

Besides Mora blanks I usually recommend Brusletto. If you don't like the rather limited selection of Mora designs and steels, I'd look at Brusletto. They have a broader range of designs and steel types and like Mora makes quality blanks for a very reasonable price.

Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Sep 21, 2013

LeeJam
Nov 24, 2009

Sir Cornelius posted:

That's a really neat knife. I like the shape and the Curly Mulga really suits it. Do you use it as a skinner?
L6 is a nice tool steel, but very difficult to heat treat correctly. How does it work for you?

Do you plan making a sheath for it?


I haven't made a sheath yet, but my grandfather made a wooden case for it. I haven't used it yet but it is designed as a skinner. Hoping to get out and try it soon. The heat treat was easy, heat to non magnetic in a forge then quench in warm canola oil. Then 2x tempering @200degrees C for 2 hours.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Sir Cornelius posted:

Knife-making. Fellow goon Slung Blade demanded, that I started a thread about this a couple of years ago. Serious pressure like that is enough to do it ...within a couple of years.


'bout loving time mister :colbert:


Nice job, that handle is gorgeous.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

LeeJam posted:

I haven't made a sheath yet, but my grandfather made a wooden case for it. I haven't used it yet but it is designed as a skinner. Hoping to get out and try it soon. The heat treat was easy, heat to non magnetic in a forge then quench in warm canola oil. Then 2x tempering @200degrees C for 2 hours.

Recommended heat treatment for T6 is quite a bit more complicated, that's why I asked. T6 is a steel that's really easy to trap unwanted Martensite in and make it brittle. Competent blade-smiths can use that to their advantage though. Did you Rockwell test the blade?

Blade-smiths usually recommends this procedure:

Normalize - 1600F for 15 minutes, air cool.
Anneal - 1400F for 1 hour, cool at 40F/hr to 1000F, air cool to room temp.
Stress relieve - 1200F for 15min, air cool.
Harden - place blade in cool oven and heat to 1200F, eqaulize for 10 min., raise to 1455F ,hold 10 min, oil quench..
Temper - 375-400F for 2 hours, two cycles.

Here's a real good data-sheet for T6: http://www.hudson-metals.com/pages/technical/hmcL6/hmcL6.html

Slung Blade posted:

'bout loving time mister :colbert:

Nice job, that handle is gorgeous.

Thanks :) The knife posted was just to get discussion started. My son made most of it except the planning. Combined I think it took him about a days work, and I consider that pretty good for his first knife. Bone can be a bitch to work first time, and double so if you use it as a bolster. Well, it passed dad-testing anyway ;)

TheFargate
Oct 6, 2007
So after coming across his thread I finally motivated myself to do something with the 1084 stock i purchased a while back. I have gotten to the point where i am shaping the blade itself. My question is what tools are best suited for working the blade edge? I originally ground out the angles on a bench grinder but im unable to get any real symmetry. Would i be better filing the edges? Any advice would be great.

hayden.
Sep 11, 2007

here's a goat on a pig or something
Files work but the best option is a belt sander. You can get a cheap one at Harbor Freight for like $40 that works fine. You can buy multiple grit belts for sharpening.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

My girlfriend loves cheese. She works at a cheese place, and is a cheesemonger. I've been in the process of making her a cheese knife to call her own. It would seem there's no premade blades in the shape that I wanted, so, OH WELL, I guess I'll have to do everything myself. I've never done something like this before, but gently caress it. I'll try.


I ordered some 3/32" thick 440c stainless. Stainless is awesome.


Time to grind, bitches!


Hm. Pretty good. You can see where I used the cutoff a little too aggressively and heated the metal up a bit.


Well, let's clean this up a bit.


Because, hey, you gotta stab your cheese, too, right?


Files because I'm a masochist and also the grinder was bonkers on this. Also seen is my ghetto rig for holding the piece as I work on it. That is a woodscrew clamp holding a woodscrew clamp holding the knife.


Roughly filed the edge.

This is where I'm at now. Still need to cut out and shape the wood for the handle before I send this out to be heat treated. My school decided to reject my request to use our department's heat treatment furnaces. I have some 1/8" brass rod that I'm going to use for the handle. I'm thinking black walnut. I know I have some in my house SOMEwhere.

(Let me know if the images are too huge. I used timg, but I also don't know what I'm doing.)

