2010: A knife-making odyssey

[Zog the Troll]

I like knives, and I like making things, so it was kind of a no-brainer that I gravitated toward the knifemaker’s section of the forums after I joined BF a while back. I have since spent a lot of time lurking & admiring the work that is shown here. Anyway, back in the beginning of 2008 I decided to try my hand at repairing/modifying some of my knives. The first victim, er… experiment was one of my old flea-market lockback knives from high school. For the $3 I spent on it, it was one heck of a knife, but the rubber handle scales were falling off, and it had been tossed into the weapons locker in favor of newer & better things. So with some brazing rod from the hardware store to use as pins, and some epoxy, hardwood, & superglue I found in the garage, along with my trusty Dremel, I created wood handle scales for my old knife. In case my selection of materials didn’t give it away, this was done on a very small budget.

It looks much better now. I still don’t use it, but at least I don’t feel bad about the condition the knife is in.

Experiment #2 was an old boy scout or camp project knife that I bought a loooong time ago for 50 cents at a neighborhood garage sale (probably one of, if not the first, knives that I ever bought).

:barf: This thing had seen better days even before I got a hold of it, but it would take a nice edge even if it wasn’t pretty. I decided to dress it up a bit & try out my new bench grinder at the same time. I ended up ripping off the sheet metal bolsters & the wood handle and reshaping the handle & spine of the blade slightly. When I was done with that I drilled a lanyard hole & cord wrapped the handle.

…..And that was where my knife making ambitions stalled out for a while (life & various responsibilities getting in the way) until I was the lucky winner of a knife making supplies giveaway for newbs like myself from 69_knives. At that point I decided I’d better start practicing some of those knife making skills, such as grinding a bevel, so I got some old files from the local flea market & hit the bench grinder. I ended up with a little marking/general purpose blade that I use in the shop as a beater knife.

I cleaned it up a bit once I got a delta belt sander (got rid of the uneven grind marks from the bench grinder).

 

[Zog the Troll]

I also had a couple of fixed blade knife blanks on hand from the last order I had placed with Smokey Mountain Knife Works. All they needed was a decent handle. So, what better way to practice my skills at making handles? I used some mycarta that I made from some old work clothes (denim, tan corduroy, and maroon t-shirt) and started assembling. This was also the first time I had really used the belt sander I got for Christmas so it was a learning experience all around.

I ended up putting several coats of lacquer on the handle, which made it darker, but really brought out the patterns in the fabric. Time will tell if it holds up or not. This one is done now, but not sharpened. I’ll do that once I get the materials to make a sheath for it, so for now it sits on the shelf above my desk, waiting.

Once the raffle materials from 69_knives arrived I was one happy camper, because not only were there 3 pieces of steel instead of the two that I was expecting, but after I opted to go with wood handle scales since I had never used G10 or micarta before, he went ahead and threw in samples of those as well for me to play with. There was also material for a guard, pin & tube stock, and some paracord for a lanyard. SWEEEET.

Then the waiting for warmer weather began, as my shop/garage is unheated & needed some serious reorganization before any real work could be done. But warmer weather finally arrived, several piles of trash from remodeling were taken out to the curb, and the garage was straightened up. Time to make some knives.

For my first attempt I went with a simple fixed blade with a relatively straight cutting edge (not quite a warncliff, but close). It is 8” overall with a 3.75” edge. I sketched a template, cut it out, and glued it to one of the pieces of 1/8” steel with some spray adhesive. I remembered JT from these forums using that trick a while ago, and it works well, even with repeated dunks in the glass of water while grinding.

With the blade ground to shape I went at creating the bevels with the belt sander. I must confess that I did make a guide out of a squared-off chunk of wood to help maintain an even bevel. Here is the result.

There are still a couple of deeper scratches left after hitting it with a higher grit belt, so there is still work to be done, but I am quite pleased at this point

 

[Zog the Troll]

Now this is an example of what can happen when you give blade steel to an engineer. I had cut the first piece off at an angle so I had a 5” piece left over. My first thought was “folder”, so I sat down with some drafting software & came up with this.

The EDC-sized balisong I’ve always wanted. It has a 3.25” blade, and will use washers, pivots, hidden pins, and a pocket clip instead of a latch for pocket carry. I got to work with the grinder and produced this.

Yes, the tip is burnt :thumbdn:, but I left that tab on for that reason, & it will be removed eventually.

Now for those playing along at home, the last round of grinding still leaves me with 2 untouched pieces of steel. So with an eye towards what I could reasonably expect to make, one of the other knives I’ve been wanting was a decent friction folder with a little over a 3” blade. Back to the drawing board we go.

And then to the grinder.

On a side note, what method do you guys prefer for deglazing the wheel on a bench grinder?

Anyway, as of typing this I have ground in the bevel for the friction folder blade, but haven’t taken a decent picture of it yet. I plan on using the other half of the second piece to do a second friction folder, maybe a warncliff, I dunno. That leaves me with the 3/16” thick chunk of 1095 to play with. I’m thinking a general-purpose gardening/pruning blade might be in order. I came up with this design, which has a 1.9” blade, & is 5.25” overall.

All those blanks still leave me with a 7” long chunk of 3/16”, which I’ll probably turn into another small fixed blade. I know these are running a little small compared to some of the hunters & bowies that I could have made with the foot of bar stock I got, but I’m looking toward what I can get the most use out of on a day to day basis.
Bearing in mind that the last 3 knives mentioned haven’t been cut out yet; I would love to hear any comments or suggestions that you guys have. Or if you have any comments on the blades I’ve ground out so far that would be appreciated also. More to follow as I work on these, although I must warn that my shop time is somewhat limited now that the weather is warmer & the yard work beckons so I won’t be cranking out a finished product anytime soon. Plus, they still need to be sent for heat treat. While 69_knives generously offered to do that for me, I do need to find someone in the states that can treat the blade for the balisong, as I don’t want to run into any problems with import/export issues to Canada.

 

[tattooedfreak]

Not bad at all. How do I win stuff? I know what you mean by unheated shops and yard issues...

 

[Carcara]

A wheel dresser is an essential tool for maintaining the wheels on a bench grinder.
The kind that has wheels mounted on a handle would work. Or the ones that are a diamond point mounted to a handle.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Very fun stuff.

And now that we have your American Express number, I'm sure someone will win a new grinder. . .Hehehe, good thing you're not a better photographer or we could read all the numbers on it. . . . 3159-821. . . .Nope, probably not even close, but please make sure you don't post pics of your credit cards.

 

[Zog the Troll]

@ tattooedfreak, stick around and watch & participate in the various subforums that interest you. For a lot of people it is tradition to do a giveaway when they reach a milestone (i.e. when they hit 1000 posts or something) or if they just feel like it. A number of them tend to limit participation to those that have a certain number of (say 20 or so) posts in that subforum to discourage people from jumping around and just hitting the giveaways without being involved. So other than that, I just got real lucky.

@zaph1, not to worry, I try to be somewhat careful of what is in the background of my shots. Unless your name happens to be "Cardholder" I don't think that one will work too well as it is just a fake CC that you get with all the junk offers in the mail. Although I do like to save those and use them to mix/apply epoxy as well as CA glue if I'm using it to finish a handle or something I've turned on the lathe.