3V on a budget - Cold Steel, custom, roll your own?

[Czechmate]

I wouldn't go that far, electronic ovens, variable speed grinders, forges, drill presses, hand tools will all definitely add up. For an amateur making a knife or too they can get by without many of the things I mentioned if they out source things but out sourcing costs $ as well.

All that stuff costs thousands of dollars damn it... :foot::thumbdn:

 

[RX-79G]

I'm sorry, I didn't make it clear that I've been making knives on and off for ten years. You do not need a drill press. You don't even need a belt sander, but I have used both a basic wood table sander and a Harbor Freight 1x30 that I bought for cheap with one of their frequent coupons. I recently saw a video where the maker flat ground his knives before HT with a file and cutting guide on a wood bench. It was fast because of the annealed steel and large file with controlled angle.

If you want to HT 1084 at home, you need a magnet, charcoal, some pipe and a hair dryer. You need to know what you're doing, but that will produce enough controlled heat.

Kydex from amazon, leather and thread from the local leather store, micarta from the fabric store and fiberglass resin from Autozone. Wood from anywhere, and a hand drill works.


So yeah, knife making can be pretty damn cheap. Professional HT is definitely the largest expense, unless you want to buy the expensive tools to increase your productivity. But you don't need to be super efficient if you're doing it for pleasure rather than profit.


If you have time for forums, you have time to make a knife inefficiently.

 

[Insipid Moniker]

The Master Hunter is really very nice, but they run it hard and grind it thin. I don't thrash on that size knife, so the thin grind and added wear resistance are gravy for me, but if you're really gonna beat on it then you might want to look at something else.

Honestly, I think Cold Steel's introduction of 3V at the low price point they're hitting is more significant than their change to XHP which has made much more noise.

For a solid, all around camp knife that can tolerate lots of abrasive cutting and slice far better than most 3/16" blades the Master Hunter is damn near impossible to beat for the $. If you want a super tough, do anything survival blade, though, I'd say buy something else.

 

[RX-79G]

The Master Hunter is really very nice, but they run it hard and grind it thin. I don't thrash on that size knife, so the thin grind and added wear resistance are gravy for me, but if you're really gonna beat on it then you might want to look at something else.

Honestly, I think Cold Steel's introduction of 3V at the low price point they're hitting is more significant than their change to XHP which has made much more noise.

For a solid, all around camp knife that can tolerate lots of abrasive cutting and slice far better than most 3/16" blades the Master Hunter is damn near impossible to beat for the $. If you want a super tough, do anything survival blade, though, I'd say buy something else.

Thanks for your experience. Part of what is supposed to be cool about 3V is that it is tough enough to work well in thin sections are higher hardnesses, so I'll bet the CS knife is pretty useful.

 

[Czechmate]

Thanks for your experience. Part of what is supposed to be cool about 3V is that it is tough enough to work well in thin sections are higher hardnesses, so I'll bet the CS knife is pretty useful.

The pic I found of the chipped 3V Master Hunter said it was supposedly used for batonning FWIW...