Rotten Cookies fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jan 3, 2014

LeeJam
Nov 24, 2009
Knife Number 2 in the making, 5160 steel, 4mm thick (1/8" ) OAL is about 25cm (about 9").

I am doing this with files and sandpaper, except for a little bit of shaping I did on my bench grinder, dipping in my bucket of water every few seconds to keep it cool.





Once I get back from my surgery and have recovered, I will finish it. Heat treating will be done externally, unfortunately, as I don't have the facilities to do that at the moment.

I am hoping it turns out to be a kitchen knife, but time will tell.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)


Uhh... pretty chunky handle there.


Well that looks better, all oiled up.


Yeaaahhh. I think that'll go over well.

I think that came out pretty good for a first attempt.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Rotten Cookies posted:



Yeaaahhh. I think that'll go over well.

I think that came out pretty good for a first attempt.

That's really, really neat work! Congrats!

I light fires
May 12, 2001
Is there any recommended online or book resources I should look at before attempting something like this. An idea of tools required , blade styles and techniques would be fantastic because at this point I would just jump in with my bench grinder and make a lot of metal shavings and noise, which while fun is not really the goal.

Sir Pukesalot
Nov 3, 2012

Sir Cornelius posted:


Q: Provide us examples, asstard!
A: Will do. Fellow goon and son, SirPukesAlot needs a knife. He just turned 14 and will soon be able to get a hunters license. He needs a solid blade. Bonus points for making it unique.

Goon SirPukesAlots grinding and generally making GBS threads around?


I did NOT poo poo!

Sir Cornelius posted:

Here's some knife:




Goal for this thread: Let's discuss all aspects of knife-making, show us your stuff and ask/tell about it?

Murderers are welcome in this thread.

I finally got this from my mothers brother.



The knife is for scale

It is steel for bodywork repairs on cars, it is a little thin, but with my fathers(Sir Cornelius) help, it could become a knife.
My mothers brother gave it to me, he is a mecanic, so he has got a lot of this, so if I need some more later I will probably to get some more from him :). This will probably turn into a knife at some point, but for now I know that there will be a knife with a blade from Aage Frederiksen http://www.thegoodstuffshop.dk/group.asp?group=263.

EDIT: Sorry for the lovely cellphone pictures.. New pictures will, in deed, be taken and posted!

EDIT 1,5: Better pictures.

EDIT 2:
This is not worthy of its own post, but here it comes.

Sir Cornelius posted:

Yeah, you did.

We can make some pretty good small skinner-knives from carbon-steel though. It's all in the touch.

well, if i DID poo poo, you would not be alive today!

Sir Pukesalot fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jan 1, 2014

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

Sir Pukesalot posted:

I did NOT poo poo!

The knife is for scale

Yeah, you did.

We can make some pretty good small skinner-knives from carbon-steel though. It's all in the touch.

Sir Cornelius
Oct 30, 2011

I light fires posted:

Is there any recommended online or book resources I should look at before attempting something like this. An idea of tools required , blade styles and techniques would be fantastic because at this point I would just jump in with my bench grinder and make a lot of metal shavings and noise, which while fun is not really the goal.

Knife-building can involve a tremendous amount of skilled arts. No book will cover working with all materials, that could be involved in building a knife that suits you.

Read all of this: http://www.amazon.com/Knifemaking-and-bladesmithing-books/lm/3N41ZCFGOU5D6 but return to this thread to ask for help.

Set a goal, tell us what you want to accomplish, and we're here to help you.

Knife-building is an art that can involve anything regarding working with materials. Well, almost anything, the golden rule is to never build a knife that can't outlive your grand-children.

TheFargate posted:

So after coming across his thread I finally motivated myself to do something with the 1084 stock i purchased a while back. I have gotten to the point where i am shaping the blade itself. My question is what tools are best suited for working the blade edge? I originally ground out the angles on a bench grinder but im unable to get any real symmetry. Would i be better filing the edges? Any advice would be great.

Nothing can beat files, agony, despair and pain.

Sir Pukesalot posted:

well, if i DID poo poo, you would not be alive today!

Barely. Probably should have stabbed you in the cradle.

LeeJam posted:

Knife Number 2 in the making, 5160 steel, 4mm thick (1/8" ) OAL is about 25cm (about 9").

