Advice on first knife.

[mpj13]

Well in about a month I am moving into my first house, and after this I amplanning on making my first knife. I am thinking a small blade about 3-4" long and maybe a simple oak handle, a lot like the one on a tutorial I saw some were on the forums. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas I might try to make things a little smoother?

I bougth the best flat and round file I could find at home depot, the flat file is doule cut and single cut, I tried filling down my machete and it seems like the double cut side will grind a little deeper, is this true or does the single cut side grind deeper? I am also going to try a drill and Jig saw with steel cutting blade to cut out the form. On the tutorial I read it gave a good idea to mark the middle point on the blade edge, but what is a good way to grind down a straight line were the sharp edge meets the flat spot on the side of the blade? Thanks for any info.

 

[Crayola]

The first knife I made from scratch was using a file and elbow grease.

The double cut side should work fast. To mark the center line of the edge, you can use the drill bit method. Lay the blank and a drill bit of the same siameter as the steel on something flat. Drag the edge along the point of the drill bit, flip the steel over, and drag the edge along the point of the drill bit again. You end up with 2 parallel lines

That other line you are talking about is called the plunge cut. What I did is I found a scrap piece of steel that had a straight edge and I clamped it down on my blank. I set it up so that I could file the blade up to whwre I wanted the plunge cut to start/end and my file would hit the piece of scrap metal. I hope this makes sense! On one side of the straight edge of the scrap metal, you have the blade that you file, and on the other side of the straight edge hangs the scrap piece as it rests on your handle side. It helps if the scrap is heat treated, but my piece wasn't! I think i used some cheap bracket or something like that.

Good luck!

 

[mpj13]

Thats a great idea. I'll try and harden a piece of scrap metal and use it as a guide and just file until it reaches the scrap metal, that way it gives a nice straight edge.

I have been looking at the texas knife supplie store and they seems to have good prices, even the sand paper at .75c a sheet is about the same as Home Depot, I think. I can't wait to get started.

(EDIT) I am going to try and use a charcole grill for the normalizing and hardening, does anyone have any other suggestions? I don't have the chance of setting up any thing fancy, it must go in my garage and be pulled out for use. I also don't want to burn down my house. Another question is if one makes a sword how do you temper it? I don't think my stove is that big (END EDIT)