I am doing this with files and sandpaper, except for a little bit of shaping I did on my bench grinder, dipping in my bucket of water every few seconds to keep it cool.



Once I get back from my surgery and have recovered, I will finish it. Heat treating will be done externally, unfortunately, as I don't have the facilities to do that at the moment.

I am hoping it turns out to be a kitchen knife, but time will tell.

Tell me more about knife #1 pictured above. I really like the shape of it. Also, this post was ages ago. Please recover, post, or preferable both. If that stupid surgeon needs a knife, we'll make him one.

Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Jan 1, 2014

LeeJam
Nov 24, 2009
I haven't made any more progress with this knife, it's school holidays and it's taken me longer then I thought to recover from the surgery. I am going to finish it when the kids go back to school though in 5 weeks.

Still, it's going to be a beast of a chopper when I am done. Admittedly,I'd give anything for a decent 42" belt grinder.

Rotten Cookies
Nov 11, 2008

gosh! i like both the islanders and the rangers!!! :^)

Sir Cornelius posted:

Nothing can beat files, agony, despair and pain.

After trying a grinding wheel, I agree with this. The grinder was just way too aggressive for my liking. I prefer filing by far. The sheer time it takes ensures that you're going to stop and look at the blade, and see what you need to do.


Also, it's so gratifying to watch the sharpie go away.

Sir Cornelius posted:

That's really, really neat work! Congrats!

Also, thanks! My girl loved it and puts it to good use. So I'm really happy with it.

toomanyninjas
Feb 10, 2005

DOGOLD, I WANT YOU TO CALL AN AM-BOO-LANCE AND WHEN THEY GET HUR I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM TO
KEEP SMILING!
You guys and the metalworking thread have inspired me to start messing with metal.

This is a lovely throwing dagger I just made with some cheap metal from Home Depot, an angle grinder and a bench grinder. I knew it was going to be poo poo when I did it, but it was mainly to get me comfortable working with the grinders and such rather than making an actual, usable blade. It's harder than it looks, but I think I'll stick with it for a while to see what I can learn.



LeeJam
Nov 24, 2009
I managed to find 20 minutes in my shed today, drilled some tang holes to make it lighter.


Note the highly effective safety boots.

Vaginaface
Aug 26, 2013

HEY REI HEY REI,
do vaginaface!
I've mangled a few files myself, but none of them are worth posting.
However, This Guy is insane and I figured y'all should know about him.

TerminalSaint
Apr 21, 2007


Where must we go...

we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves?
That makes me wish the damasteel factory would burn down.

ReelBigLizard
Feb 27, 2003

Fallen Rib
That's a truly impressive lack of taste and restraint!

Warheart525
Jun 22, 2008

Ab-so-lutely!
Lisa Frank makes knives now?

coldpudding
May 14, 2009

FORUM GHOST
Today I made a sickle out of a steel rod from a printer and a clutch ring from a bus gear box,
sorry for the awful photo quality

the handle was chunk of wood my father found in the garden

here you see my mix up where I attached the rod to the bottom face of the blade instead of the top.

Heh maybe I'll make another with two blades an call it a Bisickle :haw:

Spermy Smurf
Jul 2, 2004
Is this something I could do with tools ranging from "a really wobbly vise" all the way to "a couple of beers" ?

From what I gather from reading the OP I basically buy a blade because I dont have poo poo for grinding/metalworking tools. Then I use scissors and a marker to make a block of wood shiny and cut a slot in it, then just shove it onto the bottom of the blade that I bought to make a handle? I have a feeling that I am missing a step or two in the process.

I guess it's time for me to start Googling.

Edit: I had no idea this thread was essentially dead.

Spermy Smurf fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Mar 6, 2014

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

Spermy Smurf posted:

Edit: I had no idea this thread was essentially dead.

I don't think threads in DIY are ever really dead, they just go into hibernation for a while. The forum has pretty small readership.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

It is most certainly not dead. DIY is just a slow forum.

Spermy Smurf
Jul 2, 2004
I just meant 'dead' in the sense that someone bumped it, but other than that it's been 35 days since the last post.

Not the 'no one responded in 2 minutes!" sense of dead.

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Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

It's winter man. Sometimes it's hard to get outside to do meticulous work with your hands when it's thirty below freezing.

It'll pick up again as it warms up outside and people can stand to be in their shops or garages for more than twenty minutes at a time.

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